In this excerpt from “Introduction in Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure,” Pat Pattison explains the elements of lyrics.

One of the most challenging aspects of playing slap bass is maintaining an even, full, clear sound. Keep on practicing these exercises and you’ll notice significant improvement in your slapping.

Learn the basics of writing melody with the help of Jack Perricone’s book “Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs.”

Understanding the basics of piano voicings and the use of common tensions is a first step in creating effective orchestrations of reharmonized melodies.

The modes have provided fertile musical soil for jazz composers since the late 1950s. In effect, modes can be viewed as displacements of the major scale.

For touring musicians, online education is vital. Lessons can be viewed on a laptop screen on an airplane, a tour bus, or backstage at a gig.

Berklee Online guitar instructor Thaddeus Hogarth demonstrates the importance of the pentatonic scale in funk and R&B music.

In jazz, you will encounter only seven kinds of diatonic seventh chords (from major, melodic minor, or harmonic minor keys). This article will show you how to voice lead smoothly and easily between these chords and their variations.

In this lesson for drummers, learn how to play basic funk beats with notation by Berklee Online percussion instructor Larry Finn.