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 summer of 2000, Larry was selected from a staff of 24 teachers to receive the "Outstanding Teacher Award" at Camellot Arts Academy, an intensive six-week summer arts program for children in Kansas City. In the summer of 2003 he received this award once again.
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.
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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
Here are three performances of Larry's Camellot Academy guitar students from the summer of 2010. Camellot Academy is a five week summer arts camp where Larry has taught guitar since 1999. Out of Limits: the kids learned this song in eight days and three of them had never played guitar before! Nowhere Man: each student has a separate part on this song. Apache: this was the final performance of the summer for the guitar group. This is a link to a group performance of Washington Square by six of Larry's students in an August, 2009 outdoor recital. Matthew Mckinney, Nathan Goldman and Patrick Kelly perform Slaughter on 10th Avenue in an August, 2009 outdoor recital. Here are some of Larry's adult students in a group performance of Homeward Bound in an August, 2009 outdoor recital - proof that audults can successfully take giuitar lessons too! 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.
