Serving the community from long beach to huntington beach, CA
Ian's Guitar Lessons
My name is Ian Westerbeck, and I am a guitarist and teacher based in Long Beach with 8 years of experience, specializing in jazz, blues, and improvisation. I hold a Bachelor's in Jazz Guitar from the University of Miami, where I studied with Grammy-winning artists and top jazz educators.I have performed in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and the Bay Area, and I was honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Grammy™ Recording Academy’s Dan Warner Scholarship for excellence in guitar performance.
Ian Westerbeck is a guitarist and teacher based out of Long Beach, California.He grew up around blues guitar legend Walter Trout (John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat, John Mayall), took lessons in his youth with Dave Nassie (Kip Moore, Suicidal Tendencies), has studied jazz improvisation with greats such as John Hart (Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Maria Schneider), Tim Watson (Armando Gola, Dion Kerr), Michael Higgins, John Daversa (3x Grammy-winning artist), Brian Lynch (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, 2x Grammy-winning artist), Gary Keller, and played in ensembles led by innovators such as Melissa Aldana and John Yarling (Mike Stern, Dave Liebman), to name a few. He has also studied rhythmic independence with Dafnis Prieto. He has studied composition, arranging and improvisation with renowned “Real Book” composer Richard Niles (Paul McCartney, Pat Metheny, Ray Charles). His musical influences include guitarists such as Ben Eunson and Tim Watson, as well as jazz greats such as Red Garland.Ian graduated from the University of Miami in the spring of 2023, where he received the Presidential Scholarship in 2019 for a Bachelor’s of Music in Jazz Guitar. He was also the inaugural recipient of the Recording Academy’s Dan Warner Music Scholarship in 2022 for excellence in guitar performance. He has performed in various venues throughout Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and in the California Bay Area.Ian is currently halfway through the Single Subject Credential program in Spanish at CSULB in the LOTE (Languages Other Than English) program. He believes that music teachers can learn a lot about how music should be taught by studying second language acquisition.
My teaching style is highly learner-centered, which means that I put my students goals and aspirations first in every lesson. Some of my students learn to sight read, and some do not learn to read at all. Some of my students have professional aspirations in music, and some do not. However you see yourself in relation to your guitar studies, I can help you get to where you want to go.Outside of our lessons together, I believe that all students learn best when they are surrounded with materials that they can learn from. The advantages that digital tools offer us in our education can be highly impactful if we just leverage them properly.
UltimateGuitar, while a corporation with questionable ethics regarding their profiteering of publicly-sourced guitar tab notation, is a valuable resource for guitarists of any level. There are few that parallel the breadth of beginner-friendly guitar music notation that is available on UltimateGuitar. This is often the foundation my students will start with when learning to play songs they love.
For those interested in learning to sight read, I highly encourage Sight Reading Factory. Acquisition of high-level sight reading skills requires access and exposure to an extremely high volume of reading material that matches the student's abilities without being too easy or too challenging. Sight Reading Factory makes this a very granular process and enables complete customization of practice limitations.
Music Tutor is an iOS App that I recommend to students wanting to improve their treble clef note-naming capabilities. This helps when learning to read music and charts student progress over time for adherence.
Politonus is a 3-app suite I recommend to my students who want to work on their ear training skills outside of our lessons. The apps serve a variety of purposes but can have a huge impact on every student's ability to develop a discerning ear.