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Vivian Aguiar-Buff sits cross-legged and looks directly at the camera in this portrait set against a gray background.
Vivian Aguiar-Buff on Hans Zimmer, DreamWorks, and Her Emmy Win

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.

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An illustration shows the side profile of a woman's head, and inside her mind we see that she is thinking of how she plays her oboe.
Mental Practice Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide for Musicians

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.

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A graphic of a circle that is half a vinyl record on top, half Earth on the bottom. The vinyl record on top is steaming and the Earth below is melting. The background is orange and red ombre with speckles.
Songs about Climate Change and the Environment

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.

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Cindy Blackman Santana photographed by Jimmy Bruch
Drummer Cindy Blackman Santana on Carlos, Lenny, and Visitations from Jazz Greats

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.

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A live sound engineer is pictured behind a mixing board in a lively rock club with orange spotlights shining on the stage, making sure every noise coming from the stage is properly amplified, and sounds good to the audience.

Live Sound Engineering: What You Need to Start

By Toby Francis

In this excerpt from Live Event Sound Engineering and Concert Production 101, Toby Francis explores how signal flow, speaker systems, and safety protocols all contribute to producing great sound at live events.

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Sound engineer Toby Francis stands at the console, mixing front of house for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Sound Engineer Toby Francis on Working FOH for Ariana, Aerosmith, Kanye, and More

By Pat Healy

Toby Francis wrote his Berklee Online sound engineering course between front-of-house gigs for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In this extensive discussion he shares tales that were a little too gritty for the course.

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