About Mark
"ZAP"
Mark has an Associate of Arts Degree from Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois, 1988, and a Bachelor of Elected Studies Degree with minor in psychology from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, 2002. Most of Mark’s college hours are in psychology and music. The first two and a half years of his upper level education, Mark was a music education major at St. Ambrose College. Mark also studied with English guitarist and philosopher Robert Fripp and in master class with Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar a mentor of George Harrison. He was also in master class with Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank Zappa.
A veteran of teaching guitar, bass guitar, mandolin and music theory since 1984, Mark is considered to be one of the top teachers in the Midwest conducting private lessons. He is also well experienced from playing in local bands and on the road around the Midwest. Mark was a member of the band Silver Laughter, May of 1974 to July of 1975, and this year he will be inducted into the Iowa Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame with Silver Laughter as a member of the distinguished class of 2014.
Mr. Zaputil is popularly known as “ZAP” and he desires to continue teaching and performing music. As Zap has said “Music and playing the guitar is why I am on earth." "Even after trying several other things for a living I keep coming back to music one way or the other." “I’m going to go down with a guitar in my hands.”
A personal triumph for Mark occurred in October of 2002 when he performed on stage with classic English rock band Wishbone Ash on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. In 1999 Mark was one of two people founding and starting up the “BlueSkool’ event for kids at the annual Mississippi Valley Blues Society, Blues Music Fest, held in Davenport, Iowa. Then in July of 1997 he was one of 1’550 people in Nashville, TN., setting a Guinness World record for the most people playing guitar for the longest period of time, which still holds to this day.
In 1987 his video Zap’s Guitar Lesson Instruction aired on local cable TV and the July 1986 issue of Downbeat magazine published Mark’s biography. Over the past 30 years Mark has had numerous credits with published photographs in magazines, books and calendars.
Since July of 1990, Mr. Zaputil has been the President and owner of Zap Ltd. Music & Photography service.
Mark was born from first generation parents and from grandparents who immigrated to the USA from Yugoslavia. Mark claims to be a proud "Yankee Doodle Dandy "as he was born on the 4th of July.
Mark enjoys his hobby of model trains and prototype railroading,“That stuff is my gone fishing hobby”, it helps me to forget about the not so good things in life and to appreciate the more positive things I have going for me”. He also states "I have a ferocious appetite for new music, I'm always buying new music releases from other artists and often attend concerts and shows."
June of 2010 saw the release of Marks’s solo music CD “Five Points” by Zap which brought Mark critical acclaim and local radio air play providing inspiration for him to record more original music. He is currently working on more studio recording of his music.
Please take a moment to click on the link to his CD “Five Points”, where you may purchase CD copies and downloads. You can also listen to song samples. Additionally, there’s a link to Marks’s Flickr photography account where you can view pictures of Zap, his students and his interests in life.
If you would like to take private lessons with Mark in learning and developing prior playing experience with guitar, bass guitar, mandolin and music theory, it is likely your experience with Mark will be very rewarding.
You can email Mark at iowazap@aol.com and by at phone 563-505-2138.
For lessons at Griggs Music call 563-391-9000