John Brake

John teaches private lessons in guitar, bass, ukulele, and beginning piano.

John Brake, Faculty of Guitar, was first handed a guitar at only 2 years old. He started taking lessons at a young age, and by the time he was 13 he was playing guitar semi-professionally in local bands. In 2015 John first began taking on guitar students and found a deep passion for education. Since he began teaching, John has had multiple students accepted into the top music performance programs in North America including Berklee College of Music and Belmont University.

John attended Berklee (the number one school for contemporary music) on a scholarship and graduated with a degree in Guitar Performance. This is so awesome because as an academy our approach to music at TIA has been shaped deeply by the Berklee experience and education for good reasons (SD and Jenna our founders are also Berklee grads). John is the most formally educated guitar instructor we have ever had at TIA. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience about what works well with the guitar, how to learn it well, learn efficiently, and play beautiful guitar that people want to listen to! John has crafted a system of creating comprehensive, personalized curriculum for every student. Alongside his teaching, John has performed professionally throughout the Midwest, New England, and Pacific Northwest playing genres including jazz, pop, rock, fusion, blues, R&B, hip-hop, country, gospel, metal, and folk. He also serves as the music director for his church.

John works with kids, teens, and adults of all levels and his students love learning the guitar with him! In addition to teaching private lessons, John also heads up the Rock Band class at TIA Olympia.