Become a Better Composer with Berklee
Discover the opportunities available in writing, creating, and placing music in visual media, including film, television, and video games.
Watch Overview
Next term starts January 11
Courses 12 Weeks in Length
Certificates Multi-Course Programs
Degrees Bachelor's & Master's
Experience Berklee Online
Sample lessons, get handbooks and our course catalog, speak with advisors, and more.
Courses are best for students who are looking to meet a specific need, or simply want to get started with Berklee Online. No application necessary.
Undergraduate-Level Courses No application required.
Introduction to Digital Cinematography
Learn effective techniques for producing any kind of video, including a music video or short film.
Music Theory and Composition 1
Gain a solid understanding of music fundamentals while building your own musical language. In this course you'll take a detailed look at the major and minor keys, and be given tools to help you comprehend scales and chords. This course includes a blend of both traditional and contemporary harmony.
Build upon the essential elements of music theory and composition you learned in Music Theory and Composition 1 and further your own musical language. In this course, you will expand your knowledge of major and minor key harmony and melody, in addition to scales, chords, and drum grooves.
The Language of Film and TV
Gain a thorough understanding of film and television, and learn to communicate effectively with directors, producers, and others involved in the production of these media.
Contemporary Techniques in Music Composition 1
Learn how to construct your own melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic language through the study of modern twentieth century compositional techniques. In this music composition course you'll develop your unique, compositional voice to write music for visual media, concerts, recitals, or personal enjoyment.
Film Scoring 101
Create original music to accompany a visual medium by learning fundamental to more advanced film scoring techniques.
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Game Design Principles
This course provides an overview of video game design, exploring the iterative process of coming up with ideas, prototyping, testing, and revising that is at the heart of the video game industry. You will analyze games and examine the principles of game design from a visual studies perspective.
Introduction to Game Audio
Gain a solid foundation of sound production and engineering skills that will prepare you to work at a game development company or as a freelance game audio professional.
This core course is the third of a four-semester curriculum that continues to lay the foundation for your musical development. The materials covered in this course will help you to express your musical ear and thoughts as applied to composition for film, TV, and video games.
Building on the foundation of the previous three levels, Music Theory and Composition 4 will introduce compositional techniques first pioneered by twentieth century European and American composers and will examine them in both classical and jazz/popular music contexts. This advanced music theory course will also help you express your musical ideas as applied to composition for film, TV, and video games.
Music Video Editing with Final Cut Pro
Learn all the steps and tools necessary to create a high-quality audiovisual experience, including how to assemble, enhance, and maximize the use of video, audio, and graphic content.
Audio Post Production for Film and TV
Become a more marketable and in-demand producer by mastering the tools and techniques necessary to complete a full audio post production project, including sound design, foley, dialogue, and music for a short film.
Gain a solid knowledge of modern instrumental writing and competence using twentieth century techniques in composition. In addition, you will gain enhanced listening skills to identify and appreciate new musical styles, and be capable of implementing these skills in your writing, enriching your capacity to express yourself in this intellectually stimulating musical idiom.
This course is designed for the musician who wants to compose music, unique sound, and creature voices for video games. Focusing on both the creative process of designing unique audio and the practical challenges of putting that content into a game, Game Audio Production with Wwise prepares students for all major aspects of game audio production and implementation.
Songwriting for Film and TV
Explore the techniques of writing music that will appeal specifically to music supervisors, editors, directors, and producers across any number of different genres.
Writing and Producing Advertising Music
Gain a practical working knowledge of how to compose, produce, market and monetize commercial music in three important categories: jingles, library music, and television theme music and scoring.
Interactive Scoring for Games
Whether you're working on a small iPhone or Facebook game, or a large PlayStation or Xbox title, this course will teach you the fundamental music approaches and skills that professional composers use to create interactive scores for games.
Music Composition for Film and TV 1
In this music composition course, you'll learn to write music in the style of big budget Hollywood films and TV programs. Analyze melody, harmony, counterpoint, tempo, rhythm, and orchestration in a variety of genres to gain a complete recipe book for writing for film and TV.
Gain a thorough understanding of the compositional styles used in Hollywood projects. In this music composition course, you'll learn to analyze specific genres of film and television music in terms of melody, harmony, counterpoint, tempo, rhythm, and orchestration, forming a template that you can then apply to your own writing.
Learn how to make money through creative licensing of your music! In this course, you'll discover how to create new avenues for placement of your own music, identify current opportunities for your copyrights, and how to use online resources to introduce your music to music supervisors, ad creatives, video game producers, and more.
Music Supervision 1
Music supervision stands at the center of two very powerful groups in the music industry: the creators of the music and the film and TV productions that rely on music to help tell and sell their story to the public. This course explores the ins and outs of music supervision, so that you will be able to function effectively on either side of a licensing transaction.
Graduate-Level Courses New! Bachelor's degree required.
Architectural, Acoustic, and Audio System Design for the Modern Music Production Studio
This course will prepare you to understand, design, and implement a professional music production environment for the projects you embark on. You will complete a production studio design as a final project, which will include essential acoustic and architectural design criteria.
Level 5 (Proof of a Bachelor's Degree Required)
Compositional Voice Development in Film Scoring
Compositional Voice Development in Film Scoring provides the student with methods and exercises for expanding their compositional voice.
Film Score Analysis
Film Score Analysis examines music's role in film storytelling, explores how film composers establish and use an effective musical vocabulary, and expands your overall knowledge of film, teaching you to see films through the lens of a filmmaker.
Mixing the Film Score
Mixing the Film Score explores the tools, techniques, workflows, and creative considerations specific to the creation of music for film and television.
Orchestral Mockups in Film Scoring
This course emphasizes the creation of realistic-sounding orchestral sequences, using current, professional-level orchestral sample libraries and DAWs. Students will learn how to emulate live orchestral performances and recordings in the most musical and expressive way, using industry-standard tools and techniques utilized by composers across the film, TV, and video game scoring industries.
Stylistic Adaptations in Film Scoring
Whether the location of a film is a certain country, or the characters are from a particular part of the world, a director may want to reflect the culture being shown to varying degrees. This course will present a framework by which you will learn how to research and make appropriate choices for films that require music of a different culture.
Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film Scoring: Electronic and Textural Resources
This course focuses on using sound as texture within the film score, working with raw and electronic sound material to create innovative and cutting-edge soundscapes. Following an overview of music synthesis concepts, you will use software synthesizers and samplers to develop your own unique sounds and create dramatic musical soundscapes.
Certificate programs are 3-18 months in duration and are designed for students who want to gain a deeper proficiency in a chosen area. No application necessary.
Graduate Certificates New! 3 Courses, Bachelor's degree required.
Compositional Approaches to Film Scoring
Learn to balance original artistic expression with filmmakers' visions. You'll analyze, compose, and stylistically adapt scores for film, and study dimensions of music that you can employ to support a film, whether it's the narrative structure, setting, or the lives of the characters on the screen.
Film Scoring Technology
Go beyond the compositional aspects of film scoring and explore essential skills like developing orchestral mockups, mixing, and working with samples and synthesis. You will learn the industry-standard programs and technologies that will help you deliver the best results to filmmakers.
Advanced Professional Certificates 8-12 Courses
Orchestration for Film and TV
Drawing on the most up-to-date tools and information, this extensive certificate program will help equip you to become a more marketable composer and/or songwriter by offering in-depth instruction in orchestration while also delving into the placement techniques that will help your music find a home--and a paycheck--via TV, movies, video games, and other media.
This customizable program offering provides you with the flexibility to earn an Advanced Professional Certificate in General Music Studies by choosing eight courses from any interest area.
Professional Certificates 3-5 Courses
Composing and Orchestrating for Film and TV
You'll study the classics as well as cutting edge contemporary films, and learn to compose and orchestrate the types of scores that will both complement the visuals and elicit strong emotions from viewers.
Game Audio Design and Production
By the program's end, you will have developed a solid foundation of sound production and engineering skills that will prepare you to work at a game development company or as a freelance game audio professional.
Berklee Online's Professional Certificate in Music Supervision gives you the skills you need to excel in the field—how to work with songwriters, producers, artists, publishers, directors, and performance rights organizations; how to know whether a given piece of music would fit a mood or scene; and how to navigate the statutes that govern who gets paid for what when a piece of music is licensed for use in film or TV.
With the Professional Certificate in General Music Studies you'll have the flexibility to shape four courses from any interest area into a personalized certificate program.
Music Degree Programs
Degree programs are the most affordable and flexible option for earning your music degree from Berklee College of Music. They are the best option for students who want a music education degree and the full Berklee experience.
Master's Degree (36 Credits)
Designed to be completed in one year, the program features live scoring sessions in two of the courses, in which you will have your compositions performed and recorded remotely by a professional orchestra.
Bachelor's Degrees (Up to 120 Credits)
"Build your own" music major by selecting coursework from a number of disciplines that align with your personal career goals.
With the courses offered in this music composition degree, you'll gain the practical skills to compose, arrange, and orchestrate effective dramatic music for visual media, including film, television, and interactive media.
This major is geared specifically for new and entering students who are not yet ready to declare their major.
45 of 120 Credits