{"id":20006,"date":"2023-10-29T12:23:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T17:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=20006"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:33:58","slug":"us-veteran-billy-ray-mcclelland-earns-his-degree-in-guitar-from-berklee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/us-veteran-billy-ray-mcclelland-earns-his-degree-in-guitar-from-berklee\/","title":{"rendered":"US Veteran Billy Ray McClelland Earns His Degree in Guitar from Berklee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-us-army-veteran-billy-ray-mcclelland-on-finding-rhythm-resilience-and-renewal-through-music\">US Army Veteran Billy Ray McClelland on Finding Rhythm, Resilience, and Renewal Through Music<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Music has always been a place of comfort for Billy Ray McClelland, a US Army veteran who will add a bachelor\u2019s degree in <a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/music-degrees\/undergraduate\/guitar-performance?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-article-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Guitar Performance<\/a> from Berklee Online to his list of honorable achievements by the end of 2023. Serving the Army from 1997-2008, he remembers playing songs with his comrades even when the stakes were high.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile I was in Iraq, a couple of folks brought acoustic guitars and we\u2019d get together in the evenings when we had time,\u201d says Billy Ray. \u201cWe taught each other stuff, and talked about music, and played any song that we could remember.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently based in Knoxville, Tennessee, Billy Ray is married to his wife of 25 years, Maria, whom he met in the military. They have a daughter and a son who are both in their 20s. After leaving the military in 2008, Billy Ray became a stay-at-home dad and was able to fit Berklee Online into his life while he took care of his kids. He first earned two <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/certificates?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-article-link\" target=\"_blank\">advanced certificates<\/a>, and then transferred the credits into the guitar degree program using his GI Bill.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1840\" height=\"1150\" src=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/billy_ray_mcclelland_article_image_2023_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20009\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Billy Ray McClelland in front of his guitar and Berklee Online certificates. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a great experience and humbling to start later on,\u201d says Billy Ray, who first enrolled in a Berklee Online course\u2014<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/courses\/music-business-101?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-article-link\" target=\"_blank\">Music Business 101<\/a><\/em>\u2014at the age of 37. \u201cIt also helps with realizing that you can still learn. Later on in life fear comes into play like \u2018I can\u2019t do that. I could never do that.\u2019 Well, you gotta try because although you\u2019ll be humbled, you get to learn and meet great people too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/military\/tuition-and-military-discount?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-article-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"LEARN ABOUT BERKLEE ONLINE'S MILITARY DISCOUNT (opens in a new tab)\">LEARN ABOUT BERKLEE ONLINE&#8217;S MILITARY DISCOUNT<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Billy Ray\u2019s formal music education began later in life, he\u2019s been playing guitar for as long as he can remember. His musical upbringing started at his grandmother\u2019s house in Coushatta, Louisiana. He says she would calm him down by playing Tom T. Hall records and other country tunes. His grandmother also played the fiddle and had lots of instruments around the house. Billy Ray always gravitated toward her guitar, until his mother gave him one of his own.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tom T. Hall - That&#039;s How I Got To Memphis\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EDHV4PUZvgY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tom T. Hall\u2019s song \u201cThat\u2019s How I Got to Memphis.\u201d Billy Ray McClelland\u2019s grandmother would play Hall&#8217;s records when he was growing up.&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was given a guitar around five or six years old that I probably broke every string on, but it was housed at my grandmother\u2019s,\u201d says Billy Ray. \u201cEvery time I went there, I\u2019d pluck on those couple of strings and make some type of music out of it.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Billy Ray\u2019s parents were also supportive of his music when he was growing up. In the early 1990s, Billy Ray played with a band called the Hired Gunz, who were known regionally for their \u201980s hard rock and Southern rock sound. They had the opportunity to tour around the Southern US and record an album, but the project began in his bedroom.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI give much credit to my mom for letting me be me and play the music I felt\u2014and for letting me cram a four-piece band in my bedroom until late hours of the morning,\u201d says Billy Ray. \u201cMy father was good with us playing as long as we would play a couple country songs that he liked.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His father, along with several other family members, was a World War II veteran and inspired him to want to join the military in the first place.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy father and his two brothers and four cousins went over during World War II,\u201d says Billy Ray. \u201cThere were seven of them, and all seven of them came back. But my father talked about being in the military, and the one part of it that I can remember was the camaraderie in the brotherhood and sisterhood. And I felt like that was a possibility in my life.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide\" style=\"grid-template-columns:22% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"352\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-19-at-12.55.49-PM-1.png\" alt=\"Billy Ray McClelland in uniform\" class=\"wp-image-20012 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>His father passed away in 2000 and Billy Ray (pictured on the left) says he felt the time was right to re-enlist in the Army (he had taken two years off to help care for his father). Within 90 days, he was sent to Iraq, where he trained as a communications specialist and was responsible for putting together computers, running communication wires and cables, often in dangerous situations, and establishing the localized intranet connection.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to discipline and focus, he says that the military has helped him with his timing and rhythm in his music studies.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m gonna tell you, one of the great skills is marching,\u201d says Billy Ray. \u201cThat was a timing thing. Not only do you learn to march, but as you progress in rank, you learn how to march with groups of 60 to 160 people. It could be a whole platoon or two platoons. And so to dial that in\u20141, 2, 3, 4 on the left foot\u2014it helps with timing. So anybody who wants to learn timing, go join the military.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduating from Berklee Online, Billy Ray says he\u2019d like to do more songwriting and put together a band to play locally. But most importantly, he would like to give back to the community by teaching music. In 2017, he had the opportunity to volunteer in New Zealand teaching guitar to seventh and eighth grade students, which he says fueled his desire to be an educator.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe world needs us all to give our time and to help young adults realize their aptitudes and strengths and to pursue dreams even if they seem out of reach,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m still a fledgling when it comes to teaching but I\u2019ve been told that it never gets easier because the changes are often and many. I\u2019ll keep my patience cap on and learn as much as I teach.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The appearance of US Department of Defense (DoD) or military-themed visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.<\/em><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music has always been a place of comfort for Billy Ray McClelland, a US Army veteran who will add a bachelor\u2019s degree in Guitar Performance from Berklee Online to his list of honorable achievements by the end of 2023. In this story Billy Ray discusses his musical upbringing, his plans for after graduation, and the secret about rhythm that he learned in the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":20008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9564,9560,32],"tags":[9258,9257,9256,8800,9259,9260,9077,9261],"class_list":["post-20006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-features-articles","category-spotlight","category-student-stories","tag-air-national-guard","tag-army","tag-billy-ray-mcclelland","tag-guitar-performance","tag-hired-gunz","tag-knoxville","tag-military-students","tag-tennessee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US Veteran Billy Ray McClelland Earns His Degree in Guitar from Berklee - 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