Time transcripts of seanmillsnarrative_small

[00:00:00:01]	[ Interviewer ]: This is Fallon Zakeri interviewing Sean Mills on November 13, 2011.

[00:00:04:02]	He's here today to share with us

[00:00:08:03]	his literacy narrative. I wanted to thank you for sharing today...

[00:00:12:04]	Sean: No Problem. [ Interviewer ]: ...just to start, could you share

[00:00:16:06]	a story about the first time you learned to play an instrument

[00:00:20:09]	or read or write music? Sean: Well...

[00:00:24:10]	The first time I ever learned to

[00:00:28:11]	play piano was when I was about three or four years old

[00:00:32:13]	and I...my parents bought a piano

[00:00:36:15]	and wanted me to...I ended up learning it

[00:00:40:17]	in this small school where, I would be

[00:00:44:21]	instructed in front of a

[00:00:48:22]	...with just a teacher and myself 

[00:00:52:23]	in each room and so...we would play...

[00:00:56:26]	you know, jazz

[00:01:00:28]	and classical, and we would be playing also a few

[00:01:04:29]	contemporary pieces...

[00:01:09:00]	and ragtime, there were so many...different styles that you could cover on the piano.

[00:01:13:01]	which is great! You know, you can explore a lot of different

[00:01:17:02]	genres and...

[00:01:21:04]	we would have about, maybe, seven or eight pieces 

[00:01:25:07]	that we'd be working on at one time, 

[00:01:29:10]	so we...you know, it wouldn't be just like, you know, learn the song

[00:01:33:10]	and learn another song. You'd be learning a bunch of songs, which, you know, kind of

[00:01:37:12]	...it really, it kind of really

[00:01:41:13]	you know, took your hands, it took your

[00:01:45:14]	muscle memory and your...you know, your

[00:01:49:16]	skill level to different...zones

[00:01:53:18]	of, you know, the instrument that you're playing, you know...

[00:01:57:19]	it's great. 

[00:02:01:20]	And it...covers over...so you

[00:02:05:22]	you know, you'd be playing fast things, you'd be playing slow things

[00:02:09:23]	and so, aside from like, learning notes, which, you know, 

[00:02:13:25]	we would be learning...sheet music and classical versions

[00:02:17:26]	you know, you'd be...but it would be

[00:02:21:28]	not just classical, but you would have different... you'd be learning different beats

[00:02:25:29]	during time, different time measures, different

[00:02:30:00]	you know, keys, you'd be 

[00:02:34:01]	you would...have to learn

[00:02:38:02]	different... yeah the keys were interesting, the different playing styles 

[00:02:42:03]	you had to...

[00:02:46:04]	there was a lot of...you know you

[00:02:50:06]	....and so we would be playing books, you know, as a little kid I would be playing 

[00:02:54:08]	books that would be 

[00:02:58:10]	you know, skill building...you started small and then you worked your way up.

[00:03:02:11]	It was like, you know, really simple

[00:03:06:12]	things...just like simple finger tricks and you'd be building your way up

[00:03:10:14]	and then slowly, as...when I progressed...

[00:03:14:15]	I would get to certain levels. 

[00:03:18:16]	And...finally after compiling all this information that I

[00:03:22:19]	had learned, I was able to 

[00:03:26:20]	you know, 

[00:03:30:21]	get a faster pace. I was able to learn pieces a lot faster,

[00:03:34:22]	and I was able to... process all the...music much

[00:03:38:23]	faster, much...

[00:03:42:25]	much more, you know, finesse to it and everything and...that's

[00:03:47:00]	always fun, because, you know, after you like, learn the foundation for a piece

[00:03:51:01]	you just, then like, kind of explore to different

[00:03:55:02]	parts of it, you know, like really make...certain parts 

[00:03:59:04]	just like, pop, in the entire 

[00:04:03:06]	song itself. This way, we performed

[00:04:08:13]	...after we learned these skills we would perform them 

[00:04:12:16]	so we would have a...recital every year, where each kid

[00:04:16:20]	would...play in front of

[00:04:20:21]	an audience of maybe five hundred 

[00:04:24:22]	or a fair number of people... you know parents of

[00:04:28:23]	kids, but anyway, so you would...have these

[00:04:32:25]	...recitals that would...you would

[00:04:36:27]	memorize a...piece, so

[00:04:40:29]	every kid would memorize a piece, even the little kids

[00:04:45:01]	and...you would then play in front of the parents

[00:04:49:02]	and some of the older kids were, you know

[00:04:53:04]	were playing really, really difficult pieces

[00:04:57:07]	you know a lot of these were duets you would play with 

[00:05:01:10]	their instructor, and so they would be like, playing these pretty advanced

[00:05:05:12]	 fast...paced songs, or... you know,

[00:05:09:13]	with a lot of...some of them

[00:05:13:15]	...but anyway so...

[00:05:17:16]	I would learn a song every year that was... kind of a special song that like

[00:05:21:19]	maybe it was a harder skill level so you like, had to work your way to it, you had to take

[00:05:25:20]	maybe a lot of time for it. You memorized it, you played in front of [ people ], and so I would build

[00:05:29:22]	not only...music literature...

[00:05:33:23]	this is kind of moving into the performance aspect

[00:05:37:24]	but...I would not only...learn the music

[00:05:41:26]	literature...and, you know, be... able to play it to learn how to perform

[00:05:45:29]	it in front of an audience...pretty big

[00:05:50:00]	And so...this was...

[00:05:54:02]	yeah, this was like, so you would...

[00:05:58:04]	perform it...you would learn how to 

[00:06:02:06]	walk out, in front of an audience, and perform it. All that stuff.

[00:06:06:09]	Actually, wait...I'm breaking off into a tangent. [ Interviewer ]: No, that's fine!

[00:06:10:10]	Sean: Bring me back to somewhere else. [ Interviewer ]: So, well I just wanted to ask how

[00:06:14:11]	Sean: Do you have another question or something... [ Interviewer ]: Yeah, how...talking about

[00:06:18:12]	how the...performance aspect of it

[00:06:22:14]	and how..you said that the older kids would play

[00:06:26:16]	pretty difficult pieces...How did 

[00:06:30:19]	either just the performance aspect of playing the instrument

[00:06:34:20]	itself, or the influence of the outside 

[00:06:38:21]	pressures, maybe from teachers or parents or...

[00:06:42:22]	other...from teachers or parents or 

[00:06:46:23]	other peers...how did that affect 

[00:06:50:24]	you? Like...what are your feelings on that?

[00:06:54:26]	Sean: Well...watching these other 

[00:06:58:28]	kids progress...we would not only...have 

[00:07:03:01]	time to...practice

[00:07:07:05]	in like, the practice time, but we would also have a performance class where we would perform it

[00:07:11:07]	in front of kids, so we had to learn it and be, like, competent at it. 

[00:07:15:10]	at certain points in time. [ Interviewer ]: So, was this a performance class, like you

[00:07:19:12]	would go to a piano class that was specifically on performing?

[00:07:23:14]	Sean: Well, yeah...you learned the songs, you learned a lot of songs, but you would maybe go

[00:07:27:15]	for, you know, five...ten minutes, and each kid

[00:07:31:18]	in the class would perform it... perform one of their songs that

[00:07:35:19]	they'd been learning with their instructor. [ Interviewer ]: So..oh, so this was individual then to group

[00:07:39:20]	Sean: Yeah, it's just a group exercise, in the, you know, 

[00:07:43:21]	in this room with...multiple people, and then you would, like, perform in front of them, so you had to have 

[00:07:47:22]	a certain level of...you know,

[00:07:51:24]	performing ability. It put you on the spot, you were 

[00:07:55:24]	...it kind trained you to memorize

[00:07:59:25]	the piece in front of an audience, which is, you know, if you can do it in front of

[00:08:03:28]	an audience, you can usually do it... in front of...you know...or you 

[00:08:07:29]	could just...you know it...It's there. It's not something that you just kind of

[00:08:12:00]	sight-read, but something that is engrained

[00:08:16:01]	...Or you could be playing

[00:08:20:02]	you know, with...But, so...

[00:08:24:04]	since it's not like sight-reading because, you know, you can't really

[00:08:28:05]	...I myself can't perform at my best if I just...look at 

[00:08:32:08]	something and be like, sight-reading it for the first time. I have to practice it.

[00:08:36:08]	I have to figure out the...different

[00:08:40:10]	[ Interviewer ]: Aspects? Sean: Well, yeah, you have to figure

[00:08:44:11]	out when you have to get louder, or, you know, softer, or when...things

[00:08:48:13]	need to go slow or they need to speed up and build up and

[00:08:52:14]	cause...that's a big part of not just learning it

[00:08:56:16]	you know, learning the notes, but actually learning the music. 

[00:09:00:20]	With guitar, you know, there's a lot of different change that you can make

[00:09:04:21]	just...from reading it off the sheet, but also to

[00:09:08:22]	make it...the song.

[00:09:12:23]	There's almost...a two dimensionality to the 

[00:09:16:24]	sheet music, not just literally, but like, 

[00:09:20:26]	figuratively, when you have to, you know, get the song translated from

[00:09:24:29]	robotic sense to...what it needs to be. [ Interviewer ]: Right.

[00:09:29:01]	So, you mentioned the guitar. I can see you have

[00:09:33:03]	a guitar, obviously. Could you maybe share a story about

[00:09:37:04]	the transition between... one instrument, whether it's piano,

[00:09:41:05]	to another guitar...or to another instrument, and then the guitar...or

[00:09:45:08]	just piano to guitar...what that was like? Sean: It was...yeah it was

[00:09:49:08]	from piano to guitar. I mean I...

[00:09:53:10]	started learning piano, but then also in middle school I'd done choir

[00:09:57:11]	so we kind of had to read sheet music while we were singing...vocal. 

[00:10:01:11]	Simple music, as a group.

[00:10:05:13]	Kept me in a certain...a different genre

[00:10:09:15]	of instruments, of playing and singing, but

[00:10:13:16]	then we also...

[00:10:17:20]	did a lot of contemporary music,

[00:10:21:21]	along with classical, so...we tried to like

[00:10:25:22]	cover a lot of different genres as a choir, but...so that had some

[00:10:29:23]	power...over my interests 

[00:10:33:25]	in...you know, what I like to listen to but...then I got

[00:10:37:27]	to guitar, and...it was just...

[00:10:41:29]	the first day in this class, this guitar class in high school,

[00:10:46:00]	I just like...didn't even know how to like, hold the guitar, cause I was just like

[00:10:50:03]	...you know, it's kind of an instrument where you'd...lay it down and 

[00:10:54:05]	you like, wouldn't really know how to like...and so I 

[00:10:58:07]	played it like this, cause I'm left handed and I didn't, you know, ever know how to play

[00:11:02:09]	so...but... [ Interviewer ]: So do you play...

[00:11:06:10]	Sean:...it can only be played a certain way unless you have to like, restring it, but

[00:11:10:11]	anyway, so...

[00:11:14:13]	Jimi Hendrix...would do it that way... that's kind of funny, but anyway

[00:11:18:14]	[ Interviewer ]: How did transitioning

[00:11:22:16]	...or how did having to switch... did that have any affect on

[00:11:26:19]	having to switch, like, sides?

[00:11:30:21]	Like than you would normally...naturally play? Sean: Let me...thinking about it...so yeah.

[00:11:34:22]	When I play...a piece

[00:11:38:23]	we...would always have

[00:11:42:25]	kind of like, you'd have a lot of... fast movement in the 

[00:11:46:29]	right hand, and then in the left hand you would have kind of a bass ear.

[00:11:51:00]	to hear...tone, even with piano, because...you wanted to get the low tones and also the higher

[00:11:55:01]	tones to create the melody, and so then

[00:11:59:02]	you know, you'd have two things playing at once. And it was different because

[00:12:03:04]	like, with the left hand, you actually have all the movements, and then the right hand you have the picking.

[00:12:07:05]	With the picking, that's why I like finger picking

[00:12:11:07]	an acoustic guitar so much, just because you can

[00:12:15:09]	explore the...fast motion with the

[00:12:19:10]	hand, and then you also have like... I have a...guitar pick

[00:12:23:12]	somewhere...but anyway...

[00:12:27:13]	so we did a lot...we started off with...really basic 

[00:12:31:14]	sheet music, in this class, getting back to... the class that I was taking...

[00:12:35:16]	and so when we used... do you want me to talk

[00:12:39:17]	about the class or do you want me to talk about...

[00:12:43:19]	how I learned guitar music? [ Interviewer ]: Whatever you want to

[00:12:47:20]	talk about, but yeah, more geared towards how you

[00:12:51:21]	like...what...I was trying to ask, sorry, to clarify, was 

[00:12:55:22]	what was the transition like from learning piano

[00:12:59:23]	and building all of that up, all of that musical theory

[00:13:03:24]	and whatnot, and skill and practice, to learning

[00:13:07:26]	the guitar? What was that like? Sean: I mean...it helped.

[00:13:11:28]	I...don't really recall

[00:13:15:29]	well...let me think about this...

[00:13:19:29]	like from piano, there were definite

[00:13:24:02]	...changes...

[00:13:28:03]	in how I had to think about music, but

[00:13:32:04]	...let me think about this...it's hard to

[00:13:36:05]	...put to words. 

[00:13:40:08]	So, the note...the...keys

[00:13:44:08]	in piano are all learned separately because they're 

[00:13:48:09]	are...the black keys versus the white keys, you know all the 

[00:13:52:10]	sharps and flats in the notes, that would determine the key

[00:13:56:11]	that you were in, and you would start with a root note, and a key, and so you would

[00:14:00:14]	find all those to build a scale, and you had a 

[00:14:04:15]	a bunch of scales in...your arsenal of music

[00:14:08:17]	and certain songs would have certain scales, A major, C major

[00:14:12:19]	G major, and then the minors, which were like B flat or

[00:14:16:20]	E minor and D minor.

[00:14:20:21]	But then they would kind of

[00:14:24:22]	set the mood of the song...and so you... you would learn that, but with

[00:14:28:22]	guitar, you would have different, certain notes that you'd play,

[00:14:32:24]	it was a little different in guitar cause that's for piano.

[00:14:36:27]	In guitar, you would learn certain scales based on what 

[00:14:41:00]	where you were on the fret board...

[00:14:45:01]	and I...learned...major scale

[00:14:49:02]	is, you know, basic penatonic scales, it sets the

[00:14:53:04]	tone of the...

[00:14:57:05]	of the song itself.

[00:15:01:07]	so when you like... [ Guitar Music ]

[00:15:05:10]	[ Music Continued... ] Sean: ...you'd have that penatonic scale that would

[00:15:09:11]	if you...manipulated it in a certain

[00:15:13:13]	way, like you would have, like a blues [ Guitar Music ]

[00:15:17:14]	[ Music Continued ]

[00:15:21:16]	[ Music Continued ] Sean: And...

[00:15:25:18]	you would get that, you know, kind of blues tone, but then you also had like

[00:15:29:19]	power chords, that kind of... you set a progression

[00:15:33:20]	of chords together and that's... that would be how you would play

[00:15:37:21]	the song and how you would hit the certain notes. [ Guitar Music ]

[00:15:41:22]	[   Music Continued   ] [ Interviewer ]: So, in...piano, are there any things like...

[00:15:45:24]	grouped and...I mean I don't play piano. Sean: Oh, and so like...

[00:15:49:25]	the certain groups of notes on the...sorry, to explain more...the certain, to come back 

[00:15:53:27]	it, the certain groups of chords that you would create

[00:15:57:28]	the certain notes that you would hit... based on like, how you're

[00:16:02:01]	farther up on the fret board and stuff would... and also the finger position

[00:16:06:02]	it was more about finger position, then you would... [ Music ]

[00:16:10:04]	...create this...you would create this

[00:16:14:06]	...these notes, like...

[00:16:18:10]	...let me think. [ Interviewer ]: Like piano? Sean: Yeah, like piano... and piano

[00:16:22:24]	would be split up in similar ways to, like, if you're picking versus if you're reading

[00:16:26:25]	individual notes. You'd create this you know...foot, you would create for

[00:16:30:26]	chords, and you would create...octaves and

[00:16:34:26]	that would make, you know, you could get an octave in there and hit the same

[00:16:38:26]	key on both the octaves so that they'd have the same tone, different pitches

[00:16:42:26]	and that would help build the song.

[00:16:46:27]	[ Interviewer ]: So, is it more about, like, the way you play

[00:16:50:27]	or...the way you have to warm your hands up that kind of is similar

[00:16:54:27]	between...or, like, having to pick up the guitar after the piano that was something that

[00:16:58:27]	helped? Like, having the skill building from piano?

[00:17:02:28]	Sean: ...

[00:17:06:28]	Let's see...repeat that a little bit.

[00:17:10:28]	[ Interviewer ]: The skill building from, like, technically

[00:17:14:29]	...physically, with your hands...you sort of just 

[00:17:18:29]	were talking about picking versus... playing the piano, like

[00:17:22:29]	hitting it, so you're sort of talking about the physicality of it, 

[00:17:26:29]	is that what you're trying to say? That helped? 

[00:17:31:00]	Sean: Yeah...I mean, it helped in like, you know,

[00:17:35:00]	getting the hand position. I mean this is only with one hand where as in

[00:17:39:01]	the piano you could get both hands going to different notes, you know, you can only have

[00:17:43:01]	one set of notes in this, where as piano you have two, but

[00:17:47:01]	...is that what you're trying to say? 

[00:17:51:01]	[ Interviewer ]: Yeah... Sean: It...I mean it..learning

[00:17:55:02]	sheet music ...kind of got me to 

[00:17:59:02]	learn rhythm, and it was a way of... mainly just finding my rhythm

[00:18:03:02]	and sheet music that also got me to translate

[00:18:07:02]	it to where I...when I had the guitar.

[00:18:11:03]	Well, anyway. 

[00:18:15:03]	[ Interviewer ]: Okay, well do you have any finishing comments? Sean: Do you have any other questions?

[00:18:19:03]	[ Interviewer ]: No, I think we got a good narrative. Sean: Really?

[00:18:23:03]	[ Interviewer ]: Yep, thank you! Sean: Okay, sounds good. Thanks for watching. 

[00:18:27:03]