Jonathan M. Finn (born 1958) is an American rock musician and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

. He is the founder and leader of the Jon Finn Group, and is a professor at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

; 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 The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

'' magazine for three years. Finn grew up in

Westwood, Massachusetts Westwood is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,266 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. History Westwood was first settled in 1641 and was part of the town of Dedham, originally called 'West De ...

, 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 The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

, recording several albums with them, including the

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

-nominated ''The Celtic Album'' (1997) and ''The Latin Album'' (1999). He has also performed with

John Petrucci John Peter Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He produced or co-produced (often with former member Mike Portnoy before he departed the band in 2010 ...

Dream Theater Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of the ...

Carl Verheyen Carl Verheyen is an American musician best known for being the guitarist of Supertramp, the leader of the Carl Verheyen Band, and as a Los Angeles session guitarist. He was ranked ''One of the World's Top 10 Guitarists'' by Guitar Magazine and w ...

Vinnie Moore Vincent Moore (born April 14, 1964) is an American guitarist and a member of the British hard rock band UFO. Biography Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. He began his professional career at age 12 after receiving a guitar as a Chris ...

Andy Timmons Andy Timmons (born July 26, 1963) is an American guitarist who has played in the bands Taylor Bay Band, Danger Danger, Pawn Kings, and Andy Timmons Band (ATB). He has also released several solo albums and has worked as a session guitarist. H ...

Steve Morse Steve J. Morse (born July 28, 1954) is an American guitarist, best known as the founder of the Dixie Dregs and as the lead guitarist of Deep Purple from 1994 to 2022. Morse has also enjoyed a successful solo career and was briefly a member of ...

of the

Dixie Dregs The Dixie Dregs is an American rock band from Augusta, Georgia. Formed in 1970, the band's performance consists entirely of instrumentals that fuse elements of diverse genres such as rock, classical music, country, jazz and bluegrass into an ec ...

New York Voices New York Voices is a jazz vocal group that was founded in 1987 by Peter Eldridge, Caprice Fox, Sara Krieger, Darmon Meader, and Kim Nazarian. All except Krieger were members of an alumni group from Ithaca College that toured Europe in 1986. They ...

Collin Raye Floyd Elliot Wray (born August 22, 1960) is an American country music singer, known professionally as Collin Raye, and previously as Bubba Wray. Under the latter name, he recorded as a member of the band The Wrays between 1983 and 1987. He made ...

Dweezil Zappa Dweezil Zappa (born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa; September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil dev ...

, and

Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...

, among others. In addition he has toured with

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

productions such as ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

'', '' Mamma Mia!'', ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December ...

'', ''

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (often colloquially known as ''Joseph'') is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. Thi ...

'' and '' Copacabana''. In his 1999 publication, ''Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation'', Finn introduced the

warp refraction Warp refraction, also known as the warp refraction principle, is a term coined by the guitarist Jon Finn in his 1999 publication, '' Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation''. Warp refraction takes into account the major third tuning interval betw ...

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.Westwood One Hundred, Suburban World Newspapers, 1997, page 25.

Warp refraction Warp refraction, also known as the warp refraction principle, is a term coined by the guitarist Jon Finn in his 1999 publication, '' Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation''. Warp refraction takes into account the major third tuning interval betw ...

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 Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By ...

Discography

* ''Don't Look So Serious'' (

Legato Records In music performance and notation, legato (; Italian for "tied together"; French ''lié''; German ''gebunden'') indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, the player makes a transition from note to note wit ...

, 1994) * ''Wicked'' ( SEP Records, 1998) * ''Bull in a China Shop'' ( SEP Music, 2010)

Books

* ''Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation'' (1999, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., ) * ''One Guitar Many Styles'' (2003, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., ) * ''Blues/Rock Improv Book'' (2004, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., ) * ''Guitar Riffs in the Style of 60s and 70s'' (2007, Mel Bay Publications, Inc., )

References

General references

U. S. Copyright Office

External links

JonFinn.com

Berklee College biography

Mel Bay biography

1958 births Living people American rock guitarists American male guitarists American male writers People from Westwood, Massachusetts Berklee College of Music faculty 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians {{US-rock-guitarist-stub