NEW DIPLOMA PROGRAM MODULES ANNOUNCED BY US SCHOOL OF COMMERCIAL MUSIC

The new modular structure makes possible comprehensive customizable program choices.

NEWARK, Delaware, November 2, 2007 - USSCM announced today several new Diploma Program Modules. According to the USSCM catalog, the descriptions of the modules are:

"Performance & Improvisation (P&I) Module
4 microsemesters: In the USSCM Performance & Improvisation Program, you will acquire a firm foundation in such essential areas of music as:

* Eartraining, the skill to know and musically name what it is you are hearing.
* Harmony, the skill to recognize the harmonic sequences and practices associated with historical musical styles.
* Notation, the art of clearly writing music which will be played by yourself and others.
* Arranging, the art and skill of creating modern charts for performance by small groups or as overdubs.
* Instrumental Technique, the art of rapidly acquiring skill on your primary and secondary instruments.
* Improvisation, the art of real-time composition on your primary and secondary instruments.
* Ensemble Training, the essential experience of playing with other great professional musicians through the exclusive USSCM Faculty Minus One(tm) process.
* Repertory, the experience of exposure to and immersion in a wide variety of commercial musical styles. (design your program now)

"Continue your program by choosing up to six other professional areas:
The core categories of study in each of the subsequent modules remain the same (Eartraining, Harmony, etc.), but with increasing sophistication; to these are added the relevant module materials for a well-rounded program.

Schillinger System of Musical Composition ("Schillinger") Module
4 microsemesters: The world-famous Schillinger System is the advanced tool for music analysis and generation that has been used very successfully by such songwriters as George Gershwin, such improvisors as Howard Roberts and a great many Hollywood film composers; for example, it was the Schillinger System that Gershwin used to compose "I Got Rhythm," and which HR used to develop the vocabulary of his well-known solo style.

USSCM has modernized the Schillinger System for today's composers and improvisors who wish to have a special professional edge in their understanding of melodic and rhythmic development (which is perhaps the most important shaping force in music). In the Schillinger Program, USSCM brings the Schillinger System up to date; within the SSMC Module, students also cover and compare such esoteric systems as JS Bach's System of Chordscales, the George Russell Lydian Chromatic Concept, Bill Leavitt's Melodic Chordscale System, Charlie Parker's System of Jazz Improvisation, and several other useful approaches. To elect Schillinger, you should have a working fluency with the subjects covered in Melody/Songwriting/Linear Counterpoint and be prepared to rapidly realize your work and record it as MP3 audio files.

Concentrations which require Arranging / Orchestration or Media Scoring also require Schillinger. It should be noted that SSMC is a helpful tool; not a major concentration.

Because every professional musician is a small business, the Schillinger Module now includes music business courses such as economics, financial management and investments, as they apply to the music business. The Schillinger Module is the most appropriate one to incorporate business studies, because its study stimulates the mathematical functions of the brain.

Advanced Improvisation (AI) Module
4 microsemesters: In Performance & Improvisation, we have laid the technical and stylistic groundwork which includes Standards, Duke/Miles, Classics/Ballads, Latin/Bossa. Advanced Improvisation continues, with the development of skills for further important styles: Blues, Bebop, Fusion, Modern Jazz, etc. Stylistic repertoire is continued appropriately in all the other modules. While building repertoire, we continue the subject structure outlined in Performance & Improvisation above, but the content becomes increasingly advanced, covering all sorts of improvisational approaches and theories applicable to modern commercial music.

Melody, Songwriting & Linear Counterpoint (MSLC) Module
4 microsemesters: To elect MSLC, you should have a working fluency with Commercial Music Eartraining, Harmony, Notation, MP3 Recording Techniques, a substantial Performance Repertory of important Commercial Music styles, experience with Performance & Improvisation in Ensemble settings and familiarity with the fundamentals of Arranging, all of which are features of the USSCM P&I Module.

* as you build upon your P&I foundation, in the MSLC Module you will acquire powerful techniques of melodic and thematic analysis with which to explore a substantial but focused library of important music. Equipped with new analytical skills and musical conditioning, you will then turn to linguistic analysis and apply it to both rapid song composition and real-time improvisation.

Finally, as an essential component of the development of a personal style, you will explore the balance between the vertical and linear aspects of music through the creation of a wide range of projects from modern 'chorales' to contemporary 'fugues'. In the MSLC Module, not only songwriters and composers, but also guitarists and keyboardists will benefit from a full elaboration of these techniques on their primary and secondary instruments.

Business courses included in the SongWriting Module include Selling and Sales, which are essential professional tunesmith activities.

Arranging / Orchestration (A/O) Module (prerequisite: Schillinger System Module)
4 microsemesters: Students who elect A/O should have a working fluency with the concepts of the MSLC and SSMC Modules. In the USSCM A/O Program, you will acquire dexterity in your creative use of the mechanics of ensemble expression within various musical settings and production situations.

* You will acquire the techniques of Jazz Composition, Arranging for Large Ensembles, Writing for Strings and Principles of Orchestration. Projects include writing and realizing scores of various size ensembles and studio orchestras.

Media Scoring (MS) Module (prerequisites: Schillinger System (S) and Arranging/Orchestration (Ork))
4 microsemesters: USSCM students who elect Media Scoring will have achieved, as a prerequisite, the subjects covered in P&I, MSLC, SSMC, A/0 and, as an important byproduct of their studies, a practical understanding of the recording and overdubbing process. In the MS Program, you will take your skills to the next level as you learn how to synchronize musical recordings to visual media such as film, video, etc. You will accomplish projects in several important Commercial Music forms and styles, including Jingles (the art of musical merchandising), Commercials (the art of audiovisual persuasion), Trailers (coming attractions) and Filmscores (the art of enhancing the audience's emotional experience of a movie).

By artfully blending the skills of the arranger, composer, performer and engineer, today's film, video and CD-ROM composers are specialists who command good salaries and have interesting work in the fastest growing area of the music business. Multimedia composers are found everywhere the visual and aural arts meet.

Music Production & Engineering (MPE) Module
4 microsemesters: For maximum flexibility, the MP&E module may be added to any USSCM program, or taken right after P&I.

USSCM's philosophy is to train musicians first and engineers second, because engineers who are musicians understand the needs of clients and the intricacies of the medium much better than those who don't play. Secondly, USSCM aims for its students to understand the underlying principles of the sciences of vibration, acoustics and electronics so that they can make informed purchase decisions and acquire the skills to use music technology despite changes in the technological terrain which always progress with time. Thirdly, Production & Engineering students are given business studies unique to the recording/distribution business which are not covered as business studies in the Schillinger program.

About the US School of Commercial Music
First founded in 1915, US School of Commercial Music continues a rich tradition as the oldest, most trusted name in distance music learning. Beginning in 1995, USSCM was the first institution to offer a college-level commercial music Diploma Program via online technology. Today, USSCM offers Diploma Programs in every major category of commercial music, as well as unique proprietary Certificate Courses with content unobtainable elsewhere. Recognizing that each music student has unique needs, USSCM's Matriculate™ online technology gives students the unparalleled flexibility to design the exact program they need by sequencing seven basic areas called "Modules": Performance & Improvisation, Schillinger System/LineWriting/Music Business, Advanced Improvisation, Melody/SongWriting & Linear Counterpoint, Arranging & Orchestration, Media Composition & Scoring and Music Production & Engineering. Each Module consists of 4 microsemesters of concentrated studies.

At the start of each microsemester, US School of Commercial Music students receive a large package of customized materials covering all their study subjects. Projects are recorded and returned to the college via the internet for rapid feedback. According to Professor Amaral of USSCM, "Choice and flexibility are great reasons to choose USSCM for your commercial music education." He continued, "USSCM has an approach unlike any other:
• It mixes proprietary materials with the best of published materials, which are evaluated and upgraded twice yearly.
• There are no distracting non-music 'academic' subjects, such as English or History.
• There is no internal competition for resources between a 'bricks and mortar operation' versus 'online'
• USSCM has only one agenda: a student's rapid progress on a "microsemester" pace, rather than keeping him or her in a too-lengthy "semester" program.
• Students work in all four rhythm section instrumental areas each microsemester.
• Students record homework in each subject.
• Feedback about homework is greatly facilitated by online communication and often seems immediate.
• USSCM tuition is realistic, with generous scholarships and discounts.
• USSCM programs offer students a level of choice and customization very difficult to achieve and manage with a 'classroom' model of course delivery."

US School of Commercial Music is the most economical way to acquire the knowledge and skills a commercial musician needs to compete and 'collect a paycheck' in today's noisy musical environment. USSCM students save considerable money by studying at home, anywhere in the world, and they may actually get a better education than at typical 'bricks and mortar' schools. While there is no substitute for working with fellow students shoulder to shoulder, student peers are seldom professionals. In comparison with many other schools and other approaches to commercial music study, USSCM exposes each student to a higher quality of music information, better accompaniments and professional presentations, because it upgrades materials on a semi-annual basis, with the primary requirement that it be the best information and most effective presentation available. By rising above the typical noise in music education, USSCM saves its students time, money and energy.

At www.usschoolofmusic.com, prospective students may read about course offerings, initiate inquiries, design their program, determine tuition costs, scholarship elgibility, financing options and aid, fill out and submit their application, print their learning agreement for faxing, and much more. Also from the college homepage, students, alumni and industry professionals may access several useful resources: Music Industry News, USSCM News, MI Jobs, USSCM Forum and USSCM Internet Radio.

For more information, please contact
US School of Commercial Music
www.usschoolofmusic.com
info@usschoolofmusic.com
617-666-4839