About
Brad Stark is a music composer for games, film & other media, pianist and improviser. Brad is a featured artist of Soundiron and uses their "Emotional Piano" Sample library.
About myself and my music:
I developed a deep appreciation for classical composers for the piano such as Chopin, Rachmaninov, and Scriabin in my teenage years. I began piano lessons and composing at the age of 11 and progressed fairly quickly, but my main pursuit was always composing.
Classical Improvisations
During my composing activities I would often improvise at the piano. I continued to improvise through the years and began recording my improvisations for the first time in November 2011. Classical improvisation was typical for composers of the classical and romantic eras. Composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin were renowned for their keyboard improvisations. Eugène Delacroix described Chopin's improvisations as "being bolder than his compositions, both in style and character, his actual pieces being mere distillations of his improvisations." If you enjoy my improvisations and would like to support me, I would thankfully accept donations.
Music for Media
I also write music for games and other media, which you can hear on soundcloud. I have written music for games on iPhone, PC, and XBOX360.
If you enjoy my work, please share it and support me by following me on soundcloud and liking my facebook fan page.
Thank you for listening!
* Finest Piano of the Day
2012-05-03: Brad Stark - Piano Improvisation 'Quasi Chopin' No. 1 Nocturne in B-flat minor - May 1, 2012
* "Composer, pianist and improviser Brad Stark blesses us with some classical piano-perfection." Thomas L. Raukamp, Journalist, Music Writer, Net Music Enthusiast on Prelude in C minor in 9/8 - April 30, 2012
Music Sets on Soundcloud:
Music For Media
Piano Improvisations (MIDI)
Piano Improvisations (Grand Piano)
Beautiful mood and sound. Nice production too.
Excellent composition, some nice talent there. :)
Great playing and enjoyed this harmonic style.
Nice one, enjoyed this mood.
@Rock Flexible: Thanks!
@Rock Flexible: Thanks for posting!
Nice mood capturing the feeling of the challenge perfectly. Enjoyed listening.
Skillful improv and nice playing, good work!
Haunting mood, nice work!
@Freemondo: The experience for me is that I stopped taking piano lessons in University due to my degree (composition). I played music for once in a while but most of my playing was actually improvisation while composing music or just playing for fun. After a few years, I realized I could suddenly play repetoire that I couldn't play before, even though I hadn't been practicing it. These days I can usually improvise out entire pieces without making much in the way of mistakes, I didn't even try to improvise entire pieces before that, it was just brief noodlings.
@Freemondo: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
@Freemondo: Thanks, I try to do that.
@Freemondo: C sharp major with D major C# pedal. flat II chord there.
@Freemondo: Thanks a lot! Really appreciate the feedback.
@Freemondo: I'm been improvising for a long time so the key honestly doesn't have any "difficulty" for me whatever mode it is. I will say that I really like the tone color of certain keys and chord progressions as well as the physical feeling of certain keys. I've composed a lot of music too, so the keys don't really factor in as being difficult for me.
@Freemondo: Thanks for all the great comments, much appreciated!
@Freemondo: Thanks, a lot of my improv ability comes down to knowing and understanding harmony really well and it's a combination of intuition and theory.
@Freemondo: Chord here is based on B lydian scale. BM7 flat 5 is one interpretation of the chord. As I've explained elsewhere I think in "chords" not scales too much when I'm playing.
@Freemondo: Thanks, I'm very comfortable with different harmonic styles and it's a must for being really procient at improvisation, I think.
@Freemondo: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. I decided to record multiple versions since it was so short.
@Freemondo: Thanks, I tend to enjoy natural minor these days.
@Intrieri Theory: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
@Pamela Chng: Thanks, I enjoy fooling around with different harmonic styles and this one uses a lot of 7th chords.
Nice sound and an original creation, good work!
@The Mad Pride: Thanks very much! Some of them were used in some games I worked on. Others were for demos for a game. ;)
@Dnipro: Thanks!
@danrue: Thanks, glad you liked it.
@Fedepiano: Thanks!
@Fedepiano: Thanks!
@4Choux: Thanks!
@Freemondo: Thanks, glad you liked it!
@Freemondo: Had an idea to do a contrasting melodic section as I was playing.
@Freemondo: Thanks so much for the comments! I've tried "free" improvisation as well, but I really like the idea of developing compositions on the spot as if I was creating a real piece of music. So I always start with an idea that I like before I beging to improvise. Sometimes I will get ideas on where to take the initial ideas when I'm playing.
@CatScratchz: Thank you!'
Nice song, enjoyed the music.
Nice, love this piano section.
Nice work!
Interesting (improv?), nice harmonies, sounds, and playing.
@TheKassKooeyeExperience: Thanks!
Nice piece!