"It's equal. When you come out of a successful class, when you've gotten through to students, you're actually high. It's a great feeling," Kooper said after completing his first semester as a member of the Berklee faculty. "I like teaching because it's an intellectual chess game."

"He got us to experiment. One assignment was to write a song with the weirdest chord progression possible," said fifth-semester Songwriting major Phil Dubnick, a student in Kooper's Advanced Songwriting class. "He was trying to get us out of ruts and to take more risks. I wound up writing one of my better songs, and I've been playing it with my band."

Composer of a #1 single in 1965, "This Diamond Ring," for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Kooper describes his approach to teaching songwriting as more "common sense than technical." Early classes consisted of intensive listening sessions, during which Kooper introduced his students to songwriters ranging from Burt Bacharach to Laura Nyro. In addition, Kooper, who held an A&R post with Columbia Records for a period, sprinkled his classes with tales of his own successes and missteps in dealing with the business aspects of music. Throughout the semester, he required that each student write four songs and hand them in on tape for critical in-class discussion.

While a student song was spinning in the tape deck, Kooper often sat at the piano, tapping out the chord progression and melody. Later, he made suggestions. "He'd let us know when the melody or chord changes got repetitive, or when lyrics were just filler," Dubnick said. He'd say, 'You might want to change this, or try this.' He helped us edit and make our songs better."

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