First week of classes at Berklee:
After a week of orientation and a week of classes I somewhat feel like I know what's going on here. At least as far as I NEED to know. No one can ever know everything that's going on at Berklee, it's a manic place! With at least 5 jam sessions happening on each floor at midnight and trying to eat sufficiently in the cafeteria when they dont give you trays anymore and they never fill up the beverage and sauce dispensers; there is never a dull moment at Berklee.
So I got to Boston on the 27th (little over 2 weeks ago), after being upgraded to first class on our Virgin Atlantic flight *SCORE!* and checked in at the Marriott in the Prudential Center. That is a fantastic hotel! Great rooms, restaurants and it's within a mall! One set back, though, was the 3am fire alarm and the guy from across the hall poking his head out and saying, 'They waited on 9/11.' We walked down 10 floors before we got a message over intercom allowing us to return to our rooms. Anyway, jet lag was a bit annoying for a while. This was proved by us waking up the first morning thinking we'd have a slow morning, have breakfast, shower, walk over to the bank and set up my new bank account. After we finished all of that my Mom and I thought we might look around the Berklee Bookstore, but when we tried to open the door we noticed the store only opened at 10 and the door wouldn't budge. We woke up that early... Apparently.
After that, we slowly got over the jet lag an hour at a time and we started buying things I would need in my dorm room like practice drum kit, music stand and an iPad mini... Obviously! We went to all the stores I had only really heard about from TV and movies, like a 3 floor Apple Store, Guitar Center and (my mom's personal favorite) Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Once it got to move in day I had to borrow an extra suitcase from my parents to fit all my stuff in. I was up to 4 big suitcases, 1 hand luggage suitcase and my Vic Firth backpack (as everyone should know it's huge!). Firstly I had to check in at the student's center where the queue went around the block! Oh and as we arrived there it started raining, but we found a lovely gentlemen with an umbrella just in front of us in the queue who let us share it. That process took a good 2 hours and it didn't help that I was international... But I came out with my official Berklee ID card! After that we went to the IT department to pick up my new laptop (15" MacBook Pro) and audio interface (Line 6 UX2) which went a lot faster than expected. By this point we were ready to pick up my dorm key and move in! As we started to move in my first roommate arrived, Ryan from New Jersey. We both started moving stuff in and unpacking a little bit, when he turned around and starting saying goodbyes... He had to go back home to work a couple more days and then he told me my other roommate, Sam from Maryland, wasn't arriving until later that week as well so I was in my big new room all by myself for a week. That had its perks and down falls. I could go to sleep or shower whenever I wanted to, but I didn't know who to hang out with or what to do (they're both 2nd years as well) so it was rather relaxing, but lonely... Especially on my birthday.
In the night of move-in day there was a welcome speech and concert and of course all the speakers were inspiring and the performers were beyond belief amazing! And if anyone missed my Instagram post, we were greeted in the entrance by all the Peer Advisors cheering every single person that came through the door and giving out high fives and the whole shabang. It was an amazing first day and I knew straight off the bat that I belonged here and I was going to love every second.
The next couple of days were filled with attempting to make friends and getting together any last bits for the room which I hadn't bought yet. But I have had one mate this whole time who has kept me company since day 2. Francesca Impastato from New York. She is a typical New Yorker and its hilarious. Oh that's another thing! There are students from like 95 different countries in our entering class and every international student I've met has brought a broader perspective of the world and larger sense of culture to me. For example, my Canadian friends say, 'Out and about' in their Canadian way; my friend from Texas says, 'Y'all' a lot and all the people from more exotic places, such as Hawaii, Dubai and Iran, are as exotic as they seem and it's just amazing all the stories these kids have only at the age of 18! I have a friend who doesn't have a belly button (he's hilarious); the Texan is the Presedential Scholar and is at the school 100% free and the Hawaiin boy does surf like every day. It is astounding the lives these people have and not even within music! But the music! These kids are amazing! I have a friend who has 3 albums out and recorded everything by himself (yes all instruments) using a four-track; the Presedential Scholar, as I said, and a girl who came in with ratings of 6 out 8 (which is supposed to represent what semester you fit into). They rate you on reading, performance, rhythm and improvisation and I scored 4,4,3,3 in that order so I'm pretty pleased with that. We also had some placement tests to see what level harmony, arranging, ear training, math and if you need to take music tech. I tested out of math and music tech, but I've been put in the first level for the other 3...
So onto the actual classes. I'm in ear training 1 and music application & theory (harmony and arranging) which are the basic classes and they're as basic as it says on the tin. I'm also in writing & communications (English, because I have to do liberal
arts) and it's terrible! We have to read a very disturbed book of poems and I don't know what any of it means. Lastly, I'm in Brasilian Rhythms & Percussion which is fantastic! Exactly what I want to be doing here. And we have to be in an ensemble and mine is 'mixed pop & jazz' which is also incredible! We're playing some great music and the teacher, Walter Beasley, is a very accomplished, talented and hilarious musician!
So yeah! That's most of the exciting stuff regarding orientation and my first week of classes here at Berklee. I hope you enjoyed the read and it explained everything you wanted to know. If you have any question please don't hesitate to ask and I will try to do this blogs every two-ish weeks so stay tuned for more!
Thanks for reading,
Bas J
After a week of orientation and a week of classes I somewhat feel like I know what's going on here. At least as far as I NEED to know. No one can ever know everything that's going on at Berklee, it's a manic place! With at least 5 jam sessions happening on each floor at midnight and trying to eat sufficiently in the cafeteria when they dont give you trays anymore and they never fill up the beverage and sauce dispensers; there is never a dull moment at Berklee.
So I got to Boston on the 27th (little over 2 weeks ago), after being upgraded to first class on our Virgin Atlantic flight *SCORE!* and checked in at the Marriott in the Prudential Center. That is a fantastic hotel! Great rooms, restaurants and it's within a mall! One set back, though, was the 3am fire alarm and the guy from across the hall poking his head out and saying, 'They waited on 9/11.' We walked down 10 floors before we got a message over intercom allowing us to return to our rooms. Anyway, jet lag was a bit annoying for a while. This was proved by us waking up the first morning thinking we'd have a slow morning, have breakfast, shower, walk over to the bank and set up my new bank account. After we finished all of that my Mom and I thought we might look around the Berklee Bookstore, but when we tried to open the door we noticed the store only opened at 10 and the door wouldn't budge. We woke up that early... Apparently.
After that, we slowly got over the jet lag an hour at a time and we started buying things I would need in my dorm room like practice drum kit, music stand and an iPad mini... Obviously! We went to all the stores I had only really heard about from TV and movies, like a 3 floor Apple Store, Guitar Center and (my mom's personal favorite) Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Once it got to move in day I had to borrow an extra suitcase from my parents to fit all my stuff in. I was up to 4 big suitcases, 1 hand luggage suitcase and my Vic Firth backpack (as everyone should know it's huge!). Firstly I had to check in at the student's center where the queue went around the block! Oh and as we arrived there it started raining, but we found a lovely gentlemen with an umbrella just in front of us in the queue who let us share it. That process took a good 2 hours and it didn't help that I was international... But I came out with my official Berklee ID card! After that we went to the IT department to pick up my new laptop (15" MacBook Pro) and audio interface (Line 6 UX2) which went a lot faster than expected. By this point we were ready to pick up my dorm key and move in! As we started to move in my first roommate arrived, Ryan from New Jersey. We both started moving stuff in and unpacking a little bit, when he turned around and starting saying goodbyes... He had to go back home to work a couple more days and then he told me my other roommate, Sam from Maryland, wasn't arriving until later that week as well so I was in my big new room all by myself for a week. That had its perks and down falls. I could go to sleep or shower whenever I wanted to, but I didn't know who to hang out with or what to do (they're both 2nd years as well) so it was rather relaxing, but lonely... Especially on my birthday.
In the night of move-in day there was a welcome speech and concert and of course all the speakers were inspiring and the performers were beyond belief amazing! And if anyone missed my Instagram post, we were greeted in the entrance by all the Peer Advisors cheering every single person that came through the door and giving out high fives and the whole shabang. It was an amazing first day and I knew straight off the bat that I belonged here and I was going to love every second.
The next couple of days were filled with attempting to make friends and getting together any last bits for the room which I hadn't bought yet. But I have had one mate this whole time who has kept me company since day 2. Francesca Impastato from New York. She is a typical New Yorker and its hilarious. Oh that's another thing! There are students from like 95 different countries in our entering class and every international student I've met has brought a broader perspective of the world and larger sense of culture to me. For example, my Canadian friends say, 'Out and about' in their Canadian way; my friend from Texas says, 'Y'all' a lot and all the people from more exotic places, such as Hawaii, Dubai and Iran, are as exotic as they seem and it's just amazing all the stories these kids have only at the age of 18! I have a friend who doesn't have a belly button (he's hilarious); the Texan is the Presedential Scholar and is at the school 100% free and the Hawaiin boy does surf like every day. It is astounding the lives these people have and not even within music! But the music! These kids are amazing! I have a friend who has 3 albums out and recorded everything by himself (yes all instruments) using a four-track; the Presedential Scholar, as I said, and a girl who came in with ratings of 6 out 8 (which is supposed to represent what semester you fit into). They rate you on reading, performance, rhythm and improvisation and I scored 4,4,3,3 in that order so I'm pretty pleased with that. We also had some placement tests to see what level harmony, arranging, ear training, math and if you need to take music tech. I tested out of math and music tech, but I've been put in the first level for the other 3...
So onto the actual classes. I'm in ear training 1 and music application & theory (harmony and arranging) which are the basic classes and they're as basic as it says on the tin. I'm also in writing & communications (English, because I have to do liberal
arts) and it's terrible! We have to read a very disturbed book of poems and I don't know what any of it means. Lastly, I'm in Brasilian Rhythms & Percussion which is fantastic! Exactly what I want to be doing here. And we have to be in an ensemble and mine is 'mixed pop & jazz' which is also incredible! We're playing some great music and the teacher, Walter Beasley, is a very accomplished, talented and hilarious musician!
So yeah! That's most of the exciting stuff regarding orientation and my first week of classes here at Berklee. I hope you enjoyed the read and it explained everything you wanted to know. If you have any question please don't hesitate to ask and I will try to do this blogs every two-ish weeks so stay tuned for more!
Thanks for reading,
Bas J
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