Letting students talk about their experience at the music school of choice. Pretty cool. This is be a good way of providing information on various music schools.

Hi Aimee thanks for posting this vid. I'd like to chime in as a Berklee grad. Hopefully this will be useful for your viewers. What a lot of people don't realize is that going to Berklee is not a magic pill. You have to put in the work once you go there. For example, my 1st semester at Berklee I relied on my "talent". I thought Berklee would do the work for me. Of course I got my butt kicked that semester musically :) But, the next 5 semesters I practiced 6-10 hours a day and really took advantage of what the school has to offer. That's where my playing began to really transform. So, just like anything in life, the more you put into it the more you get out of it. Berklee is super expensive. So, unless you're 100% sure you have the work ethic and commitment, it might not be worth it. So, explore different avenues. Again, great video Aimee!

45 grand per year? Ouch. This is what the Berklee clef looks like: "$"

Iam an old baby boomer so it is so encouraging to see these young people involved and growing in a tough business. Music and jazz is in good hands for the future! Thanks aimee!

Thanks to all the students willing to share this with us!!! That was so insightful and surprising!

3:21 REPETITION LEGITIMIZES REPETITION LEGITIMIZES REPETITION LEGITIMIZES

This video made my day. Aimee, this was just great - did not matter what camera you used, it was wonderful insight into Berklee from these interesting, engaged, and articulate students - they came off as so likable and full of life - what a blast to go along w. you on this musical adventure, complete w. Jacob Collier in action - I felt like I was seeing all of it as if I were there: fascinating!

I'm glad she mentioned the Kenny Werner Effortless Mastery Institute. Last week, Kenny came to UNT and gave clinics on his theories for playing, practicing, and composing. Got to meet him, and learned a lot of tips I'll take with me throughout life.

Thanks for taking me back memory lane. I attended Berklee in the early 80's, when it was less than $4K per semester. I learned to transcribe and notate there, how to voice chords, how to not play the root (because we're jazz musicians), in short, a lot of things that can be found @ Aimee Nolte Music. My piano instructor was the great Donald Brown of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. No KZfaq back then. Learning bebop beyond your Charlie Parker Omnibook meant picking up a Fats Navarro or Sonny Stitt side at Looney Tunes Record Shop, and sitting for hours in a practice room with the tape cassette you made from it. Gouged fingertips from stop, rewind, play, stop, rewind, play. (Ah, that Marantz Superscope half-speed tape deck, that lowered the pitch an octave!) After an hour or two, you found that you had missed dinner in the dorm cafeteria, so you grabbed a greasy slice of pizza from Supreme's or Little Stevie's. Best memory: shaking Herbie Hancock's hand - yes, his right one - at graduation.

Aimee, you were in front of a 7-Eleven. You could have participated to Adam Neely his 7/11 rhythm challenge. :p

Thank you for this video. I’m pushing 40 but applying for Berklee winter term. This got me excited.

Finally, a vlog where I recognize the places!

Yeah, all of my friends who went to Berklee say that it's all up to you to make it or break it.

I graduated the school in 1997. It is so good to see the school in 2019. Thank you Aimee.

Good questions, nice young people. I think they will all do well.

"smells like weed" 😂😂

Awesome video! Berklee alum here. (didn't graduate but completed all core curriculum, haha) My strongest advice while at Berklee is networking. Make friends. At the end of the day, it's about who you know. As I did learn a ton in the classroom and private drum lessons the majority of learning was simply making music with strangers. I have multiple friends from Berklee in every major city now where I could cold call and have a place to crash. I left Berklee and moved back home to MD in 2013. I just moved to Nashville last year and had weekend of gigs in Wisconsin a week before I even moved to Nashville (just through a Nashville guitarist/Berklee friend who saw on FB that I was moving to Nashville and needed a drummer) >> Which leads to other gigs!

Great exposé Aimee. I was a Trombone performance major at Berklee in the 70's. Does not sound like it has changed much. Back then it was Charles Mingus or Sonny Rollins rolling into town. I only stayed two years. I was on the Dean's list and was allowed to take a very heavy course load. I would have graduated in three years had I stayed. One thing they didn't touch on much, is that Berklee has a large Classical music interest as well. They even had a symphony orchestra even though there were not any sting players there. The string were all Guitar players who picked a string instruments. Sax players picked up flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, etc. It just got to be to much for me, as I was playing about 8 hours per day and writing music, and arranging. so I was going non-stop from 8 A.M. until I dropped. As a horn player it is very difficult to play 8 hours each day. The best part was that we seldom played the exact same piece twice. It was always something new and great sight reading was expected.

Once again you bring us unique educational and entertaining content not seen anywhere else on the Web. Thanks!

Yo Aimee- this gets me all excited to practice more stuff and have fun experimenting on new challenging ideas! What a great video - thanks for sharing.

Great work Aimee. I am very familiar with Berklee. If someone is dedicated they will get more out of it then they could have ever imagined.

I went there and honestly, the thing that is most worth from there is the people you will meet and the 12 week and 5 intensive week summer programs they have are more than enough to get you the connections you need, as well as the yearly meet and greet 3 days intensive workshops for Berklee online students. You can do both, or enter semesters, not full time. Musically wise it is absolutely about the instructor and your own commitment for practicing which is better done with a one on one instructor, you can get the ensemble experience with the 12-week programs. That is if you need to save money. If you can afford it then... well go for it! just don't be dazzled and know it is just a school and not the be all and end all. The online school is pretty great too.

i saw him in boston too i was goin crazy !!! that funk solo he took during Djesse was some of the most beautiful sounds i've ever heard

It was a total treat to spend time with you! Thank you so much for letting us share our experience, and thank you so much for sharing yours with us!!!

I'm studying at berklee online, I'm pretty jealous that you got to go to boston to see the school, I hope you enjoyed

Great Vlog, Berklee fam covered a lot of good and accurate information.

Aimee - thank you for putting this excellent video portrait of student life at Berklee together. This was, in my assessment an accurate and useful snapshot of both the great and challenging environment there. When I was there from 81-83, we all recognized that the value of what we got from the school was completely dependent on our desire and discipline. And, some of the most memorable and influential learning happened outside the classroom, in late night and weekend sessions, the hangs with classmates discussing struggles and what was working, and being made aware of the sheer amount of talent and hard work of students from all over the world. Professors like Herb Pomeroy, Alan Dawson, John LaPorta, Greg Hopkins (still there last I knew!) Jimmy Moshier, Lou Mucci (NY studio trumpeter on Gil Evans recordings with Miles), Michael Gibbs, and others were extremely generous with their time and teaching. My classmates included Cyrus Chestnut, Makoto Ozone, Diana Krall (I didn’t know her!), Franck Amsallem (still a close friend!) Terri Lynn Carrington (at 17, she played on my senior recital), Tony Garruso, (lead trumpet with Buddy Rich right out of school - later lead for Sinatra!), and many others. I had a short life in the music business, despite playing in the top bands while I was there (personal choices). But the joy and excitement of playing music with formative masters as the above and being among top performers, composers, ensemble leaders, arrangers, /arrangers there has never left me. One thing I’ll add - is that as good as the classmates I mentioned above were at the school, they didn’t necessarily come into their own “real” voice/artistry until, in some cases, YEARS after they left or graduated. Berklee is a great place to find out where you are, musically, and be exposed to where you want/need to be - but like at any other study (music, science, business, history, whatever) it will for most, be a long road to professional/artistic maturity and mastery! The students you met with are awesome - and you’re right to note their discipline and enthusiasm makes them so. Others may (Bill Frissel - for one) not synch with Berklee right away - and of those, some (again like Frissel) may later return when ready, as others may not. Berklee doesn’t define the student’s value. The student defines their Berklee experience and the value it provided them.

Yo i go to berklee and this video is very informative and does a great job of explaining what berklee is actually like 👍 good stuff

Damn, that's a really nice tour to know a little more about Berkley. So many ideas I could suggest to my school department and make it a little bit better. Thanks, Aimee!

what a fantastic impromptu vacation! Berklee culture seems infectious - looks like you had an amazing time

Thanks for this video! Last year I was in Boston for a semester (as an engineer) and every time I passed by I wondered about the every day at Berklee... It’s been years since I attended music classes though

Fascinating, Thankyou Aimee!

Hi Aimee. I've always wanted to study music in college, but that didn't work out for me. Therefore, when I had the opportunity, I would download e-books from Berklee College of Music on Jazz and Keyboards. When Berklee started offering courses on Coursera, I enrolled for their Modern Music Specialization Course which actually took me three years to finish. Previously to that, I took a course in Jazz Vocalization at our local music venue (Strathmore). I'm very happy with what I learned through Berklee, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Rochester. However, much of my jazz keyboard knowledge has actually come from me following your site. I'm not the best jazz artist, but the theatre group that I perform with, always wants me to jazz up my singing. Thanks for your KZfaq channel.

What a fantastic bunch of talented and driven people. (Like Aimee). What a thrill it is for me to watch this so soon after it’s release on KZfaq. (Approx 1am Melbourne Australia)

Thanks Aimee. An interesting view of what music at Berklee is like for a student from students. Microtonal solfage sounds pretty scary. The guest lectures sound amazing. Balkan music interest me with it's intricate time feels. Macedonian and flamenco musicians I have met share this short short, long..., long.., long..., short, long..., long..., short, short random combination kind of feel that people playing it can anticipate. I find that joyful to listen to. Thanks again for an inside look at campus and thanks to the students for sharing their insight. Free university is a useful way to grow a smart and creative population. With the challenges ahead for the planet I see growing a smart and inventive next generation as very important. Extremely high costs deter so many smart people from attending a higher education facilities it breaks my heart. I am glad Berklee offers some limited scholarships.I am grateful for the free online music courses they offer too. Personally I feel if they had less fancy mics, amps and gear and more scholarships there could be more people attending and that may make the world a better place.

if justin is hip because he shortened the word "ensemble", you should give australia a go

If you want to get into Hollywood film/TV music Berklee is an excellent place to get your foot in the door.

Thank you for this - I found it fascinating. I won a $1K Berklee Scholarship in my grade 12 year. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the support of my band teacher nor my parents to pursue it further, and went into engineering. It’s now thirty years later. I am still in engineering by day, but am busier than ever musically during the rest of my time. Some great insights from the students for all us “band geeks”. 😊

The one thing most important to an aspiring musician Berklee cannot provide: talent.

This is brilliant, grass roots information. Well done interviewer.

Just to clarify, Arranging 2 is actually no longer a required core class! It's only required for certain majors.

Nice plug for Coke Zero, hope you got $$$$! Great video, tho. Thanks for sharing your trip. Berklee and Boston in general is just a great place to be. Esp in the winter!

Enjoyed this video!

i saw collier last week in Bristol UK, was amazing

Wow, that looked like a huge soda can at the end... hard to believe there's no sugar in it. Seriously though the Berklee students in the video were very interesting and genuinely helpful. This doesn't sound easy, but I hope they all take full advantage of what the college has to offer, and I wish them all a lot of enjoyment and success! Thanks for putting up awesome videos -- they brighten my day!

I had my Berklee audition a couple weeks ago; I really appreciate this video

3:41 Nobody talked during the bass solo. Adam Neely would be proud.

I'm 63 years old and I've always wondered, what if...? Now I can sleep at night! Thank you, Aimee and Berklee students!

That's great! I was accepted in the Berklee's Masters Degree at Valencia campus, but my Scholarship wasn't enough for me. But I'll try again until I get it. Thanks for the content!

Great video AMIEE .

I wish I could have met you at the Berk! Please come back in the future!! :)

I went to a Berklee summer session in 1974 as a guitarist. As in the vid, student maturity was a key issue then and now. Aimee does well pointing this out. I found guitar instructors very rude at Berklee as they seemed to see themselves as their own Miles Davis. They were all amp and guitar snobs and most guitar instructors were crushed over the recent success of Larry Coryell just because Coryell stuck in a few rock licks. It was all they talked about, so much professional jealousy. But, even after my 40 year pro guitar career, I am still building on things I learned from other students from 1974 at Berklee, not so much the professors. My advice? Hire different private instructors over time to compliment personal study for different aspects of music. Do it own your own while following a published college curriculum or two. Too much tuition at Berklee and too much course work compressed in a short time, seems to me. A few Berklee seminars sounds like a good idea for networking once you have some of your own thing going. Then you can say you went to Berklee. Make a few records before a seminar. Pass them out. I found that there are many who can blast theory and scale you to the moon but never managed to lay down the first inch of decent tape, bytes today. Imo, courageous originality within a genre or two beats and intimidates the "faculty unoriginal jazz cat". I have many current Berklee instruction materials. I find them lacking in what curriculum builders call pedagogy. Confusing on objective and steps working toward objectives and how the objective interacts with other objectives is totally lacking, imo. Probably the best thing about Berklee is exposure to other students at a time in life where you are not working a day job, not. married and having kids and can jam all night and not get fired from missing work! Today, Berklee has no secret you can't find out for yourself online. Affordable Berklee? Sure. Unaffordable Berklee? That's a tough one. Bottom line. Be as original as possible, develop a unique style and feel, study, study, study, be a great improvisor and be very aware that you need to be a business person if you want to be heard and be first in line. So what are we really talking about here? Discipline and maturity on your own or at Berklee. My experience at Berklee was a very rude slap in the face about maturity and they were right, even though the instructors looked and acted like NYC junkies wearing official jazz. berets and horizontal striped shirts (unwashed). Those instructors demotivated me, the students were the real school. But that's just me . Berklee? Probably not. Why not formally start with a dozen classic jazz records and personal instruction on every aspect of those records from a number of folks. Aimee is a great place to start. Do a good job of that and then apply to Berklee and watch them fall all over you.

Thanks, Aimee, this is a wonderful blog. Went to Berklee one summer semester out of HS in '67. Met some amazing musicians, including Michael Brecker, and had some amazing experiences. At that time, there was no class for microtonal solfege, and no Mid-Eastern ensemble! One of the classes was taught by Mr Lee himself (or was it Mr Berk?) Some stories are on my blog.

Nice Video! I love Berklee and Boston. Some great memories there.

On thing my teacher said to me I will never forget. There are not more musicians today than in the past, there are just more people who make music.

Justin is vibes right there

Great video, thanks.

This was a fantastic video.......one of your very best! Super interesting!

I was extremely fortunate to have my parents pay for my Berklee education. Class of '86... and I seem to recall it cost around... wait for it... 18K/year! I have a Bachelor of Music Degree in Arranging. I believe that Arranging is no longer something you can major in (I think it was folded into the Composition Major or something like that). Anyway, this video was a blast for me to watch! Even the corner shot of Mass Ave. and Boylston St. in the slushy snow brought back vivid memories for me! The little food mart across the street (7-Eleven?) had been Cafe Bouquet when I was there, and all the French and South American and Israeli students would hang there. That lobby shot was not recognizable to me (too new), but the maze of halls haven't changed a bit. I don't remember having a view to the street from any of our ensemble rooms, so that may be new, also. A lot of what the students were describing, in terms of the various departments and workload, sounds exactly the same. Even the disconnect between the administration department and the students sounded the same! LOL It's imperative that you be a self-motivated person to keep up at Berklee... just like the real world. One thing that wasn't discussed among these students (perhaps because they don't realize this yet) is the value of making bonds and friendships with your fellow students. The connections I made there, especially with those from the OTHER departments, became some of my best leads to getting work and vice versa. We have all helped each other out over all these years. (Even my husband was someone I knew from Berklee! LOL) Oh, one more thing... I'm shocked to hear that Berklee still has a Professional Music major. During my time there, I had been a Pro Music major for my first semester, but came to the conclusion that it was too vague of a pursuit. It didn't have any specific focus or discipline. So, I transferred to the MP&E major (Music Production & Engineering), but after that semester, I realized that my strongest grades and natural talents were in all of my arranging classes, so that's where I decided to transfer to, and it stuck! However, since I graduated, 95% of all my work has been as a gigging musician, not as an arranger.

God Aimee, glad you got to go see them, he did his concert in his socks? That is way cool!

Very cool video!!! Thx for sharing :)

Great video.....thanks, Aimee!

Good Morning Aimee.

Nooooo! I was sitting like a few feet from you and i didn't even know u were at the concert! i would have said a quick hello! sad :(

The alumni network is amazing, but the overall cost that will lead to astounding amount of debt. There is little in the way of financial support. My concern with schools like this is are they taking advantage of the federal and private funding systems? How many of their students never can get rid of federal loans and have to go bankrupt after paying for their degree? The school keeps the money, they don't have to give it back.

I was at that show! Truly amazing

It's crazy! I'm seventy one and want to go to music school!

Very cool

I was at the Jacob Collier concert!!!

Seen him in New York...magical! But great video lady Amie :)

Berklee changed my life. It was expensive, but if you can afford it you should go.

I'm a little older so I wouldn't try to go to the physical campus, but I'm very interested in Berklee Online.

1:57 wait... was that the NYC Concert? that's irving plaza... I was there!!

Aimee... How come you go to Berklee and do not ask me to join you?..I am devastated... . I hope something like this does not happen again.

Was a student there in.....'79..... Didn't last too long...........Now , I wish I had! .

The online program is worth it

Sebastian Fuentes??? 😮😮😮

Justin is a cool guy

I was there two weeks ago to visit a friend who's studying there and it was suuuper interesting and very cool. The whole atmosphere is very conducive to making music and living in that world. I must say, though, when it came to knowledge of theory and general music culture, I was pretty much on par with the average student and more advanced than many of them, and I'm a graduate from KZfaq U. 🤣

Grant!!!

you should go and run Berklee Dean Nolte sounds good.

Nice video / nice shirt

Madame Nolte, I believe you make the best youtube videos on (jazz & piano) music out there... About 45k $ Berklee; You smelled the weed but I slightly smelled the ivy Boston snobbery ;-) probably they deserve though, thanksfully I'm not a musician, I don't have to attent Berklee for a living. I can play my instrument (to myself alone) and by getting the necessary advice from your videos. I once had (in 1992) a private tutor though, and I think nothing can replace the efficiency of a face to face education...

You are so curious. You must have been offerred a position at Berkley.

What about the rating system? I heart you get categorized there in levels and also sometimes discriminated .

be ready to work - save the party for home

microtonal solfege? sounds crazy!

Hey thats me! The biggest fan :D

it's a bit frustrating 20 years younger people than me study music the way it should be done.. well I saved 45 grand per year :P

Blue haired kid lost my sheet music for project bands, then blamed it on me hahaha

LIA ROMANO

My question is what’s life like after Berklee was ur plan to be a star a producer or whatever is it happening how’s the results

Young people playing music (and Wiffle Ball) makes me very happy.

you are beautiful❤️❤️

Sounds like Justin is pronouncing the whole word. French word, so French on the whole thing instead of a stitched-together Frankenstein two syllables French and one 'Murican "-ble". -js.

Extremely envious as a music student lol, but also that tuition tho m not good enough to get those scholarships

Hey Aimee, you need to check out the video named "On Green Dolphin Street - JOTW", it's a 3D animation and people in the comment section said the woman in the video is you. I though the same when she threw the solo (your solo skills are better than hers imo haha)

I got accepted to be a voice major in the fall of 2019, sadly it's just too expensive for my family :(

Don’t pursue high cost music or arts degrees anymore. I graduated in 1991 and all studio and live playing jobs I had since then could be equally had with a degree from any university. Berklee can no longer claim they hold unique schooling. Its all over the internet now.

Dream place So distant :/