A young music listener puts on his headphones and prepares an intense session of ear training, which we can surmise from his huge cup of coffee.

Ear Training Exercises to Help You Become a Better Musician

In these ear training videos, we uncover key exercises to help you develop your inner hearing: conducting in 6/8, singing the root, and identifying chords.

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A muscular man plays a Fender Telecaster guitar, presumably delivering some hot country music licks.

Country Music Guitar Essentials: Chicken Pickin’, String Bending, and More

Mastering country music on guitar includes learning some of the same licks, tricks, and scales as other styles of guitar playing, but you also need to learn other phrases in the language of country music. Here is a quick primer.

A man with a plaid shirt sits at a mic in a recording studio, presumably to record a guitar part for a song he is hoping to one day land a sync licensing deal with.

Sync Licensing Success for Songwriters

Music for advertising is much like other types of custom songwriting: if you want to win the game, you must know the rules of that game. Once I figured out what game I was actually playing, I started to have success with sync licensing.

The tragedy and comedy masks with a red curtain backdrop.

Musical Theater: A Brief History

In this excerpt from David Valdes’ Script Analysis for Theater course, learn a brief history of musical theater as well as common structure and themes in musicals.

A professional video camera filming a concert

Cinematography Basics: Live Concerts, Music Videos, and Film

In this excerpt from Tal Lazar’s Berklee Online course Introduction to Digital Cinematography, learn about cinematography as it relates to live concerts, music videos, and film.

A voice leading paradigm showcases how musical notes switch on a musical staff.

Voice Leading Paradigms for Harmony in Music Composition

These voice leading examples provide guidelines to help you learn how to compose so each voice moves smoothly from note to note, while you create rich harmonic changes.

Circle of Fifths

Circle of Fifths: The Key to Unlocking Harmonic Understanding

The circle of fifths is arguably the most helpful way of visually organizing Western music theory’s 12 chromatic pitches for learning. This primer, featuring excerpts from Music Application and Theory and Music for Beginners will give you several new tools to commit this concept to memory.

Person practicing orchestration by writing on sheet music with piano in the background

Orchestration: How to Write for an Orchestra

“It is assumed that, if you can write for orchestra, you can write for anything.” An agent once told me that, and I took it to heart so much that I wrote two courses to help you get where you need to be with orchestration. Here is an excerpt.

A woman writing melody on guitar

What is Melody in a Song?

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

The countdown before a film begins shows a 5, which illustrates this article about 5 important tips for film scoring.

Film Scoring Concepts You Need to Know

When scoring a film, there are five fundamental rules that you need to follow. Berklee Online course author Sean McMahon shares what he’s learned from personal experience, scoring and orchestrating Hollywood films.