Larry Beekman Guitar Instruction
Larry Beekman has been teaching guitar at various colleges and music studios in the Kansas City area since 1975. He specializes in acoustic finger-style, classical, and folk guitar. His systematic approach has proven to work well with students of all ages. His students range in age from seven to eighty!
In the summers of 2000, 2003 and 2011 Larry was selected from a large staff of teachers to receive the "Outstanding Teacher Award" at Camellot Arts Academy, an intensive six-week summer arts program for children in Kansas City.
Larry's private teaching format for guitar lessons includes the following:-
Basic guitar playing technique (sitting position, hand position, etc.). This essential element provides a firm foundation to build on.
An introduction to the universal language of music: standard notation.
Basic chords, strums, and fingerpicking patterns used in popular music. Often, students are surprised at how quickly they can learn to use the guitar as an accompaniment instrument.
The fundamentals of music theory are gradually introduced. This not only gives a deeper understanding of music, it also is a valuable tool in allowing the student to eventually continue the learning process on his or her own.
-
Students interested in classical and folk music learn increasingly advanced techniques by working on carefully graded solos and arrangements for guitar.
Students who would like to learn how to use the guitar as an accompaniment instrument are taught increasingly more intricate and interesting accompaniment patterns.
Through an in-depth study of music theory, students interested in arranging and composing will learn to analyze the music they play, with the goal of incorporating what they learn into their own material.
Student Performances
In this video, these thirteen students perform Woyaya in a recital on April 25, 2015
Also on the April 25, 2015 recital was this wonderful performance of Yucatan by these six adult students:
This next video doubles as a both a performance and a short one act play. In it, Larry and two of his students perform Rockiny Myner from "How to Play the Acoustic Guitar, Book 1". We recorded this on New Year's Eve, 2012. Thanks to the father of the two students, Mike Snell of Blue Wall Design for creating this video!
This is a link to a few of Larry's adult students performing Tuxedo Junction in a rehearsal for a 2012 recital.
Here are three performances of Larry's Camellot Academy guitar students. Camellot Academy is a five week summer arts camp where Larry has taught guitar since 1999. Out of Limits: from 2010, the kids learned this song in eight days and three of them had never played guitar before! Nowhere Man: also from 2010; each student has a separate part on this song. Apache: this performance is from the 2012 season at Camellot.
This is a link to a group performance of Washington Square by six of Larry's students in August 2009.
Matthew Mckinney, Nathan Goldman and Patrick Kelly perform Slaughter on 10th Avenue in August, 2009.
This is an adult group performance from August, 2009: Homeward Bound.
And finally, this is a performance from June 1, 2008 of the Venture's tune, Diamond Head by some of Larry's students in a recital.
Group performance at a June, 2009 guitar recital
Go to the contact page for further questions or information regarding Larry Beekman's guitar instruction program. Also, you can see excerpts from Larry's guitar method books on the Free Music page.
