Rick Beato

Beato was born into a large family in Fairport, New York, a suburb 9 miles (14 km) east of Rochester. He was the sixth of seven children, with two sisters and four brothers. His family life was highly musical; at an early age he was introduced to the rock music of the 1960s by his older sisters. His mother's siblings and father were musicians and music teachers, and there was always music of many different eras and genres playing in the house. He started playing cello at the age of seven, at thirteen he transitioned to the double bass and at thirteen he started playing guitar. He initially learned to play guitar by ear and trained himself, after several years he began his formal training in the instrument from a neighbor who owned a local music store.[4]

After graduating from Fairport High School in 1980, he studied at Ithaca College, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical bass. He earned a master's degree in jazz guitar studies from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1987.[5][6][4]

Beato has been a session musician, university lecturer, songwriter, studio engineer, mixer, and record producer. He has lectured at several universities, including the University of Alabama[7] and Berklee College of Music.[8]

Rick was a member of a band named Billionaire formed in 1997 with Marc Tompkins, Walter Busbee and Darren Dodd. Upon issuing their self-produced debut LP, The Goodnight Sky, on the local Radio Telescope label in the spring of 1998, Billionaire signed to Republic to issue the follow-up, Ascension, in mid-2000. [9]

A YouTube video of his eldest child, Dylan, who has perfect pitch and is able to identify individual notes within complex chords after just one hearing,[16][17] received three million views, causing Beato to decide to parlay this social-media fame into a full-fledged YouTube channel.[18] As of September 2023, the YouTube channel has 3.67 million subscribers.[19]

Beato's channel is under his own name, although he introduces some videos with the title "Everything Music". One series in the channel is called What Makes This Song Great?, in which Beato deconstructs and discusses the elements of popular songs. The videos in the series regularly get over one million views.[20] He posts videos on music theory and production techniques, song lists (like "Top 20 Acoustic Guitar Intros"), and interviews with artists, producers, and other music industry professionals.

Several of Beato's YouTube videos, including those about Radiohead and Fleetwood Mac, were issued take-down notices because of copyright claims. In July 2020, Beato testified about his experiences on YouTube before a United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary reviewing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and considering limitations and exceptions such as fair use.[21][22]

In February 2023, Beato released on his YouTube channel an extensive interview video with Keith Jarrett, made at Jarrett's home and home studio after Jarrett suffered two strokes; it received nearly half a million views in its first few days of publication and was praised by journalist and radio veteran Bill King.[23]

• The Beato Book – A Creative Approach to Improvisation for Guitar and Other Instruments.[24]

• Official website
• Rick Beato at IMDb
• Rick Beato discography at Discogs
• Discography at AllMusic.com
• Rick Beato Everything Music YouTube channel
• Songview entry at Broadcast Music, Inc.
• Beato, Rick. ""How Does the DMCA Contemplate Limitations and Exceptions Like Fair Use?"" (PDF). July 28, 2020 Testimony to the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property hearing. and "Written Responses of Mr. Rick Beato to Questions about Fair Use Rationale" (PDF).