Jon Finn

{{Short description|American musician and guitarist}} {{more footnotes|date=July 2014}}  '''Jonathan M. Finn''' (born 1958) is an American rock musician and guitarist. He is the founder and leader of the Jon Finn Group, and is a professor at the Berklee College of Music; he joined the guitar faculty there in 1988. He is also the author of several books on the guitar, and was an instructional columnist for ''Guitar'' magazine for three years.

Finn grew up in Westwood, Massachusetts, and began playing guitar at the age of six. He later became a student at Berklee. When he was 14 years old he played with the group Cheap Thrills, which consisted of Finn, Steve Carro (Vocals), Bob Shain (Keyboard), Ron Dupres (Bass), Joel Sklar (Rhythm Guitar), and Greg Buckingham (Drums).

He has been a guest performer with the Boston Pops, recording several albums with them, including the Grammy-nominated ''The Celtic Album'' (1997) and ''The Latin Album'' (1999). He has also performed with John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Carl Verheyen, Vinnie Moore, Andy Timmons, Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs, New York Voices, Collin Raye, Dweezil Zappa, and Debbie Reynolds, among others. In addition he has toured with musical theater productions such as ''Rent'', ''Mamma Mia!'', ''Aida'', ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' and ''Copacabana''. In his 1999 publication, ''Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation'', Finn introduced the '''warp refraction''' principle.

In 1997, Finn was listed as #30 in the ''Westwood One Hundred'' publication's List of Top 100 notable people and places in Westwood.<ref>Westwood One Hundred, Suburban World Newspapers, 1997, page 25.</ref>

Warp refraction is a term coined by Finn in his 1999 publication, Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation, to describe the single major third string interval in standard guitar tuning.

== Discography == * ''Don't Look So Serious'' (Legato Records, 1994) * ''Wicked'' (SEP Records, 1998) * ''Bull in a China Shop'' (SEP Music, 2010)

== Books == * ''Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation'' (1999, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., {{ISBN|0-7866-6866-0}}) * ''One Guitar Many Styles'' (2003, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., {{ISBN|0-7866-6748-6}}) * ''Blues/Rock Improv Book'' (2004, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., {{ISBN|0-7866-7208-0}}) * ''Guitar Riffs in the Style of 60s and 70s'' (2007, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., {{ISBN|978-0-7866-7470-1}})

==References== {{Reflist}}

=== General references=== * [https://www.loc.gov/cgi-bin/formprocessor/copyright/locis.pl U. S. Copyright Office]

==External links== * [http://www.jonfinn.com/ JonFinn.com] * [http://www.berklee.edu/faculty/detail.php?id=127&type=department&value=GR&skip=0 Berklee College biography] * [http://www.melbay.com/authors.asp?author=526 Mel Bay biography] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060214204431/http://www.berklee.edu/news/2001/10/jfinn.html Berklee interview, with audio samples]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Jon}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:American rock guitarists Category:American male guitarists Category:American male writers Category:People from Westwood, Massachusetts Category:Berklee College of Music faculty Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:20th-century American male musicians