Go to Berklee

Berklee is an amazing resource if you live and breathe music and are determined and self-disciplined enough to keep up with your studies. The teachers here are great and there are many, many clinics and workshops and recording and networking opportunities here if you’re not afraid to dive right in.

It’s been 4 years since I graduated, and I miss it!

I made the mistake of wasting my parents’ money to go to Berklee. It wasn’t all Berklee’s fault: yes, it’s a HIGHLY PROFIT MOTIVATED “institution,” but I should’ve gone to a conventional institution of higher learning to get in my college drinking. I probably could’ve learned a lot, at Berklee (though, for the $$, they will accept people who don’t have the chops necessary to really make it, there), but I wasted my time there and don’t remember a damned thing. Had an active social live (also don’t remember the details of that) and Boston’s a great place to live. But, if you’re a serious musician, go there with serious intent, knowing what you want out of it (jamming with great musicians) or don’t go.

When I applied to colleges I only applied to one. I only wanted to go to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and that was that!

I learned so much at Berklee and still cherish the friendships that I made there. I am still paying off those darn loans, lol! However, Boston has a lot of good things to offer and the opportunity to experience Berklee and all the diversity in music and culture is something that I can NOT put a price on.

I went to Berklee from 88-92 and got a Bachelors’ in Professional Music. Ironically, for a long time I thought my expensive music education was kind of a waste of time & money, given that almost as soon as I graduated, I got a job in the computer industry… but here I am again, 13 years later making music far away from Boston, and all the thing I learned back then are incredibly useful.

Soapbox: You can learn about music anywhere, from many teachers, both in college and non-academic settings…. BUT you can never have an experience like Berklee…where you are surrounded with people with a common goals, and all the resources are right there for you to persue your interests/dreams.

That said, I would have preferred to have gone when I was a bit more mature, and had a better sense of exactly what I wanted. At 18, I did not know what I wanted out of life, or even what I wanted to do within the vast music industry. Sure, anyone can say, “I enjoy playing and I want to make a living doing it,” but having the motivation to get to your place in the industry requires lots more self discovery than that.

I absorbed a lot of knowledge in Boston, and it’s refreshing to run into situations where I get to use that knowledge, but if I were to go back now, I would be a lot more focused.