Brad Stark
About
Brad Stark is a pianist, composer, improviser, and music teacher.
His piano music has been described as "Classical piano-perfection" by journalist and music writer Thomas L. Raukamp.
He has composed music in several genres including contemporary classical, music for media, and his own unique classical style of piano improvisation.
Brad has 16 years of music teaching experience. Since 2008, he has been teaching piano, music theory, and compositions in British Columbia Canada, where he earned his doctorate in musical composition from the University of British Columbia. He also taught keyboard harmony for two years at the University of Western Ontario, in Ontario Canada. He prepares students for piano exams in Canada as well as teaching for the pure enjoyment of music.
Piano Lesson Teaching Style:
For Piano Lessons, my teaching style is laid back and respectful of the goals of the student. Every student has their own unique level of ability and goals and these are respected.
In my teaching philosophy, practice habits are key to successful learning, but the teacher's approach is equally important. Students are given material they can achieve in a reasonable amount of time so that they develop faster as a musician. In my experience, students learn much faster when the difficulty of the material they are learning is appropriate for their current ability level.
This means mastering the fundamentals: reading, rhythm, and technique. All of these issues are worked on and improved depending on the needs of each individual student.
When combined with an efficient approach to practice, students learn significantly faster.
Music Theory Teaching Style
For music theory, I take a similar approach. Students build on the knowledge one step at a time. My students learn concepts well before they move on to new ones. This is the only way to develop a solid foundation and get a very good grade on music theory exams.
University of British Columbia (DMA)
University of Western Ontario (MA)
University of Toronto (BA)
Teaching Method:
For piano students, the fundamental skills are reading, rhythm, and technique which can also be separately trained and developed.
As a pianist, I have read and researched the history and development of piano technique and have incorporated technical exercises to develop the physical side of playing the piano. I also have a unique way of teaching rhythm, which students have found makes rhythm much simpler and easier to master. My students develop excellent reading skills as my teaching experience has shown that students learn far faster when they get achievable assignments every week, assuming they commit to the necessary amount of practice.
I teach all levels, from very beginner to advanced.
Recommended Student Learning Material:
For beginning piano students, I have used the Piano Adventure series by Nancy & Randall Faber for many years and students have a very positive impression of the books overall and enjoy them. Adult first-time piano learners may instead use their adult beginner books.
Royal Conservatory of Music Graded Series (Canada's graded exam system piano levels)
ABRSM Graded books (UK's graded exam system piano levels)
In addition, I offer my own sight-reading exercises that I have composed can also be used for free of charge for progressive learning. I have created hundreds of preliminary-level (for very beginning readers) to intermediate-level exercises.
The student is also free to bring any sheet music of any kind that they wish to learn. I am fine with teaching any style with sheet music, including film, tv, game, and anime sheet music if the student wishes to learn.