Radically different music courses contain 'holy grail' information and training tools unobtainable outside of entertainment capitals such as Hollywood or New York.NEWARK, Delaware, November 3, 2007 - US School of Commercial Music today announced new Certificate Courses which can save students years of private study. They may be taken individually or as part of a USSCM Diploma Program. Each course is complete in itself and covers hard to find information which functions as a through grounding in its subject, without unnecessary 'busy work'. Students, in confidence of not wasting their resources, need only add their creative energy, will, determination, strong wishes and goals!
Because not everyone has the need or the time for a full college program, US School of Commercial Music staff has designed several "Certificate" courses which concentrate deeply on important essential subjects for *all* Commercial musicians, without requiring pre-requisites to study. These courses also function as electives for Diploma students (who choose at least two). For more information, please go to www.usschoolofmusic.com.
MUSIC UNIVERSALSPerfect Pitch Conditioning
Relative Pitch Eartraining (for non-Diploma students only)
Personality Resonance Practicum for Performers, Songwriters & Composers
TRAININGSPhysical Conditioning for Musicians
Emotional Development for Musicians
Vibrational Sensitizing for Musicians
Intellectual Training for Musicians
Spiritual Evolution for Musicians
WORKSHOPSSuperChops for Guitarists
SuperChops for Soloists
Chordology for Guitarists
Chordology for Keyboardists
INTENSIVESPerformance Boot Camp
('get up to speed' for USSCM Diploma Programs;
open to entering Diploma students who are good music sight readers)
Descriptions of the Certificate Courses:
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UNIVERSALS:
PERFECT PITCH 10 Weeks
While some highly-advertised courses are 'snake oil', it is possible for most of us to overcome years of Relative Pitch conditioning and experience increasing levels of absolute pitch sensitivity. USSCM has assembled and organized all the relevent research, surveyed all the historical and currently available methods, evaluated and put it all into a 'no-punches-pulled' perspective. This information has been judiciously combined with the most efficient methods and USSCM's proprietary approach for acquiring Absolute Pitch, organized as a serious regimen. For best results, you must be prepared to work hard! You may not take this course at the same time as Relative Pitch Universals! Students who complete both Relative Pitch and Perfect Pitch will receive bonus instructions on how to sustain both skills. This is an evolving course, with new information and techniques added each year. You may take it again for half the tuition cost.
RELATIVE PITCH 10 Weeks
Most of us experience Relative Pitch, but our sensitivity is often not high enough to be truly useful. Starting from the beginning and progressing rapidly, USSCM has assembled all the tradtional approaches, organized and modified them, then combined them with USSCM's proprietary approach into the most efficient professional RP training system ever devised. This is the most comprehensive approach to making our Relative Pitch skills more intense and useful and simultaneously trains many important other tonal harmonic and melodic skills. You may not take this course at the same time as Perfect Pitch Universals! This is an evolving course, with new information and techniques added each year. You may take it again for half the tuition cost. Students who complete both Relative Pitch and Perfect Pitch will receive bonus instructions on how to sustain both skills.
PERSONALITY RESONANCE PRACTICUM FOR PERFORMERS, SONGWRITERS AND COMPOSERS 10 Weeks
All musicians can benefit from the skills of reading people (consider live audiences, owners, demos, auditions, target audiences and colleagues). Personality reading and an understanding of personality interaction is another one of those special skills such as Perfect Pitch which can give a musician a distinctive competitive edge, increase his or her ability to negotiate the difficulties of relationship and enhance management skills, while interacting with them musically or in life settings. Musicians generally already have the advantage that they understand the principle of resonance, in which sound energy transfers from one system to another through an interposing medium such as wood, water, or air, but not a vacuum. Nevertheless, the principle of resonance extends to massless systems as well, such as can be seen with tuned radio or tv antennas for electromagnetic radiation, or the chakras and latifas of the human body for energies not known to western science. (Resonance also figures into the principles discussed by GI Gurdjieff, where 'foods' that enter us from outside our organism are resonant with materials already within us – enzymes, for example – after which they are digested. This is in contrast with the internal stages of digestion, which he describes as a 'blending' of non-resonant materials to get a material of an order and having a state falling between the other two.)
Students will learn to identify the typical personality resonances and make efforts to objectively sense the nature of their relationships with people having other personality types as their centers of gravity. Various exercises will be introduced to assist the student to experience unfamiliar types in their healthy upside, which is invaluable. Adventurous students, primarily songwriters and composers, may also briefly explore the unhealthy downsides of these personalities for the purpose of depiction in their art. Emphasis will also be placed on techniques for avoiding the downsides of one's own personality and that of others, which is of particular usefulness to performing artists who would be masters of themselves, their instruments and their art.
Students will also learn to objectively and scientifically type personality using cutting-edge database research coupled with ancient Eastern systems and to apply it to musical instrument preferences, musical aptitudes and preferential styles. Students will further learn to access these aspects of themselves for the purpose of becoming better musicians and human beings. Interactions between personalities will be explored, within the context of musical production. This is a not-to-be-missed study for serious musicians from all ethnic backgrounds, instruments, musical styles and experiences that has life changing and career enhancing implications.
TRAININGS:
PHYSICAL CONDITIONING FOR MUSICIANS 10 Weeks
"Mens sana in corpore sano." ("A sound mind in a sound body.")
Music making, like other arts, is a highly distilled composite expression of our three functional brains (physical, emotional, intellectual*); the result of many successively finer processes within each of the brains and their associated 'bodies'. For these processes to all function well, there must be available to us a tremendous amount of biological energy, which is sourced by the physical body.
Physical conditioning is concerned with having a strong generator of this energy and a solid platform for support of the higher functions of each functional brain. After an explanation of the mechanisms whereby this energy is created, we will look at a number of approaches to building, conserving and utilizing it, by no means exhaustive but nevertheless extraordinary, because no one method is sufficient for the quantity of energy and support required for mastery or artistry. Students will develop a daily regimen designed to build attention and will, and to strengthen the functioning of their physical organisms.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR MUSICIANS 10 Weeks
Expression in music, whether, of the second brain (through tone, fine motor movement of the hands, smooth movement and gesture, posture, facial expression), of the first brain (through rhythmic movement, percussion and percussive sounds), or of the third brain (in melody, tonality, interesting harmony, counterpoint, lyrics, arranging & orchestration), requires careful attention to the elements of musical styles and one's ability to resonate with them. Such resonance is complicated by struggling with our general incapacities to feel and empathize, that is, to know what and how we are feeling at all times, to know how others are feeling or emoting as often and as best we can, and to realize our relationship with others at all times. These capacities must be identified and grown for us to successfully resonate in all situations. Music, which has been characterized as "the language of emotion" is actually a language of expression for all three brains. It is first of all, pre-verbal or imitative of speech, but may also have lyrics. Finally, messages in music may be mixed, just as they are in real life. A true professional human musician will be able to sort out these messages and to understand and employ the effects of their expression.
Students will complete assignments and be given exercises for the thorough exploration of these matters for the development of emotional expression. Mixed messages, while possibly fascinating, destroy emotional coherence; students will also explore their causes and preventions.
VIBRATIONAL SENSITIZING FOR MUSICIANS 10 Weeks
Music is based on vibration but why do musicians need to study it, what is it and what is the 'vibrational world'? This is best described by example:
What's the vibe? Are you the least bit superstitious? Have you ever felt you're being watched? Did you ever feel "I have to get out of here."? Do you have any experience of luck? Have you ever felt deja vu? Have you ever met a person or seen a place that immediately seems to have extraordinary significance to your life? Do you experience the presence of supernatural entities?
In addition to the examples above, the 'vibrational world' also concerns the so-called 'higher emotions' or impulses, such as peace/tranquillity, fairness, orderliness, individuality and good judgement. Ignoring these aspects is tantamount to ignoring the 25% of your audience whose personalities call the vibrational world "home," which a professional or serious musician cannot afford to do. Attending to them, can allow you your musical expression of all styles to contain these higher elements and thus resonate with and appeal to more people outwardly and help you resonate with them internally for yourself. (It should be noted that, while important, the impulses of the vibrational world are subordinate to such functions as faith, hope and love and conscience.)
Students will strive to identify, in real-time, the emanations of the 'vibrational world', both human and musical. This effort is particularly useful for students who wish to develop a spiritual side to their music and/or identify aspects of music which may be beyond the ordinary manifestations of human life, that is, extraordinary. About this, see "Spiritual Evolution."
INTELLECTUAL TRAINING FOR MUSICIANS 10 Weeks
While in the physical and emotional aspects of music making, will and attention are very important, the intellectual aspect cannot be expressed at all without them. Melody, tonality, interesting harmony, counterpoint, lyrics, arranging & orchestration are fundamentally dependent on the third brain's ability to abstract and symbolize through the focusing of attention, directed by will. In fact, an excess of attention is necessary, if one is to attend at once to the expressions of each brain, but nowhere is it so obvious as in fugue, in which multiple melodies weave through each other.
Students work with various attention-building and focusing exercises, then apply them to music, in order to begin to identify the taste of the workings of will and attention in the intellectual aspects of music. The capacities of attention are explored and exercised with respect to music making.
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION FOR MUSICIANS 10 Weeks
There is music which belongs to none of the ordinary worlds: physical, vibrational, emotional, intellectual.
Careful reading of the previous descriptions may lead the serious student to an inkling of why it is necessary to prepare by studying the above subjects as a foundation, for exploring the esoteric spiritual possibilities which certain music may embody and provide. For example, while some impressions contained in music may be food for ordinary development, some may be food for extraordinary assimilation. While some individuals may be sufficiently advanced to realize extraordinary expression directly, we usually need some help.
Musicians instinctively realize that music can be a door to many extraordinary experiences, including the normal and abnormal and beyond them.
There is no overlap between the Workshops. Precocious students who elect multiple courses really have their hands (and minds) full.
WORKSHOPS:
SUPERCHOPS FOR GUITARISTS 10 weeks
SuperChops has been greatly expanded from the core foundation originally developed by Howard Roberts, legendary guitarist and founder of the Guitar Institute of Technology (now Musician's Institute), as the basic training and learning philosophy there. Howard was known for having the strongest hands of any professional. These are the techniques that helped him maintain his position for many years as the number one studio call in Los Angeles, often working three sessions a day.
SUPERCHOPS FOR SOLOISTS 10 weeks
SuperChops/Solo is for players of all instruments who want to rapidly develop and maintain superior technical chops in the four essential areas critical to solo mastery: arpeggios, embellishment, intonation and thematic development. Many top players use this system daily to keep their edge.
CHORDOLOGY FOR GUITARISTS 10 weeks
Chordology/Gtr is the course we designed for Howard Roberts' Playback Publishing, now expanded to include advanced harmonic applications of sparse voicings and linear voiceleading which was pioneered by George Van Eps and Howard, but imitated by many pros.
CHORDOLOGY FOR KEYBOARDISTS 10 weeks
Chordology/Kbd is for all instrumentalists who want to have a large harmonic palette at their disposal.
INTENSIVES
PERFORMANCE BOOTCAMP 5 weeks
Designed for high-school level musicians who need get up to speed for USSCM Diploma programs.
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 personal "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
Labels: commercial music, diploma, distance music, jazz, online learning
