For you, music is not a hobby; it is going to be your career.

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They came to Berklee because of who we are: the world's largest independent music school and the premier institution for the study of today's music.

The Guitar Department at Berklee offers you the most comprehensive guitar education to be found anywhere. We provide individualized instruction in both electric and acoustic guitar, allowing you to select either of these as your principal instrument. We offer you professional faculty who are specialists in each discipline, course work specifically designed to enhance your talents and abilities, and myriad playing opportunities.

We know how your instrument fits into today's music world, and we give it the respect it deserves. Whether electric or acoustic, the guitar is an extremely flexible and expressive instrument and can be effective in any musical style. Studying at a school that offers you all those musical styles is the most important way for you to take your playing and turn it into a career.

Studying Guitar at Berklee

At Berklee, you will find your own voice and develop your own style. You won't be limited to one direction. We encourage you to experiment with other styles that interest you, so that you can challenge yourself, improve your skills, and develop your instrumental craft. We will help you to become a guitarist with a strong musical identity.

Berklee prepares you for today's music by building on traditional aspects of learning. In all instruction offered in the Guitar Department, emphasis is placed on achieving a solid foundation in the standard technical challenges of professional performance, including scales, chords, reading, improvisation, interpretation, and standard repertoire. Also included is intensive training in sight-reading and in the understanding of chord voicing.

Private Lessons

In your first week at Berklee, you will be given a placement audition by a guitar faculty member, and one of the chairs of the department will match you with the teacher best suited to your needs for private instruction. Every student will take at least four semesters of private lessons and must pass a final exam at the end of each semester on the skills learned. (Music Education and Professional Music majors will take six semesters; Performance majors will take eight semesters, with extra Recital Preparation lessons before their senior jury and recital.)

Instrumental Labs

These specialized guitar classes bring together players of similar performance levels and provide training in specific aspects of guitar performance. Many of the teaching materials used in these labs are created by the very Berklee faculty who will be teaching you. In addition to the required labs Guitar Performance Skills and Guitar Style Skills (blues, funk, fusion, jazz, or rock), the elective labs include:

• Advanced Guitar Performance Lab
• Advanced Reading
• Advanced Rock Guitar Performance Techniques
• Blues Guitar
• Building Guitar Technique through Triads
• Country Guitar
• Developmental Arpeggios
• Electronic Effects for Guitar
• Finger Picking Blues Guitar
• George Benson Lab
• Guitar Chord Soloing
• Guitarmony
• Guitar Synthesizer Lab
• Jazz – Blues Guitar
• Jazz/Rock Improvisation for Guitar
• Jazz/Rock Rhythm Guitar Playing
• Jeff Beck Lab
• Jim Hall Lab
• Jimi Hendrix Lab
• Linear Approach Concepts
• The Linear Style of Pat Martino: Approaches to Jazz Improvisation
• Performance Techniques and Comping
• Polyrhythms
• Professional Guitar Styles
• Rock Guitar Lab
• Show/Theater Guitar Lab
• Slide Guitar Lab
• Standard Tune Workshop
• Steel Guitar Lab
• Walking Bass Lines and Chords for Guitar
• Wes Montgomery Lab

Course Work

The courses at Berklee are continually reviewed and evaluated so that they are up-to-date and consistently reflect today's musical environment. In classes such as Guitar Performance Styles, you will learn the history of your instrument, analyze its present-day challenges, and participate in an in-depth study of styles and techniques.

Ensembles

Through ensembles, you will hone essential performance skills and techniques. They help you to broaden your stylistic range, to expand your network of musical friends and colleagues, and to gain diverse group-playing experience.

Berklee offers an ensemble experience for every entering student. Based on your placement audition, you may be eligible for Contemporary Styles Ensemble, Guitar Performance Ensemble, or Rhythm Section Ensemble.

Ensembles are offered in multiple sections for varying levels of ability. You choose the group and style that appeal to you. Your eligibility is determined by ongoing auditions that measure your growth as a performer. This system enables you to move into higher level ensembles as you develop your skills.

More than 350 ensembles rehearse weekly at Berklee. These ensembles reflect nothing less than a full range of musical expression:

• Art Blakey Ensemble
• Avant-garde Ensemble
• Berklee Recording Orchestra
• Cannonball Adderley Ensemble
• commercial pop/rock recording ensembles
• Concert Choir
• country music ensembles
• funk bands
• jazz ensembles
• John Scofield Ensemble
• Latin ensembles
• rhythm and blues ensembles
• rock ensembles
• Stevie Ray Vaughan Ensemble
• Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Ensemble
• Thelonious Monk Ensemble
• Wayne Shorter Ensemble
• Wes Montgomery Ensemble
• Yellowjackets Ensemble

Visiting Artists

Through our Visiting Artist Series, you will be exposed to valuable first-hand career insight from some of the finest performers, songwriters, film composers, music business experts, and music professionals from every sector of the industry. Visiting guitar professionals have included: John Abercrombie '67, Adrian Belew, Peter Bernstein, Hiram Bullock, Joe Diorio, Ronnie Earl, Nelson Faria, Tal Farlow, Robben Ford, Mick Goodrick '67, Rodney Jones, Mike Keneally, Steve Khan, Peter Leitch, Pat Martino, Pat Metheny, Ben Monder, Steve Morse, John Petrucci '86, Duke Robillard, John Scofield '73, Alex Skonik, Leni Stern '80, Mike Stern '75, Martin Taylor, Carl Verheyen, and Mark Whitfield '87.

Guitar Rooms

The Guitar Department has nearly 50 amplifier-equipped rooms for private or small ensemble instruction and rehearsal. In addition, there are larger group instruction rooms complete with audio-visual learning aids. MIDI equipment, compact disc players, digital phrase samplers, videotapes, and audio tapes are used extensively for performance analysis classes and musical accompaniment. Guitar Department performances and recitals are often videotaped for faculty and student analysis.

Guitar Faculty

One-on-one faculty/student interaction is crucial to your Berklee education. In preparation for a career in the music industry, it is essential that you work intensively with men and women who have been living that career already. Berklee's guitar faculty are innovative educators as well as experienced professional musicians. Their expertise in contemporary guitar techniques and technology makes them invaluable as teachers.

Berklee has the largest guitar faculty in the world. The diversity of styles and experience of our faculty means you will be exposed to the best education possible. You need not be restricted to one teacher throughout your education. You can work with any number of faculty during your time at Berklee, giving you the ultimate educational experience.

Our guitar faculty includes:

Larry Baione Chair B.M., Berklee College of Music M.M., New England Conservatory of Music Recipient of Down Beat Hall of Fame scholarship award Principal guitar, U.S. Army Band, Washington, D.C. Performances with numerous jazz, concert, and recording ensembles
Rick Peckham Assistant Chair B.M., Ohio State University M.M.Ed., University of North Texas State Internationally active jazz guitarist, composer, writer, and clinician Frequent contributor to Down Beat and other magazines Coauthor of Berklee textbooks for ear training and musicianship

View all Guitar Department faculty...

Berklee College of Music

Berklee was founded on two revolutionary ideas: that musicianship could be taught through the music of the time; and that our students need practical, professional skills for successful, sustainable music careers. While our bedrock philosophy has not changed, the music around us has and requires that we evolve with it.

For over half a century, we've demonstrated our commitment to this approach by wholeheartedly embracing change. We update our curriculum and technology to make them more relevant, and attract diverse students who reflect the multiplicity of influences in today's music. We prepare our students for a lifetime of professional and personal growth through the study of the arts, sciences, and humanities. And we are developing new initiatives to reach and influence an ever-widening audience.

More than a college, Berklee has become the world's singular learning lab for the music of today—and tomorrow. We are a microcosm of the music world, reflecting the interplay between music and culture; an environment where aspiring music professionals learn how to integrate new ideas, adapt to changing musical genres, and showcase their distinctive skills in an evolving community. We are at the center of a widening network of industry professionals who use their openness, virtuosity, and versatility to take music in surprising new directions.

Performance Facilities

The Berklee Performance Center, our largest facility, seats 1,220 and is constantly alive with student and faculty concerts sponsored by the college or professional performances sponsored by independent music producers. In addition, Berklee maintains four professional-quality recital halls for smaller concerts and gatherings. All in all, more than 650 performances take place each year at Berklee. As you progress musically, you are sure to be part of many of them.

Learning Resources

The Stan Getz Media Center and Library - offering an extensive collection of printed materials, audio tapes of Berklee performances and seminars, videotapes of concerts and clinics, and other instructional media for student use.

Career Development Center - providing career counseling, a job board listing hundreds of employment opportunities, an extensive career library, and Macintosh computers for student use, this office also houses the Berklee Career Network, which provides students and alumni assistance in reaching their career goals.

Learning Center - equipped with 40 computer-based MIDI workstations, 15 cassette stations, four tutoring/private study rooms, and a technology-based classroom, this is the largest networked music technology facility of its kind in the world.

Studio and Lab Facilities

Berklee offers a wide range of facilities specifically designed to help you realize your goal of becoming a professional musician. The technology at Berklee is that of the industry — the same equipment being used in studios and concert halls around the world.

Recording Studio Complex - consisting of 12 studio facilities that include 8- , 16- , and 24-track digital and analog recording capability, automated mixdown, digital editing, video postproduction, and comprehensive signal processing facilities.

Synthesis Labs - featuring over 250 MIDI and digitally equipped synthesizers, expanders, drum machines, sequencers, and computers, including hard-disk recording.

Professional Performance Division MIDI Lab
This five-station lab is designed to support your study of new electronic instrumental controller techniques. Featuring Macintosh computers, various synthesizer modules, and the latest in guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion, and woodwind MIDI controllers, the lab enables you to learn to adapt traditional playing techniques to complex electronic setup and control environments.

Professional Writing Division MIDI Lab - offering the ability to produce high quality demos of compositions, arrangements, and songs at individual workstations.

Film Scoring Labs - providing professional training in the areas of film music composition, editing, sequencing, and computer applications.

Coming to Berklee

Special Annual Events
Besides the regular activities and musical events that occur daily, once a year Berklee sets aside a time to showcase each instrumental department. Berklee Guitar Week, held during the spring semester, blends Berklee faculty clinics/concerts, student concerts, and major artist performances, clinics, and product demonstrations in a festive atmosphere. This may be an excellent time for you to come and take a look at what Berklee and the Guitar Department have to offer.

Berklee Summer Guitar Sessions
In addition to Berklee's full-time program and other summer programs, we also feature the week-long Berklee Summer Guitar Sessions during the month of August. We offer classes in guitar craft, guitar style, improvisation, and performance ensembles (blues, funk, fusion, jazz, and rock) at all levels.

For Further Information

For further information about the Guitar Department, please contact Chair Larry Baione at (617) 747-2294 or Assistant Chair Rick Peckham at (617) 747-2511.

Berklee also offers campus tours and informational sessions throughout the year. Complete application information can be found in the Berklee prospectus. Also available is information on the many scholarships for outstanding student instrumentalists and vocalists. For a copy of the Berklee prospectus, or for further information about Berklee College of Music, please contact the Office of Admissions at (800) BERKLEE (toll-free within the United States and Canada), or (617) 747-2222.

Write to us at:

Office of Admissions
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02215-3693
U.S.A.

Visit Admissions at:

921 Boylston Street, Suite 600
Boston, Massachusetts

E-mail us at: admissions@berklee.edu

Berklee College of Music does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, national or ethnic origin, age, handicap, status as a disabled or Vietnam-era veteran, or sexual orientation in employment or in admission to and participation in any of its programs and activities. Any inquiries or grievances may be directed to the Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students, Berklee College of Music, 1140 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215-3693, U.S.A., (617) 266-1400, or the Regional Director, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Boston, Massachusetts.