Background and career
Richard John Beato ( bee-AH-toh; born April 24, 1962) is an American YouTuber, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and educator. Since the early 1980s, he has worked variously as a musician, songwriter, audio engineer, and record producer; he has also lectured on music at universities. Beato owns and operates Black Dog Sound Studios in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He has produced for and worked in the studio with bands such as Needtobreathe, Parmalee, and Shinedown. On his YouTube channel, he covers different aspects of rock, jazz, blues, electronic, rap, and pop, and he conducts interviews with musicians and producers.
Beato was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Fairport, a suburb nine miles (14 km) east of Rochester. He is the sixth of seven children; he has 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. He started playing cello at seven. At 13, he switched to the double bass, and at 14, he began playing guitar, initially learning by ear. After several years, he began formal training from a neighbor who owned a local music store. After graduating from Fairport High School in 1980, Beato studied at Ithaca College, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical bass; he earned a master's degree in jazz guitar from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1987.
Beato has been a session musician, songwriter, studio engineer, mixer, and record producer. He has lectured at several schools, including the University of Alabama and Berklee College of Music, and taught jazz studies at Ithaca College.
Beato was a member of a band called Billionaire, formed in 1997. After releasing a self-produced debut album in 1998, titled The Goodnight Sky, Billionaire signed to Republic Records and put out a second album, Ascension, in 2000.
Since 1995, Beato has owned Black Dog Sound Studios in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He has also previously run the record label 10 Star Records.
He has published The Beato Book – A Creative Approach to Improvisation for Guitar and Other Instruments.
