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Advanced Professional Certificate

Songwriting

Deepen your songwriting expertise with this advanced Songwriting certificate program. Strengthen your command of melody, harmony, and form while spending a significant portion of the program mastering the craft of lyric writing—developing ideas from titles to finished songs. By the end of this program you’ll have built a professional portfolio of emotionally resonant, commercially ready songs that reflect your personal artistic voice.

Level
Advanced Professional
Modality
Online
Courses
9 (27 Credits)
($1,575 per course)
Tuition
$14,175
($12,758 single payment)
Semester Starts
Jan 12, 2026
Accreditation
NECHE

What You'll Learn

  • To generate, structure, and refine lyrics that express emotion and strengthen musical impact
  • To connect words and music naturally through rhythm, phrasing, and melodic placement
  • To craft cohesive songs that balance lyrical storytelling with harmonic and melodic development
  • To assemble a professional body of original songs that demonstrates stylistic fluency and artistry

Course Requirements

9 Courses to Complete this Certificate

Complete These 6 Required Courses

  • Songwriting: Harmony (OSONG-316 • Level 3 Course)

    Learn how harmony can help convey the essential emotion in your songwriting and the best ways to adapt chords and progressions to suit your songwriting style and ideas.

  • Songwriting: Melody (OSONG-315 • Level 3 Course)

    Create the melodic ideas that convey the emotion of your lyrics, then learn how to develop these melodic ideas into complete sections and songs to suit your songwriting style.

  • Songwriting: Writing Hit Songs (OSONG-310 • Level 3 Course)

    Learn to make the most effective settings for your melodic, harmonic, and lyrical ideas by crafting songs the way hit songwriters do.

  • Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies (OSONG-220 • Level 2 Course)

    Generate more and better lyric ideas. Express them in compelling and original ways with your songs.

  • Lyric Writing: Writing Lyrics to Music (OSONG-222 • Level 2 Course)

    Get the most out of your song lyrics by learning how to combine them accurately and effectively with melody.

  • Lyric Writing: Writing From the Title (OSONG-221 • Level 2 Course)

    Learn to write effective song titles and discover how to build lyrics, develop the rhythms of your song sections, and create contrasting sections and ideas.

Elective Requirements

Choose any 3 elective courses from our course catalog

View our entire course catalog.

Upon Completion of this Certificate Program, You'll Receive:

  • Professional credential from the world leader in music education
  • Credits that may be eligible for transfer toward a Bachelor's degree program
  • A physical certificate from Berklee College of Music
  • A verified, digital certificate that you can share

Questions?

Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.