LOS ANGELES-- Jon MacLennan, a professional educator, artist, composer, and Los Angeles-based musician, will blaze a trail as he unleashes "Melodic Expressions: The Art of the Line," a cutting-edge, interactive guitar instructional iBook for the iPad to be released April 2012 for purchase at the iTunes bookstore.
"Melodic Expressions," the most technologically advanced guitar lick book for the higher-level modern guitarist, features over 90 pages of materials to work from, as well as 178 high quality audio examples all embedded within the book. A wide variety of lines apply to styles encompassing blues, jazz, rock, R&B, pop, and country.
Melodic Expression was created in iBooks Author, Apple's new, free app that allows anyone to create and publish beautiful, multi-touch textbooks for the iPad. With fast and fluid navigation, integrated audio, video, photo galleries, interactive graphics, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.
"Apple's release of iBooks Author this past January is a sign of the times," Jon MacLennan said. "With the rise of independent publishers due to the transforming technology of books, as well as the record quality of home recording studios, anyone can make their artistic dreams a reality. Honestly, there's nothing like it ["Melodic Expressions"] on the market."
With a BA in jazz guitar from the internationally renowned Jazz Studies program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Jon has had the privilege of being mentored by guitarists such as: Carl Verheyen, Tim Pierce, Kenny Burrell, Jimmy Wyble, and Wolf Marshall--a pre-eminent guitar educator who transcribed the "shred" solos of legendary rock bands for music publishing giant Hal Leonard.
Despite his extensive educational background, MacLennan has come to adopt a highly unconventional improvisational method.
"When I first embarked on my path of studying the art of improvisation I began with scales arpeggios and exercises, like plenty of guitarists I'm sure," MacLennan recalled.
"While these devices of learning may have benefited my technique, there was a downfall. Soon enough, I found exercise-based practicing did not result in the melodic quality I was searching for. Your hands will fall back on what you have practiced the most. I believe you should not spend time working on scales and exercises that you are not going to play live. Melodies should be drilled on the instrument."
A leader of his generation, Jon has created an immense internet-presence as a paragon of a modern musician. With a YouTube channel with currently over 200 videos and over 1,000,000 cumulative video views, Jon's online lessons and performances have become a viral success.
"Melodic Expressions" essentially explores modern melody to cultivate the advanced guitarist's ability to create solos with powerful force and unequivocal grace in performance.
Comprised of three chapters, major, minor, and dominant expressions, "Melodic Expressions" also provides a variety of 'general tips', which include the following: how to associate a chord with a line, how to transpose a line from one string to another, and how to rhythmically manipulate the examples to personalize a melody.
Each example in the book contains at least 2 high quality audio files embedded within each page. The first audio file is a fast tempo demonstration, while the second is a slowed down version of the same line.
GEAR USED
Guitars: 1960 Re-issue Fender Stratocaster and Fender Nocaster Telecaster, Gibson 1960 re-issue 335, Martin D28 Marquis, Martin OM28V, Guild F412
Amplifiers: Divided by 13 RSA 31, Dr. Z Carmen Ghia
Providence Cables (s102)
Pedals: AYA R-Comp, Line 6 M9, Zendrive, Fuchs Cream
Strings: Daddario 10 Gauge
Shubb Capos
API 512C Preamps
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power
Official Site: www.JonMacLennan.com
YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/jonmaclennan
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonmaclennan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jon-Mac...
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