Songwriting Berklee College of Music

Overview

The Master of Arts in Songwriting at Berklee College of Music is a unique project-focused master’s degree program, where the goal is to produce a body of work that will prepare you for a career in the current commercial music industry. You choose your career focus, whether it’s as a performing songwriter, top-line collaborating songwriter, songwriter/producer, vocal arranger/producer, sync and licensing expert, or songwriter for musical theater or various niche markets.

By the end of the program, you will be able to:

• Synthesize and apply songwriting processes and techniques, including lyric writing, melodic writing, and harmony and groove writing to your work
• Analyze songs using artistic, academic, market criteria, as well as production methods and styles and understand songs and recordings from a historical perspective
• Connect artistic vision, mission, and voice to a personal brand that includes visual and sonic components
• Synthesize and apply recording and production processes and techniques, including beat-making, hook-writing, arranging, vocal production, editing, and mixing to your own work
• Demonstrate an understanding of current music markets, how songs are perceived in relation to those markets and contextualize your songs within those markets
• Effectively collaborate with other songwriters, as well as producers and business entities
• Write a portfolio of finished songs that express a unique artistic perspective
• Produce or collaborate on the production of the songs in your portfolio in a style that both supports the artistic perspective and orients the songs toward a specific market
• Design and execute a branded online presence that includes social media, website, and other elements as needed to promote yourself within the industry as a songwriter
• Write songs for various uses including advertising, libraries, sync to film/TV, and writing for niche markets
• Define and execute a career plan that takes into consideration your unique skill set and career goals, keeping in mind current and potential future income streams available to songwriters