Principal Instrument: Piano

All students at Berklee College of Music enter with a principal instrument. The Piano Department teaches both acoustic piano and the Hammond organ.

No matter what major you end up pursuing, you will complete at least four semesters of private instruction, labs, and ensembles with this instrument. This fulfills your performance core requirement.

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Discover Your Voice

As a piano student, you'll be given the tools and knowledge to find your own voice through working with faculty at the forefront of the instrument. Beginning with emphasis on technical proficiency, you'll engage many musical styles, from classical to pop, jazz, rock, fusion, and almost anything in between, and pick up the skills you need to book gigs and become a sought-after player.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

Learn about financial aid, scholarships, and others ways of paying for your Berklee education.

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What Will I Learn?

Berklee prepares you for today's music by building on traditional aspects of learning. Piano Department instruction emphasizes a foundation in the standard technical challenges of professional performance—scales, arpeggios, and exercises such as Hanon, Czerny, and Pishna—as well as materials designed to help you master the many combinations of classical, jazz, pop, and rock styles common in today's music. We also provide intensive training in sight-reading and in chord symbol terminology and chord voicing.

Upon completion of the performance core, students will:

synthesize and integrate knowledge of contemporary and traditional styles into musical interpretation;
synthesize and integrate knowledge of posture, breathing, and instrumental technique into their daily practice routines;
demonstrate technical proficiency on their principal instrument;
demonstrate the ability to sight-read music in a variety of styles;
play music in a variety of contemporary and traditional styles;
play in ensembles of varying size, instrumentation, and stylistic orientation; and
apply knowledge of musical styles and harmonic practices in improvisation.

Entrance Requirements

Applicants must audition with their chosen instrument when applying to the college. Learn more about auditioning with the piano.

During orientation, you will audition with the Piano Department to get your ensemble ratings. These are used for placement into private instruction and ensemble courses. Learn more about placement auditions.

Curriculum and Courses

Private Instruction

All students complete four semesters to fulfill their performance core requirement:

Performance majors have an additional four semesters.
Professional music majors and music education majors have an additional two semesters.

Instrumental Labs

Specialized piano labs bring together players of similar performance levels and provide training in specific aspects of piano performance. Browse instrumental labs in our course catalog.

Ensembles

Through ensembles, you will hone essential performance skills and techniques. They help you to broaden your stylistic range, to expand your network of musical friends and colleagues, and to gain diverse group-playing experience.

Ensembles are offered in multiple sections for varying levels of ability. You choose the group and style that appeal to you. Your eligibility is determined by ongoing auditions that measure your growth as a performer.

More than 350 faculty-supervised ensembles rehearse weekly at Berklee.