| Intro | Guitarist, instructor |
| Is |
Musician Songwriter Educator |
| From | United States of America |
| Type |
Academia Music |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 23 March 1987, Tarzana, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California |
| Age: | 33 years |
| Star sign | Aries |
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, Mark Spiro and Tim Miner. MacLennan’s original song, “Fallin’ Deeper”, is featured in the Twentieth Century Fox 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 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 and the Disney Channel during his teen years. MacLennan earned a bachelor’s degree in Ethnomusicology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with emphasis in jazz guitar in 2010. His mentors include: Carl Verheyen, Tim Pierce, Kenny Burrell, 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 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 died on May 14, 2015, The Los Angeles Times 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.
iBooks
It’s like having the book come to life… As a guitar player and as a guitar instructor, it’s like having a dream come true. […] As far as I’ve seen, he’s the first one who’s done this successfully.
— Wolf Marshall (Guitarist, educator, author, lecturer), Daily Bruin
Melodic Expressions is an interactive instructional iBook 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
- Perch (Surfing DVD) – composer/performer
Television
- Raising Hope – ukulele and guitar
- The Suite Life of Zack and Cody – guitarist
Discography
Suspicious Love (album)
- Released: 2006
- Format: LP/CD/Digital
- Label: Jon MacLennan Productions
- Producer: Jon MacLennan
| Tracklist: Suspicious Love (UPC 634479426988) | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | “Suspicious Love (I think I like it)” | 2:44 |
| 2. | “Good To Know” | 3:39 |
| 3. | “The Fighter” | 4:11 |
| 4. | “Crazy Love” | 2:50 |
| 5. | “Don’t Go” | 3:07 |
| 6. | “Big Time” | 5:02 |
| 7. | “You Don’t Know” | 2:57 |
| 8. | “Kind To No One Blues” | 2:55 |
| 9. | “S.P.F.” | 2:56 |
| 10. | “On My Mind” | 4:12 |
Dreams (album)
- Released: 2011
- Format: LP/Digital
- Label: Suspicious Love Productions
- Writer: Jon MacLennan
- Producer: Jon MacLennan
- Singles: “Fallin’ Deeper” featured in the soundtrack Marley & Me: The Puppy Years (2011)
| Tracklist: Dreams (UPC 885767642072) | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | “Start All Over Again” | 3:38 |
| 2. | “Someday” | 4:30 |
| 3. | “Dreams” | 3:16 |
| 4. | “Lesson Learned” | 4:17 |
| 5. | “Fallin’ Deeper” | 3:09 |
| 6. | “Christmas Day” | 3:17 |
| 7. | “Footsteps in the Sand” | 3:08 |
| 8. | “Peace” | 3:51 |
| 9. | “Cheating Woman Blues” | 2:53 |
| 10. | “Until the End” | 3:47 |
Songs from Box Canyon (album)
- Released: 2013
- Format: LP/Digital
- Label: Suspicious Love Productions
- Writers: Jon MacLennan, Heather Youmans
- Producer: Jon MacLennan
| Tracklist: Songs from Box Canyon (UPC 887516928130) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | “Nobody Cares When You Live in L.A” | MacLennan | 3:19 |
| 2. | “New Life” | MacLennan | 3:02 |
| 3. | “In My Arms” (feat. Heather Youmans) | MacLennan/Youmans | 4:12 |
| 4. | “Fallin’ in Love” | MacLennan | 4:00 |
| 5. | “A Time and a Place” | MacLennan | 2:38 |
| 6. | “Bottle of Dreams” | MacLennan | 3:19 |
| 7. | “I Want You Back” | MacLennan | 3:34 |
| 8. | “We Are the Future” | MacLennan | 4:20 |
| 9. | “Without You” | MacLennan | 4:18 |