ABOUT US

Guided Music Production Studio was started by Mackenzie Burnside in 2019.

Music was heavily encouraged thing in her house growing up, she listened to many different genres, and decades. She has been going to concerts her whole life; her first one was KISS in 2009. She enjoys seeing the artists’ hard work being performed live, and the artists doing what they love. She frequently listened to her parents' old vinyl and cassettes as she was growing up. This allowed her to see the progression of how music was produced, mixed and the themes within the songs. The variety of music has helped her learn to appreciate every type of music for its own unique qualities. 

Mackenzie has many years of experience playing many instruments. She started learning guitar in January of 2011. She was very interested in how it was played and the different techniques used. During her lessons, she was encouraged to explore many different types of playing styles and genres. However, she kept going back to the classic rock she had grown up on, and specifically Guns N’ Roses. She enjoyed dissecting and trying to figure out how Slash did what he did. Slash is one of her idols, and she has seen him perform live. Seeing her idol play live encouraged her to keep practicing and doing what she was doing because she was determined to see if something came out of her hard work.

As a product of her hard work, Mackenzie started teaching lessons in 2017. She was hired as a Junior Teacher at the studio where she was, at the time, taking her own lessons. The manager of the studio knew that she was capable of teaching the guitar, and ukulele to the beginner level students. She eventually left that studio and started teaching piano at her home. One of the things she enjoyed about teaching was watching the students develop their skills. She encouraged playing in public when the opportunities arose, and it was something she was very proud of her students for doing. 

Mackenzie realized she liked producing when she was helping her guitar teacher work on his songs. He valued her input as he had been her guitar teacher since she started learning the instrument many years ago. If they were going over demos, she would suggest different ways of mixing the content. An example of this would be if the bass was too quiet, she would suggest raising the volume on it, or simple things like that. If they were going over songs that had not yet been recorded, she would sometimes suggest different chords, or riffs/ licks. When she realized this was something she enjoyed doing, she attended school to become more educated in the music industry. 

Mackenzie’s main goal is to help others create their music. She has never been a songwriter herself but enjoys helping others figure out their songs. She works with people that need the help to write the next part of the song, or she is simply another set of ears listening to work to provide feedback. It is something she loves and wants to help others accomplish their goals.