Private Lessons, Classes & Workshops

Randy Armstrong at Beauty Hill Music & Recording Studios

Room With A View • Beauty Hill Music & Recording Studios

West African Djembes & North Indian Sitar

Randy Armstrong & WorldBeat Marimba

West African Drumming & Dance at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester NH USA with Randy Armstrong & Theo Nii Martey

South African Marimbas Handmade in Cape Town

South African Marimbas with Trinidad/Tobago Steel Pan

Private Lessons • In-Person and Online

Randy Armstrong provides lessons—both online and in-person—for students of all ages at your venue or in his Beauty Hill Music & Recording Studios in Barrington, NH. Randy creates individualized lesson plans—beginner to advanced students welcome!

  • Guitar in all styles
  • Marimbas & Steel Pan
  • Sitar
  • Tabla
  • Djembe
  • World Percussion

Drumming Workshops

Randy Armstrong offers a “hands-on” workshop of the rhythms of West Africa and the African Diaspora. Focus is on djembe, ashiko, djun-djun, bell and shakere techniques using the drum language of master musician, Babatunde Olatunji. A wide variety of rhythms from West Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil are taught with concentration on ensemble performance. Transcriptions of rhythms are available to all students, and workshops range from 1 to 3 hours.Randy has extensively studied the balofon and djembe and has been incorporating African music sensibilities in his original compositions since the mid-70’s.

Guitar Workshops

A workshop and master class is offered for acoustic guitar as well as synth-guitar. The focus is on world music applications to guitar performance and demonstration of synthesizer and guitar interfaces. Areas covered include tunings, North Indian ragas & scales, flat-pick & finger-style combinations, modal harmonies & ethnic influences and much more.

South African Marimba Group Classes

Marimba Bands can be heard and experienced throughout South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Southern Africa. Even in the United States you can find Marimba Bands from the Pacific Northwest to New England inspired by many African musicians who have taught the tradition and instruments at Universities and Cultural Institutions in the U.S. for decades.

Randy has been a performer, teacher and student of the balafon which is the West Africa marimba/xylophone style instrument similar to the South African marimbas for over four decades. While on tour in South Africa as an accompanist for the women’s chorus, Voices From The Heart in the summer of 2018, Randy experienced the dynamic and joyous music of Marimba Bands at concert halls, churches, schools and street performances. At a concert Voices From The Heart performed with Desmond Tutu and his family in attendance, a young group of talented and energetic South African Marimba players performed traditional songs and pop tunes that had the entire audience singing and dancing together. Even Papa Tutu got up to dance to the song, PATA PATA made famous by South African singer, Miriam Makeba and played brilliantly by the Marimba Band. At that moment, Randy was inspired to commission a set of South African Marimbas handcrafted by ethnomusicologist, Gavin Coppenhall—African Ethos Instruments in Cape Town. The Marimbas arrived at the Port of New York on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2018 and the journey begins.

“Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice.” — Nelson Mandela

Weekly group classes and private lessons at Beauty Hill Music Studios, Barrington, New Hampshire.

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