Faculty
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Chi Gook Kim, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Music Therapy"I want students to be independent. In the past, if they had a song in their heads, they had to get assistance from a sighted person. But it takes a long time to dictate note by note, so the sighted people would fill in the gap. Now, they can have full control over what they write on the charts and record. So they can write for any professional writing gig or recording gig. They can be fully independent."
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"A lot of what I teach is related to unlearning some of the blocks to creativity that are taught in primary and high school education. All of my writing classes start with a free write, and we free write every class for up to 30 minutes. In doing that at the same time, over weeks, on the same days, students practice accessing their unconscious, quieting that editorial voice in their heads, and it separates the writing process from the editing process. Students have told me that that has a significant impact, for example, on their songwriting, that they’re able to be creative without editing themselves more often and more freely."
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Freddie Bryant, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"I always have students make a blank book, because they're going to discover hundreds of things. You need to write them down, because at the end of the year, it could all be like mush. What do they put in the books? Sometimes people will write a great lick or a melody. They may not write the rest of the song, but they could do so in the future. It's the same thing with me. In my books there are different kinds of scales and different rhythms, chord voicings, and inversions; a Latin tune, a more Middle-Eastern kind of a jam vibe; harmonized diminished scales; and even poetry. I experiment with all these different possibilities, and then two or three things may develop into a tune or an arrangement that I'm writing, or later, with time and practice they'll be able to fall under my fingers easier for soloing or melodic improvisational ideas."
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Jerome Kyles, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Voice Department"God-given gifts are wonderful, but without the drive to get better, it will just be that—a great talent sitting on the shelf. I see, in every student that I have right now, the ability to achieve. So if I see a student underachieving, then that student is going to get the hammer. But I believe students come to Berklee because they want the hard stuff—they want to be challenged."
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"The Music Synthesis major, particularly at the elective course level, is diverse by design. We are teaching our students to be highly creative with a wide variety of electronic tools. That creativity could take the form of composition, production, performance, sound design for film/television/video games, software design, or a unique combination of several forms. For some musicians, their identity is with their instrument. For us, it is an electronic sound palette put to innovative and musical use."
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Benjamin Sher, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"The guitar is a bit of a matrix; because it has so many strings, the same note appears in different regions, so it's hard to figure out where to play notes. To help students find their way around the guitar, I use a streamlined version of Bill Leavitt's 'old-school' approach that I learned from. Brazilian music is also helpful in teaching students to read, because the subdivision is in two instead of in four, so I feel students are able to see wider rhythmic phrases and see the bigger picture of what's going on from measure to measure."
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Brian Jantz, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Music Therapy- B.M., Berklee College of Music, Music Therapy
- Guitarist
- Former staff music therapist at the Community Music Center of Boston and Bournewood Psychiatric Hospital Rehabilitation Department
- Former director of music therapy for All-Newton Music School and Brookline Music School
- Former private consultant at Boston College Campus School for over five years
- Directed and managed large residential group home in Watertown, MA
- Featured in Fox News, the Boston Herald, and Boston Parents Paper for his unique clinical use of music
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Livingston Taylor, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Voice Department"Above all else, performers need to be what I call 'ferociously curious.' Secondly, they need to watch their creativity land: to watch it arrive. It's not enough to just create and throw it out there. You have to watch it land. When you do things that people like, do those things again. When you do things that they don't like, don't do 'em any more. This is not rocket science here."
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"I teach computer applications in the music industry, web design and management, web development for e-business, and a few others. It's about developing ways of getting your information out there. Having those technology skills will allow you to build your business, whether it's yourself, if you're a solo artist, or you're working for a company that's promoting artists. It also teaches attention to detail and aesthetics. It's a different generation. You need to have those skills now."
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Rene Pfister, Instructor
DEPARTMENT : Voice Department"I'm big on repertoire. The song is the medium through which singers express their talent. I encourage my students to listen to vocalists of all genres, analyze what is happening vocally, both technically and stylistically. It's critical that a singer learn to choose the right songs. All of my students create a book of songs in the proper keys so that they are prepared when someone says, 'Can you do this gig?' Yes, and I'm ready to sing 50 songs to prove it."
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