Mark Simos

"I ground my teaching in my creative experience as a musician, songwriter, and composer. By modeling reflective practice for my students as integral to my own creative work, I try to approach teaching and my continuing learning as a form of collaborative shared inquiry. When I started teaching at Berklee, one friend and colleague called me the "weird modal guy" in the Songwriting Department! I knew only a few of my students would be familiar with the traditional roots genres for which I was best known. Following in a venerable Berklee tradition, I've been able to create a new curriculum for those roots styles. More importantly, I model for my students finding your own path as a songwriter, building on their unique constellation of musical influences, unbeholden to the perceived pressures of formulaic mainstream markets. So my focus is on techniques and process skills you can apply to writing effectively and innovatively in any style or genre. I also let students educate me (and each other) about the music and artists they know best, exploring the deep craft embodied in the great songwriting of any style."

"My 360-degree songwriting approach is a kind of songwriter's cross-training that reflects this philosophy—there is no one right way to write a song, but if you favor only a few strategies you limit your scope and range. Challenging yourself to experiment, to write from and in all directions, develops versatility and agility; you can write in ways that remain authentic to you while being able to collaborate responsively and nimbly with artists with differing styles and working processes. With these approaches, I try to prepare songwriters for the diverse music industry I hope to see them create—not a pop monoculture but a dynamic mosaic of stylistic niches reflecting the diverse world for whom we are writing our songs."