Jamorama Blog » songpond

Learn to play with Songs!

Jamorama — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:50:29 +0000

Here are some great shots of Mark McKenzie`s stratocaster. Check him out on Songpond. As you can tell by both his face and his guitar accoutrements (that`s the pick ups, and the bridge fellas) Mark`s a bloody good player, an amazing teacher and his amps go up to eleven!

Digital guitars

Jamorama — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:54:58 +0000

Mark McKenzie is an awesome guitarist, highly fluid, fluent and versatile. He`s also a great teacher. Mark has just finished filming the video for the Sultans of Swing tutorial for Song Pond and sitting here in the office, just kicking back with a coffee, it`s a pleasure to listen to the riffs in the edit suite, and have a chat with him too about guitar techniques, riffs, chords, playing by ear and all the other jazz guitarists tend to yak on about.

What is particularly interesting about Mark is his choice of equipment. Mark is no dinosaur when it comes to kicking out the jams…unless there`s a digisaurus laying buried in the soil somewhere. On a personal level Mark may have also delivered the solution to some of my own recording woes – having to haul several different guitars through the airport on multiple trips to the recording studio has become a logistical, risky nightmare.

Mark is using a Line 6 variax guitar and a Line 6 amp. Variax gives you an endless variety of sounds from classic acoustic and electric tones all the way to sitar and banjo, all in one instrument. I`ve had a quick play and Mark has taken me through a demo: the guitar plus the amp combined gives you a full range of tones and sounds, a range of guitars to choose from and a range of effects. For example the sounds from Sunshine of Your Love, Smoke on the Water, Pink Floyd instantaneously dialled in.

Cameron our tech guy and resident DJ has also pointed to a similar offering from Gibson – the robot guitar.

Here are some more blog posts about digital guitars, tools and concepts:

1.Moog digital guitar

2.Jam mate digital trainer

3. Tesla Niwa

4.Fender G DEC digital modelling amp

5.Ovation iDEA electro acoustic with built in practice recorder

6.Digital versus Analogue

7.Gibson Dark Fire

Sultans of Swing

Jamorama — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:37:10 +0000

Mark McKenzie one of our Song Pond tutors has just rolled in fresh from a serious work out by the looks of things. I don`t know if that`s anything to do with his guitar prowess and fretboard lucidity, but maybe. After all, Freddie King worked days in a steel mill. Mark is definitely an interesting character and when it comes to playing guitar he seriously cooks up a storm.

Mark has just run through the solo and lead parts of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits` awesome, epic country-blues-rock, the Sultans Of Swing sitting here in the office on an acoustic guitar with both a pick and fingerstyle. Impressive stuff indeed.

So look out for The Sultans of Swing on Song Pond real soon. And don`t forget where country style licks from Chet Atkins through to Albert Lee can take you – the Sultans of Swing is evidence of that.