He first served as a chorister at Westminster Abbey under Samuel Arnold until his voice broke.

[1] On leaving the Navy Beale first worked as a letter-sorter for the Post Office, but then quickly turned to music as a career.

He devoted his career to music and became an organist and composer of glees and madrigals.

[1] In 1818 he was a founding member of the Regent’s Harmonic Institution; a music publishing firm established with the intent of raising funds for the Royal Philharmonic Society and its restoration of the Argyll Rooms.

[2] In 1820, he signed articles of appointment as organist to Trinity College, Cambridge but only stayed at that position for a year before returning to London and becoming organist at Wandsworth Parish Church and then St.John's, Clapham Rise.