I'm torn about this course. The instructor's approach and enthusiasm are great, and the content seems fine. But with no direct access to the instructor, interactions come from discussion forums and peer reviewed assignments. The discussion forums were lifeless with virtually no staff participation. Throughout the 4-week course, there was one discussion thread with staff participation. Legitimate questions from students about content errors or technical problems went unacknowledged. Peer review is an understandable part of this course, but it has limited utility as the only feedback mechanism in a course populated by beginners.

This course is still quite new. I believe it can and will be much better if the pool of students grows and there is more staff participation. It's still a worthwhile course as is, but a tougher sell than earlier courses in this sequence.

First of all , I love this course, I love George, I love Berklee Online, I love Berklee:)

I come from China and I'd never studied online instead going to school. But this course has given me a lot of thoughts.

Prof. George is very kind and patient when teaching us, explaining those significant words and phrases over and over again. He always plays a lot of pieces allowing me to enjoy learning music. What's more, Berklee Online combines vision and hearing together, such as learning voicing leadings with notes moving on the screen, showing chords notations when George playing the piano... especially, I really appreciate the new way of participating homework. I can not only submit my homework, but also check others homework, which can improve my skills of writing feedbacks and, it's like doing homework over and over again, for more than one time, so that I can be a lot more familiar to those knowledge. In addition, I can discuss with fellows to solve my problems and share resources with each other.

There's only one thing:) If the professors, teachers and assistants can show up more frequently in discussions, chat groups, live chats, even our e-mails, and so on, allowing us to interact with them more, it would be better for both to help, understand and communicate with each other:)

Anyway, it was the best experience EVER learning music!

FIVE STARS!

Chenille Liu

I had a wonderful experience during this course. Lots of new knowledge acquired in chord progressions. I also now have a much better understanding of chord relations and 7ths. Thank you so much, Professor Russell, for your love of music, and for being such an effective teacher!

Beautiful. Thank you for giving out such a high end teaching method for so little. I could afford it! Peace!

I enjoyed this course, especially the Chord substitutions and Modal Interchange. The modal Interchange segment raised a number of questions for me and I was disappointed that we did not going into modes as well as look at the relative minor (Aeolian). What about Locrian, Mixolydian, Dorian etc? sus chords and dim chords were covered briefly. I'm not sure about the bVI and bVII chords. We seemed to rush through that section. I will revisit so that I'm sure what's going on. I'm still not sure that in Modal Interchange can we use any chord in the second scale or just the chord at the same position in the scale? I will find out.

Mr, Russell does it again. An amazing teacher with clear, short and very concise lessons. This man is a saint and a genius with the passion and patience of someone who leaves an impression on anyone who watches his videos. This man will change your life if you let him. He has changed mine prolifically and given me the faith and confidence to continue. The class is so easy to understand and the way he explains everything is so simple yet effective. Take this whole specialization. you will now be disappointed if music is what you really want to persue!

On top of being able to learn things I've been wishing to know for my entire life, working on these courses is a great test for how I can deal with projects beside my daily routine. I've learnt a great deal about how to set my mind for the dues and to manage and create time to work on these projects.

I have grown so much musically since taking this specialization. I look forward to taking everything I've learned here, and using it to advance my musical career. I am so excited and proud of myself!

This class was fantastic! George is an amazing instructor. For all aspiring musicians, take the four classes in Coursera/Berklee Online's Developing your Musicianship Specialization. Excellent!!

The instructor was excellent. The quizzes accurately reflected what the coursework covered. I would highly recommend this and the entire series of musicianship courses.

ESTA GENIAL!!! MUY BIEN EXPLICADO INFORMACION CLARA Y PRECISA, TRABAJO INTERACTIVO EN TODO MOMENTO, RETROALIMENTACION ENTRE COMPAÑEROS DE GRUPO, FORO DE DISCUSION DE LOS TEMAS VISTOS EN EL CURO, EN FIN MUY RECOMENDABLE PARA TODOS AQUELLOS MUSICOS QUE QUIEREN SUBIR SU NIVEL ARMONICO.

It was an enjoyable experience to take this course after completing the first two. The teaching style of Prof. George W. Russel (Jr.) is engaging and fun loving. New concepts are taught very well. It will be a great experience to complete the final course. Eagerly waiting.

This Course provides the more clear and helpful information to understand easily the music's structure. You will no waste your time and effort taking this path... I feel incredible fulfill with my musicianship; thanks specially to the greatest teacher I've ever had.

Very complete course. For the most part I learned the most popular progressions and reviewing my classmate’s compositions made me more aware of melody possibilities and how the different musical progressions transmit different feelings. Great overall experience.

Doing this course was really fun and enjoyable, and very important and useful at the same time, I would like to thank Professor George for his great work and very entertaining way of teaching, which improved the learning experience a lot.

I learnt a lot. The course is clear and easy to follow. The constant questions asked during lectures help you master key terms and definitions. The assignments push me to work at the course during the week.

I would definitely recommend it!

The videos and materials here are engaging and insightful at the same time. This helped me to write more interesting music and to appreciate the nuances of music more.

This has been a great journey in music i memorised lot of things i forgot and learned whole bunch of new things when it comes to chord progressions and piano playing techniques. lot of great stuff. i received financial aid from berklee and from coursera. without that i would not be able to access this certificate in full capacity thank you so much for your support. definitely recommend this course to any musician who like to expand their music sense. the tutor is the best. everything is perfect. thank you

Excelente, clases claras y motivadoras fue una experiencia refrescante. Recomendado para aquellos que ya traen nociones y quieren afianzar conocimientos. Igualmente es un curso para iniciación musical con todos los elementos de armonía, ritmo y entrenamiento auditivo necesarios para una introducción a la armonía tonal y primeras aproximaciones al intercambio modal.

El maestro es excelente claro y con la mejor energía para transmitir conocimientos.

Me ha encantado esta forma de aprender musica, aunque si para mi leer la música con letras sea un poco mas complicado que leer la notas musicales. Gracias All the best, George.

P.s. ¿Cuando puedo escribirme en el 4 curso final ?

While I have been a working muso for many years, I still learnt an incredible lot of new stuff which I have been able to apply and improve my playing overall. Highly recommend this course to new and advanced musicians

This course was excellent! I truly enjoyed the instructor's playing giving me an opportunity to vision the possibilities of what I can do with my own playing of the piano. Thank you very much Profession Russell.

This course contains a lot of information about harmonic tensions, chord progressions and modal interchange. The teacher has incredible teaching skills, making all tasks fun. I really liked it and recommend it!

Great combination of theory with practical knowledge. Helps the student get a sense of how chord progressions help shape different stages of a musical product. Thank you for your happy tutoring, George!

Excellent class. Once again the prof is a joy to learn from. Only real issue is with some of the typed answers during the videos get really specific in this class.