Debbie Cavalier, Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music's online extension school, Berkleemusic. Cavalier leads the development of Berklee's award-winning distance learning courses and is a frequent speaker at national distance learning conferences. A prolific author, Cavalier has penned over one hundred music education methods and arrangements and is an active children's music artist with Debbie and Friends.
Artists House Music is a wonderful, free educational resource containing a wealth of information and advice from music-industry experts and music educators. There are thousands of video interviews, articles, and timely blog posts available on the Artists House Music Web site, and the available content continues to grow.
Artists House Music just introduced a “channels” concept by of aggregating related-video content into a stand-alone player. The following is the Berklee Channel, featuring interviews with members of Berklee’s esteemed music education community including Berklee’s President, Vice Presidents, Deans, Faculty, Chairs, and Staff.
We musicians spend so much time doing it, but how can we be sure we’re optimizing our practice time to further our skills, nail the audition, or land that gig? The following is a collection of thoughts on practicing from two renowned musicians at Berklee: Matt Marvuglio, Dean of the Professional Performance Division; and Larry Baione, Chair of the Guitar Department.
In the following Artists House Music video clip, after an incredible jam session with Matt Marvuglio, Larry Baione shares his own personal practice tips, which are designed to increase versatility, ‘hand intelligence,’ and dedication to improving technique.
In his article entitled, “On Practicing”, Matt Marvuglio says we practice for two reasons, 1. Performance: a specific engagement, audition, or a recording session; 2. Mastery: to keep improving on your instrument because you love playing it and you want to learn the literature and master it. He goes on to explain that sometimes the two meet and practicing satisfies both reasons.
“On Practicing” also defines and describes three levels of thinking that are going on when we play music or practice: automatic, veiled, and controlled. The purpose of practicing is to process musical information into these three categories of thinking. This article, complete with sample practice routine charts, will help you to approach your practicing in a more thoughtful and practical way.
How do you approach your practice time? Do you make the most of the time and plan out a structured routine? I hope these resources from Berklee’s performance division will help you to improve your practice routine and make the most of your practice time.
So, what’s it like from a teacher’s perspective? What kinds of tools and technologies are used? How much can a student really learn in this environment? Do the students learn from each other? How is teaching online different from teaching in a traditional classroom environment?
To find answers to these questions, I turned to one of our pioneer educators with Berkleemusic: Matt Marvuglio, Dean of the Performance Division at Berklee.
In the following clip from October 2007, Matt shares his thoughts on what it’s like to teach Ear Training online through Berkleemusic.
