Meet Kayla Beggs | Guitarist, Artist, & Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kayla Beggs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kayla, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
My hometown is Toccoa, GA, but I spent most of my life moving around. Moving a lot combined with being homeschooled meant I didn’t have very much of a social life, so I spent most of my time playing and listening to music. I started both guitar and piano when I was twelve, and guitar quickly became “my thing.” I would spend 2+ hours each afternoon playing guitar. I was self-taught, so I grew by learning songs from my favorite bands, like Flyleaf and Paramore. I was so eager to learn as much as I could and play just like my heroes, I would spend hours learning all the parts for as many songs as I could and then play through them just like I was playing with the band. I was pretty nerdy when it came to learning as well. I remember figuring out that the fretboard on a guitar worked the same as the piano keys and were all different notes, so one day I sat down and wrote out exactly where I could find each note on the guitar. I definitely could have found a chart on the internet to do all the work for me, but no one was going to stop me from figuring everything out on my own at that point. I would also get my piano music and play all the notes on my guitar instead, which probably attributed to my interest in classical and fingerstyle guitar later on.

Music also became a sort of therapy for me. Being a teenager is not easy for anyone, so I remember taking most of the problems I had to my guitar. Playing guitar would put me in my own world, away from everything else in life. It became sort of a safe place to express my feelings and it’s what I poured all my emotions into.

A lot of my early music experiences formed me into the musician that I am today, with a never-ending drive to learn as much as I can and push myself to do better, along with creating an emotional connection through everything I play. I’ve dedicated the better part of my life to playing this instrument now, and that drive and emotion are what gives me focus for my goals with my music and my career.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m an instrumentalist, which is not necessarily the most popular type of music to listen to, but I feel like I’ve been able to create a sound that is uniquely my own and draws people in. My approach to songwriting is always very message driven, trying to figure out what the song is saying and how I can convey that through my playing. As much as I love playing things that sound cool or just for the sake of being technical, I can’t really write that way. Everything that I write has to have a purpose and a meaning, and I think that really comes across in all of my pieces. My album “Stories” that I released back in the fall is mainly just me on acoustic guitar. I feel like the main style for acoustic fingerstyle guitar right now is to play super technical, percussive parts, but my approach is much more laidback and focused on an emotional component. For the most part, my album is just very simple, letting the music speak for itself and giving people something to connect with rather than to be impressed by.

My writing style was actually somewhat of a hurdle for me to overcome at first. I was afraid since it didn’t really fit the mold that people wouldn’t want to listen to any of my songs. Or maybe since I had a different approach that was fairly simple, it meant I wasn’t as good of a guitarist as I wanted to be. I didn’t release music for a while because of that fear. I eventually found confidence in my work as I realized that my difference in writing was the thing that set my music apart from everyone else’s and that it didn’t necessarily matter if everyone liked it. I just had to write and release my music for me, and hope that it connects with some people along the way.

I’m very proud of the work that I put into my album for that reason. I wrote it to tell a story that I felt like needed to be told, not to try to impress anyone. It turns out that while it does tell a personal story of growth along a particular journey, it does so in a way that other people can relate with. The thing I love about instrumental music is that it doesn’t have any confines in a story the way lyrics might; most songwriters write from personal experience and not everyone may be able to identify with every single detail of a song, but instrumental music allows people to ascribe their particular feelings and memories to music and make those things come to life. That’s what gives my album its “thing” and allows it to be so relatable to people.

The thing I hope people take away from my music is obviously the emotional connection, but also the authenticity behind it. To see that my music comes from a very real place of dealing with hard situations and emotions, and to be able to connect with those concepts. I’m really excited to see the impact it will have as I continue to write more.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I don’t live in Atlanta, so I usually wind up going into the city for shows. There’s a lot of great venues there, but I think the Tabernacle has to be my favorite. It’s such a unique venue that stands out from the rest, and going to shows there definitely has a different vibe than your other everyday venues. There are so many other great places to visit in the city as well, and I think if I was going to make a day of it, I would probably try to hit up some music stores like Maple Street, and just check out guitars for an hour or two. Maybe find a record store as well, and see if I can find anything to add to my collection at home.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The first person that deserves a shoutout is definitely my husband, Kevin. He is always pushing me to go after what I want. He never lets me give up and believes in me when I sometimes don’t. He’ll do just about anything to help me pursue my dreams and I would not have made it this far without his support.

I also want to give a shoutout to the team at Diamond Studios for helping me make music my fulltime job. They gave me an amazing opportunity to teach lessons and play gigs, and now I get to do music every single day.

I also want to thank my friends and family, and everyone who has supported my music. Thank you for coming to my gigs, streaming my album, or even taking lessons with me. You all are the best!

Website: https://linktr.ee/kaylabeggsguitar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylabeggsguitar/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaylabeggsguitar

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1eNL4Jnw88uHqAgmeaHIEw

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaylabeggsguitar?lang=en

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/63GU3xi3jkZWdlQLcEqk2w?si=taPpXLghT5WRzB_dA5FNxw

Image Credits
Haley Santor