5115 research outputs found
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Nick De Bellis
No full textA five-track EP serves as the basis of his Culminating Experience. Through extensive coursework in the music business, recording engineering, mixing, and songwriting, Nicholas was able to craft a body of work that successfully represented a unique and cohesive sound that takes a framework of alternative rock and fuses it with lush harmonies, expansive string and synth instrumentation, and a dynamic vocal performance to make a sound all his own. He was able to navigate through several expected and unexpected challenges in the program like moving to a new city and adapting to the rigorous cadence of the coursework. He plans to release three singles over the course of the next 4 months following his graduation, leading up to the release of his full EP in early December. Moving forward, Nicholas feels ready to embark on a career in music as a songwriter and producer, both for his own artist project and for collaborations with others.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-cmat/1123/thumbnail.jp
The Good Stuff
No full textThere’s a certain joy that comes from not overthinking, a groove found in simplicity, a spark in ease. The Good Stuff lives in that space. Three simple words that could mean many things. In this case, they carry the story, feelings and passion of a group of friends living in New York. Emerging from a year of artistic growth, this six-track EP reflects Jeremy Gay’s development as a producer and collaborator, shaped by the energy and creative freedom of his time in the city. Its tone is laid-back but intentional, rooted in hip-hop’s tradition and shaped by a blend of live textures and digital production. Created in close collaboration with Felix Gomez (lyricist, vocalist, and bassist) and Matteo Scheidegger (guitarist), The Good Stuff captures a specific moment, one marked by trust, experimentation, and the joy of making music together without forcing it. It’s a snapshot of a process more than a product: playful, honest, and full of movement.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-cmat/1132/thumbnail.jp
From silence to voice, From fragmentation to self-invention My Personal journey through a creative process of self consciousness and identity
No full textThis Culminating Experience (CE) project explores the intersection of songwriting, identity, and self-compassion from the perspective of an Asian woman artist. Inspired by my personal journey and observations of gendered representation in media, the project responds to the subtle yet pervasive psychological effects of societal conditioning—especially on women’s self-worth, emotional expression, and inner life. Rather than focusing on romantic narratives often portrayed in dominant media, this work centers the relationship with the self, using songwriting as a method of healing, empowerment, and reclamation. Through a series of original compositions—Wondering, Sound of Your Aliveness, Voices I Made Of, and Eye of the Dark—I explore themes of emotional vulnerability, fragmentation, and growth. These pieces incorporate jazz harmony, pop song forms, and BGJI concepts such as tetrachords, windows, zero gravity, and the three-tonic system. Each song is both a personal reflection and a compositional experiment: challenging conventional forms, integrating spoken word, and traversing emotional landscapes of grief, detachment, and self-invention. Accompanied by drawings and lyrical narratives, this project becomes an artistic map of transformation—tracing a path from silence to voice, from emotional disorientation to clarity. While this journey is still ongoing, it reflects an urgent need to question internalized models of love, identity, and womanhood, and to imagine new ways of being rooted in emotional truth and creative freedom.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-jazz/1195/thumbnail.jp
NoteletMusic: A MIDI processing application for integrating common music writing practices into the Digital Orchestration workflow.
No full textDigital Orchestration (DO) has become a common practice to create music for film and television. Thanks to technological advances, DO has provided composers with cost- efficient, accessible, and flexible tools, allowing them to create high-quality scores entirely from their computers. Despite the positive aspects, these kind of procedures in composition introduce new challenges in resources, workflow and digital tasks, one of which is specifically the MIDI sequencing process. Primarily computer-directed, this ‘inserting notes’ process is not well-aligned with composers’ workflow in sheet music writing: it does not take advantage of common music writing techniques for melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic material, making it a time-consuming task not related to the music creation process itself. This project aims to bridge the gap between MIDI sequencing process and composers’ approach to music writing by creating NoteletHarmony, a standalone application for MIDI processing that incorporates these common writing techniques, specifically harmonization techniques, directly into the DO workflow. The application works for any of the DAWs with MIDI routing capabilities used by professionals in film and television scoring, and has proven to be useful for MIDI mock- up processes by optimizing MIDI sequencing task times, and as a tool for computer-assisted composition by facilitating experimentation with music writing techniques.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1407/thumbnail.jp
When I Can’t Sleep: A (Granular Infused) Singer-Songwriter EP
No full textThe When I Can’t Sleep EP sought to bridge the gap between the traditional aspects of singer-songwriter genre style and the production techniques of the present. Through a collection of five songs – four originals and one cover – it was the authors intent to transmit the emotions of a personal journey honestly, transparently, and without ego. Several of the chosen pieces were a decade old and haled from the beginning of the author’s journey as a singer and songwriter. At the time they were written, he found it impossible to record them without giving in to a desire to drown out their vulnerability in loud drums and distortion. One main goal of the project was to revisit these tracks and produce them as they were always meant to be recorded. The challenge would be to balance their compositional traditionalism with just the right subtle touches of modern production, helping to give them context in the current musical moment. The strategy was to combine totally acoustic recordings with just the right infusion of granular scrapes and effects. The goal was an EP that sounded like the past and the future all at once.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1420/thumbnail.jp
Adversitown
No full textIn the current music landscape, the vast array of music readily available on digital platforms often results in passive consumption, making it difficult for artists to engage with their audiences online. The author addressed this challenge by developing a 3D immersive website to accompany a five-track R&B EP, both centered around the theme of adversity. The EP presented adversity from a personal perspective, offering unique insights drawn from the author’s own experiences as well as broader societal issues. The 3D website served as an interactive platform that allowed the audience to engage with the EP’s tracks through dynamic visual elements in a virtual environment, thereby enhancing the emotional connection to the music. Additionally, the incorporation of Spatial Audio made the experience more immersive and further strengthened the audience’s engagement. This innovative approach not only helped the author build meaningful connections with the audience but also contributed to establishing a distinctive artistic identity.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1430/thumbnail.jp
CUANDO LAS SOMBRAS SE ALARGAN: a live performance of an LP
No full textThis work will feature songs from the album, as well as other previous ones that will have to be remade to fit the artist\u27s new sound. The show is entirely in a digital format, since the artist has always worked in the analog domain in her shows. This show will last approximately 50 minutes and will be presented with introductions, interludes and outros that will take us through each mood of the album. Influenced by the work of Frank Ocean, Rosalia or FKA Twigs, this live performance aims to be an experimental and innovative approach to pop electronic live performances. In addition, it will be presented accompanied by visuals, lights and dance that will be synchronized with the musical session in order to provide the spectator an experience more of a show than a concert. It is predominantly a work of musical production, but other important aspects to take into account will be the staging and the overall aesthetics of the project.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1429/thumbnail.jp
Auditory cognition lab: a music therapy and speech-language pathology co-treatment for military-connected populations with auditory and cognitive impairment
Get PDFMilitary personnel are particularly at risk for auditory processing difficulties as their training, occupational, and combat experiences increase the likelihood of long-term damage to the auditory system as well as negatively impact physical, psychological, cognitive, and sensory functioning. This article introduces a music therapy and speech-language pathology co-treatment program, Auditory Cognition Lab (ACL), that treats auditory and cognitive deficits in military-connected populations (service members, veterans) with traumatic brain injury (TBI). ACL addresses auditory discrimination, temporal and binaural processing, and trains compensatory strategies related to auditory processing, cognition, and hearing function. ACL has been clinically implemented at multiple military treatment facilities across the United States. Preliminary outcomes have demonstrated improvement in processing speed, auditory perception, active listening, expressive and receptive language, memory encoding and retrieval, attention at varying levels (sustained, divided, alternating), and self-efficacy. Further research is warranted to learn more about the benefit of this innovative co-treatment program for military-connected individuals with auditory processing deficits and TBI. This paper provides a theoretical framework, comprehensive description and critical reflection of this intervention, and outlines a research strategy for a current feasibility and acceptability study
Episode 91: Coffee Talk: Phil Lima
No full textAsst. Chair of the Voice Department of Berklee, Phil Lima, joins Dr. Kim Perlak and Professor Sheryl Bailey on this Episode
Fostering the Creativity of Neurodivergent Individuals
No full textIt is a long-held misconception that neurodivergent people are not creative. Those who teach and work with this population have witnessed and nurtured their creativity. The Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education provides arts education programs for disabled people of all ages in which arts educators foster their neurodivergent students’ creativity through creative approaches to teaching. For example, they might empower their students to determine curriculum and activities, place students at the center and follow their lead, or engage in imaginative play. Through classroom vignettes and the words of teachers, this chapter illuminates these and other ways that creative teaching fosters the creativity of neurodivergent individuals, providing a powerful counternarrative to the misconception that neurodivergent individuals are not creative