What do Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, and Gabby’s Dollhouse have in common? Emmy-winning music supervisor Vivian Aguiar-Buff helped shape their sound. In this deep-dive interview, the Music Supervision and Film Scoring instructor reflects on her path from law school dropout to Remote Control Productions, the secrets behind music supervision, and why being part of a creative team means leaving your ego at the door.
As a musician, not all of your practice will be on your instrument. Some of it will be in your head, and some of it may even be on objects that just look like your instrument. We call this mental practice, and in this excerpt from Barbara LaFitte’s Practicing Techniques for Musicians course, the former principal oboist in the Boston Ballet Orchestra shares tips on how to practice your instrument when you just aren’t able to actually play your instrument.
Earth Day is April 22, and now is a great time to listen to songs about climate change and the environment, to reflect on ways we can lean into our collective responsibility.
Cindy Blackman became Lenny Kravitz’s drummer after a lifetime of jazz drumming. In this wide-ranging interview she discusses being visited by the spirits of the jazz greats she befriended during her time in New York City, and how she and husband Carlos Santana stay in harmony, onstage and off.
Songwriters, Producers, and Music Business Professionals Share Their Favorite US Music Cities
Choosing where to launch your music career is more involved than just planning a trip: finding the right place to live can have a major impact on your trajectory and lifestyle. Whether you’re looking for songwriting sessions, sync opportunities, live performance gigs, or a career in the music business, the city you choose can shape your path. We asked Berklee Online instructors and Berklee alums why they chose Nashville, Los Angeles, New York City, or Miami, and what they learned about their new cities once they got there.
Nashville: Best Music City for Songwriters and Producers
Isabeau Miller, author of The Business of Songwriting and an instructor of Topline and Vocal Production, talks about her experience as a songwriter living in Nashville for more than 17 years. When she graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Songwriting, she says the tranquility of Nashville captivated her more than the rushed and traffic-choked landscapes of NYC or LA.
“I think that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to focus on really becoming the best writer that I wanted to be,” says Miller after contemplating what path her career would have taken if she had chosen another city to call home. “I think I would have been distracted by trying to be what the industry wanted or what I thought listeners would want, but in Nashville, there’s just such a strong focus on doing the art of songwriting, that it allowed me to care more about it in a way that was authentic to me.”
It was that emphasis on songwriting over image that Miller says she found so refreshing: “The royalty in Nashville is the song. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, if you can write a great song, you can make it there.”
Nashville also enables songwriters to have a balanced lifestyle, she says. Unlike bigger music cities, where writing sessions often only happen late at night, the music industry in Nashville is active during the day as well.
“Most of my sessions were between 10 AM and 2 PM because a lot of people moved to Nashville as established artists and they have families,” says Miller. “So they’re dropping their kids off at school, then they’re going to a writing session, and then they go pick their kids up from school.”
In writing The Business of Songwriting, Miller drew on her own experiences. “When you go to Nashville, and you listen to some of the best songs you’ve ever heard, you may never hear them again because that person may not know what to do with the song after it’s been written. That’s the reason for this Berklee Online course: I don’t want amazing songs to die in people’s living rooms.”
Los Angeles: Best Music City for Pop Music, Sync, and Film & TV
Bleu McAuley, author of Songwriting Sync Success, chose to move to Los Angeles after graduating from Berklee in 1996. He says moving there helped launch his career as a songwriter and producer, leading to work with Demi Lovato, the Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez, and securing sync placements for Swarovski, the NFL, and TV shows like Shameless and The Good Place. But that success was not immediate. He says he was able to eventually make important professional connections because of where he was, both geographically and in his career.
“I don’t think that I would have had as much experience and contact with sync had I not been in LA,” he says. “I would say that it certainly happens in all kinds of places, but this is definitely a real epicenter for that.”
Los Angeles is also the epicenter of another industry that’s closely intertwined with music: film and television.
“Much of the film and TV industry stuff is based in Los Angeles, so if that’s something that you’re interested in getting involved in, then you certainly can do it here,” he says. “My big advice for people is just always be working. Usually, what that is going to mean when you’re first getting started is working with the people that you graduated with.”
He says it’s important to find people that you truly connect with, as those are the ones who will make your professional life enjoyable.
“I’m doing so many different things. Every day is really different,” says McAuley. “I just worked with Aloe Blacc recently. It’s more of that now, if it’s somebody that I’m really excited about working with, then I’m gonna do that.”
New York City: Best Music City for Performers and Creative Opportunities
Simon Yu, author of Music Video Production,says New York City helped launch his career as a music video producer. As soon as he earned his degree in Jazz Guitar Performance and Contemporary Writing and Production from Berklee, he set out for New York because of its great audience for jazz music.
“The thing about New York is that there’s always a need for something, especially for music stuff. So as long as you do good work, you can get the gig,” says Yu.
But trying to build a career solely as a performer can be difficult, so Yu encourages musicians to stay open to adjacent opportunities.
“I got to a point where I tried teaching, I tried gigging, but it’s very tough here because there are millions of super-good players everywhere. So what can I do? Maybe I should start something that I like, and that helps me open one more path,” says Yu in regards to his decision to work as a music video producer. By the way, when he says he “tried gigging,” he’s being humble: One of the gigs was touring as a guitarist with Ms. Lauryn Hill!
Yu says another aspect that drew him to New York City was how welcoming the city is to people from diverse cultures and backgrounds: “In New York, whatever style you play, there’s an audience. I occasionally play Chinese pop. Once you live here, you can pretty much experience any culture in the world.”
Yu says those experiences informed his Music Video Production course, which teaches students how to shoot and produce music videos with the resources available to them.
“Throughout my time here, I would meet some artists who know exactly what they want [in terms of video production], but they don’t have the words for it,” says Yu. “Some artists have the words for it, but they don’t have the technical skill to do it. These kinds of experiences got me to write this course.”
Miami: Best Music City for Latin Music Careers
Miami is one of the music industry’s capitals for Latin music, attracting artists, professionals, and entrepreneurs from around the world.
Renato Siebet studied Music Business at Berklee College of Music and is currently the label operations manager for The Orchard, a music distribution company owned by Sony Music.
Siebet says Miami aligned with his goal of connecting adjacent musical tastes.
“I wanted to create this bridge between the Latin American music market and the American market,” says Siebet. “I decided to move to Miami because it is the place where a lot of the different markets in the music industry around the world meet.”
Miami also has a diverse music community, which fosters Latin music genres such as reggaeton, bachata, merengue, Latin pop, and many others. Since this is a place for cultural celebration of Latin music, creatives and professionals navigate the market in both English and Spanish.
“If you want to get into the music industry in Miami, it is harder to find a corporate job if you do not speak Spanish,” says Siebet.
Miami also offers opportunities for freelancers and corporate careers, though internships are often the path into the industry.
“It is not easy to find jobs at the beginning,” says Siebet, advising students and graduates to work hard to achieve their goals. “Try to do as many internships as you can. Whatever you can do, just do it, because most of the jobs here ask for experience. If you don’t have that, it’s going to be harder to find something right after college.”
After interning remotely at Rimas and working for Mayren Brand Talent, Siebert says he found that the best way to learn and grow professionally is to work with people who know more than you do.
“I love being surrounded by better people than me in the field that I am working in,” he says. “I am building the A&R department at The Orchard, so to be part of that project, building it from scratch, is amazing. I do not think I would have this opportunity somewhere else.”
Every city offers a different path into the music industry, and no single destination is the right fit for everyone.
Whether you’re drawn to Miami’s Latin music industry, LA’s pop and sync scene, New York’s live performance culture, or Nashville’s songwriting community, choosing where to build your career means considering more than geography. Think about the kind of work you want to do, the people you want to collaborate with, and the community where you’ll have the best chance to thrive.
