I received a FACTOR grant!!! I don't know about you, but I like to think this is pretty great news... them factor grants can be darn tough to wrangle. I won the Emerging Artist FACTOR grant, and it's going to help me fund my UPCOMING ALBUM which is going to be ready early 2009!!!!

Keep your ears to the ground and your eyes to this blog to be hearing some new tunes mighty soon!

I guess one must expect that with a program that has about 900 kids all registering in one day. Whew, that was one hectic day, let me tell ya. Although, we did get to unwind at the end of the day; the Berklee folks were so kind as to throw us a Kick-Off Carnival! Can’t go wrong with cotton candy, giant jenga, spray-on tattoos, and caricatures.

Gosh, a carnival, and on the first day! A little preview into the program it seems.  What a fun place to spend my summer. I wouldn’t trade these last 5 weeks for anything. I met some increeeeddddible people, who I plan on keeping in touch with for a long time; and who happen to live in some pretty cool places like Argentina, Italy, Chile, the Netherlands, Florida, California, Texas, and even the other side of Canada to name a few (a.k.a. I now have some sweet destinations with places to stayyyy!).
The Berklee Five Week Performance Program did some great things for me and I’ve taken home some real learning experiences. I actually practiced today!!! That rarely happens. Berklee gave me a new perspective on practicing though; a miracle!

So, I was pretty bummed that I was spending my summer at a school. Barf! Who wants to do schoolwork during the summer? Well, once I got my schedule, my thoughts changed a bit. I had classes like Musicianship, Theory in Performance, Piano Labs, Chord Labs, Keyboard Synth Labs… I don’t know, but that sounds like Hogwarts classes, just the music form. I was stoked. Walking into Theory was funny, just rows and rows of pianos!

Classes surpassed my expectations, just like Boston did. I tried not to have any expectations at all, but everyone I’d spoken to had told me it was the greatest city in the world… I now agree. Holy cow, whatah place! It’s pretty cool how much history is wrapped up in that city. Best part’s gotta be the accents though. Boston accents are SO GREAT. I love them ☺

Berklee teachers. They’re like a whole community unto themselves. They’re just so neat, although it can really be a toss-up. In general, you can assume Berklee teachers are gonna say words like “groovy!” and “cool man!” and really mean it. At the end of the Placement Test, for instance, the guy was all like “cool! That test was kickin’, wasn’t it?”. Pretty funny. Most Berklee teachers truly are going to be really cool folks. But to be honest, you might end up with one that did too many drugs back in his or her hey-day and will ramble on about all the famous people they’ve played with or all the gigs they have this week. Pretty annoying. So, this is a little piece of advice; if you’re in a class with one of the bad ones, get out! Don’t waste time thinking it’ll get better, because it won’t, if you stay in that class you won’t learn scales, you’ll learn about how so-and-so smoked something with so-and-so. Beware! You might be lucky enough, though, to get an awesome teacher who will inspire you and all that junk. Like BAIN SMITH!! Such an awesome Theory teacher… I’m a better player because of him for realz. Shout out to Bain.

Best thing about the Five Week, like I said I think, is the friends I made. Hands down, that’s what I’m going to remember, not the Greek modes (blech), my amigos! Urgh, I’m going to miss them so much! But, we’re all doing the same thing and living in the same world (the music world), so I’m sure we can cross paths again in the future.

The Five Week was worth it. I had the opportunity to play with others, something I feel like I don’t get to do that often. I feel like I didn’t learn specific things as much as general ways of going about things. I practice now! That’s the biggest thing that’s come out of Berklee. I practice! Hurrah! Hell has frozen over and pigs can fly! It’s finally happened. And you know what? I LIKE TO! WHAT? I LIKE TO! How weird.

Well. That’s a little recap of my last five weeks. Summer 2008! Coming out of it, I would recommend Berklee to other musicians, definitely. It’s an incredible community. BUT! I’m home now, and home is good ☺ I’ve been practicing, and I can’t wait to get performing again.

Talk soon!

it's so, so, so amazing here! It's really go go go and i'm finding i really really love it.  All the classes are great and the teachers are all really cool.  Like actually, cool.  My room's pretty nice...big windows, although it does get hot.  It's an old building but a nice one!  I am playing in two ensembles, one doing retro rock where I'm singing and playing piano.  The other has three vocalists and i am the pianist.  I'm playing a lot, practicing a lot, and singing so much I'm getting hoarse.  The weekend is coming just in time.  Talk to you soon, i love you! 

... Ali

...Ali

Next day was prom. Ali is almost finished high school...just 2 more weeks to go. She wore a great Betsy Johnson yellow strapless number, lookin' good. Next year, Ali will be focusing on music full time.

there was a great looking couple at the Bistro who listened. They really listened... to all three sets... even when I sang a couple of my favorites twice. So I introduced myself at the end of the gig. It turns out that John and Janet had caught me on the Global morning show last week. thank you guys for driving all the way to Whistler to hear me. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself to you earlier in the evening.

A big thanks from Ali to John and Janet...

Ali's future is very open currently she "hopes that someone picks up my songs, and I can finish my record." In the long run she wants to be able to "support myself with my music" and make a career out of it. Her favorite song of all time to sing are Sitting on the Dock by the Mar - Otis Redding and her favorite of the new three that she recently wrote is Chasing Alice - Ali Milner. Her favorite gig ever was also her largest audience, she performed in China infront of an audience of 60,000 and another 90,000,000 watching via TV. her words to describe it were "I would do that again in a heart beat, it was SO COOL...". She also really enjoys playing for the small crowd in the Four Seasons Hotel in Whistler because she can really mix it up and become much more personal with a small crowd.

We will have streaming music on this site soon so don't stray too far. If you would like to listen to some of Ali's songs now you can go look at her myspace.