Jon MacLennan is a Los Angeles-based musician, composer, producer and music educator. MacLennan's session work includes playing guitar on Julian Lennon and Steven Tyler's song, "Someday", from Lennon's album, ''Everything Changes'' (2013), and backing vocals on Jamie Cullum's album, ''The Pursuit'' (2009). He's also played guitar on songs for

Holly Knight ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

Mark Spiro Mark Spiro (born March 28, 1957) is an American songwriter, record producer and recording artist. Represented on millions of records sold worldwide, Spiro has delivered songs to artists such as Julian Lennon, Cheap Trick, John Waite, Heart, Laura B ...

and Tim Miner. MacLennan's original song, "Fallin' Deeper", is featured in the

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disne ...

film Marley & Me: The Puppy Years (2011) soundtrack. MacLennan's published works include: three self-produced albums, two instructional music iBooks, ''Melodic Expressions: The Art of the Line'' (2012), ''Play Ukulele'' (2012) and hundreds of instructional workshop videos on his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

channel with over 1.48 million views.

Background

MacLennan began his professional music career at 16 completing session work for Grammy Award-winning mixer Tom Weir. His first album, ''Suspicious Love'' (2006) was recorded at Weir's Studio City Sound in Studio City, CA. MacLennan also secured television work with

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Com ...

and the Disney Channel during his teen years. MacLennan earned a bachelor's degree in

Ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

(UCLA) with emphasis in jazz guitar in 2010. His mentors include: Carl Verheyen,

Tim Pierce Tim Pierce (born 1959 in Albuquerque) is an American session guitarist. He has worked for artists such as Joe Cocker, Crowded House, Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Jackson, Beth Hart, Roger Waters, Alice Cooper, Johnny Hallyday, Phil Collins, and the Ch ...

Kenny Burrell Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 ...

, Jimmy Wyble, Tamir Hendelman, Ron Anthony and Wolf Marshall, the author of Hal Leonard's ''Wolf Marshall Guitar Method'' and ''Power Studies''.

Music education

* Guitar instructor for the

Los Angeles Pierce College Los Angeles Pierce College (Pierce College or Pierce) is a public community college in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and C ...

Department of Music. * YouTube channel with over 250 videos and tutorials with over 1.4 million views. * MacLennan is a regular contributor to ''GuitarControl's'' Play From the Heart section and also contributes to BluesGuitar.com * When

B. B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...

died on May 14, 2015, ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'' contacted MacLennan for expert insight into what is known as the "B.B. Box" in guitar instruction circles and commentary on King's style and legacy. * ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original arti ...

'' featured MacLennan's research and video-lesson into the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

, " You Can't Always Get What You Want"; MacLennan proposes the song's intro is produced with a specifically tuned twelve-string acoustic guitar.

iBooks

''Melodic Expressions'' is an interactive instructional

iBook iBook is a line of laptop computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1999 to 2006. The line targeted entry-level, consumer and education markets, with lower specifications and prices than the PowerBook, Apple's higher-en ...

for advanced guitar players. The iBook contains more than 90 pages of content pertaining to different musical genres and focuses on the "...language of the music," according to MacLennan. The iBook is divided into three sections, "Major", "Minor" and "Dominant" musical phrasing with genre specific core-elements, rather than formal scales and drilled exercises. Each page includes a slow and fast tempo playback with the lead guitar in the right speaker and the pad guitar in the left speaker. After-market iPad accessories are available to enable the guitarist to plugin to the iPad directly and play along with the left, right or both tracks. * ''Melodic Expressions: The Art of the Line'' (2012) * ''Play Ukulele'' (2012)

Instructional DVDs

Jon has been creating instructional DVD guitar courses since 2012. Listed below are some of his top selling DVD courses. * ''The Fasttrack Guitar System'' (2013) * ''Play From the Heart'' (2013) * ''Ukulele Secrets'' (2013) * ''Blues Power'' (2014) * ''Banjo Made Simple'' (2014)

Filmography

Soundtracks

* '' Marley & Me: The Puppy Years'' – composer/performer :::Soundtrack features MacLennan's single, "Fallin’ Deeper" –

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

(2011) * ''Perch'' (Surfing DVD) – composer/performer :::Alex Knost, C.J. Nelson, Joel Tudor, Josh Farberow and Oliver Parker – Kylemacfilms (2009)

Television

* ''

Raising Hope ''Raising Hope'' is an American sitcom that aired from September 21, 2010, to April 4, 2014, on Fox. Following its first season, the show received two nominations at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Martha Plimpton was nominated for Outstanding ...

'' – ukulele and guitar :::

* ''

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' is an American sitcom created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The series aired on Disney Channel from March 18, 2005, to September 1, 2008. The series was nominated for an Emmy Award three times and was also ...

'' – guitarist :::"What the Hey" season 2 episode 21 – Disney Channel (2006)

Discography

*;''Suspicious Love'' (2006) *;''Dreams'' (2011) *;''Songs from Box Canyon'' (2013)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:MacLennan, Jon 1987 births Living people American session musicians Musicians from Greater Los Angeles 21st-century American singers American ukulele players American banjoists American mandolinists 21st-century American guitarists Guitarists from California