Sixth Story: Tape Recorded Transcript With Jason Vanselow

Q: What is your current occupation?
A: Musician and music teacher. A music student as well.

Q: How long have you worked here at Anoka-Ramsey?
A: This is my second full year.

Q: What do you teach here?
A: Here I teach guitar and rock history, and I teach classic guitar at the U of M (twin cities in Minneapolis) and I teach piano at St. Paul Academy in Summit School in St. Paul, and I teach guitar at a little place called Grace Academy over near Round Lake Blvd and Bunker Hills drive.

Q: Approximately how many students do you teach -ballpark?
A: In classrooms I probably teach 175 kids and then I probably have 20-25 for private lessons each week.

Q: What do you like teaching the most?
A: You know, everything has it's challenges, the great thing about what I do is its not the same everyday. So there's a new thing everyday. There's no monotony whatsoever, it never gets boring. And so I love talking about rock and roll because it's what I grew up listening too and I'm a geek so I love all the you know, the stupid urban legends and stuff like that. Playing guitar has been a great thing in my life so sharing that with other people is a great thing too. So everyday is a different ballgame.

Q: Which part of the musical process do you like teaching or instructing the most?
A: The part I've done the most is teaching people when they have not ever picked up a guitar before. That's what I've done the most. I do like that but I do like when people come further in the process so we can talk about how to make it sound better. In the classroom I like having good discussions where people have really good ideas about what's going on, and it's not just me talking 'have been' or talking to them, its a dialogue. It's hard to get to that point sometimes because early in the morning they're not interested. You have to sort of prompt things. I do like it when we get to the point to where we get to talk about stuff.

Q: What do you like least about doing your job in general?
A: Administrative details.

Q: Is there anything involving music you don't like doing as much?
A: No, actually you know music is such a great subject there's so many things to talk about. So there is never...you can't get bored with it.

Q: Where did you attend college?
A: I got my Bachelors degree at the University of St. Thomas. I got a Masters Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music which is in the arm of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and right now I'm studying for my DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) at the U of M.

Q: Why did you choose that school (Cleveland Institute of Music)?
A: I auditioned at a bunch of different places that was the place that I got in and I liked the teacher enough and just decided what the hell; try it.

Q: What is one important lesson you learned in college that you use when teaching others today?
A: Well, everyone learns at their own pace. There are no students that are going to do the same thing in the same way. I mean there are trends and patterns and everything like that but nobody ever learns the same thing; anything the same way. And everybody after a while forgets how to suck and have to remember. It takes a while to get back on the thing and that's..they have to let it go a little bit. So you have to take a step back to take three steps forward.

Q: What instruments do you play?
A: Piano, Guitar and I sing a little bit.

Q: Have you always sung?
A: yes

Q: What is your favorite instrument to play?
A: Its a toss up between guitar and piano. I love them both.

Q: What instruments do you own?
A: I have three guitars that I play on a regular basis. I just moved so I had to give up my piano. That's a drag.

Q: What kind was that (piano)?
A: It was this big non-discript 100 year old upright that never stayed in tune but it was mine. You know?

Q: How long did you have that for (piano)?
A: Five, six years maybe. It was the first place I lived where I was able to have a piano -in my house. So it was hard to give it up.

Q: Which out of your three guitars is your favorite?
A: I have three guitars that I use on a regular basis and they each have their own moment. And I would know if they didn't..I'd get rid of them (laughing). The one that I bring here (Anoka-Ramsey) to teach with, is just set up to play like nothing. The big acoustic I play in concert halls is just a big booming sound which is great fun.

Q: What is your favorite band or some of them?
A: You know right now I'm playing a lot of J. S. Bach so I like Bach and Coldplay's last record is good.

Q: What's your favorite song to play?
A: He wrote (J. S. Bach) a bunch of things for solo violin that are relatively easily put on to guitar. I'm playing some of that right now. I'm really enjoying it.

Q: What's the first song you learned to play?
A: I learned piano from straight from those geeky piano method books. I learned 'Smoke On The Water' on the guitar.

Q: What is your favorite song to play now on the guitar?
A: There is things that I like that I can just go with. If I'm just needling around, 'Sweet Home Alabama' is remarkably easy to play.

Q: Do you teach that song (Sweet Home Alabama) in your class?
A: Sometimes. Depends on the student.

Q: Are you learning to play any new songs right now?
A: Yeah, I actually have a concert Novemeber 18th that I'm learning stuff for right now. The degree that I'm going for is five hour long concerts so the last three years I have learned a concert a year. Which, you know takes six months to a year to learn a new concert for your repituar.

Q: For the guitar?
A: Yeah.

Q: Is that solo?
A: Yes

Q: Do you just go in front of instructors?
A: Well you can invite as many people you can get there and you try and play it all out and you know do the ole play the hole concert five or six different times. It's like going to a orchestral concert with just the guitar.

Q: Do you pick your own song for thoughs (concerts)?
A: Yes.

Q: Recently, what song has been the most difficult for you to learn?
A: Well, right now I've been learning a musical forum. If you had singers singing it, it would take three singers. One singer would sing one part, and you would have to play it all at the same time. So that's challenging.

Q: When your learning to play a song for the first time what's the first thing you do? What's the first thing you concentrate on?
A: The first thing I would do..hopefully I would have heard a recording of it and I sort of know how it goes and sort of listen for what I am feeling rather than just reading it on the page otherwise it's a lot of 'where do my finger go next'? Because a lot of the stuff that I play is not written for guitar originally, so you have to take this piece of music and fit it to the instrument rather than if you play rock music all the stuff that you play on guitar is on guitar, it is written for guitar. So everything has its place. But if you learn stuff from other instruments and you try to put it on it, you have to figure out whats going to work upon that instrument.

Q: About how long would it take you to learn a rock song (on the guitar)?
A: Well depending if we're talking about a U2 song or a Cold Play song -in ten minutes.

Q: Where is your favorite place to play when by yourself?
A: The coach in the living room.

Q: When did you first start playing?
A: I started playing piano when I was four years old and I started playing guitar when I was twelve.

Q: When did you know you wanted to do this and/or do this for a living?
A: I'm still wondering about that. Well, doing it for a living, I always wanted to do it for a living. I never had that 'I don't know what I wanted to do thing in college'. I went into college, and I went to that college to study with the guitar teacher that was there. So I knew kinda where I wanted to go. But the idea of doing it for a living was always sort of tenuous...and that's what I knew how to do.

Q: If music was out of the question, what would you be doing know?
A: I thought about being a lawyer. But that's one of the things I thought about in high school.

Q: Who or what influenced you to start playing the guitar?
A: My parents were musicians and we always had music in the house like Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Crosby Stills and Nash. So there was always a sense of sound in the house.

Q: Have you ever played in any bands?
A: Yes.

Q: What type of music did you guys play?
A: Pop rock. I played in church bands too. I played in wedding bands where you play 'Brown Eyed Girl' and all of the standard cheesy stuff and I played in bands where you played some guy's original material and seven people show up and you just play for rehearsal money basically.

Q: What were some of the names of your bands?
A: Taxi Dancer was a good one, umm that was my favorite name.

Q: What was it like to play in front of people?
A: It can be really, really nerve racking when your up there by yourself and you don't know anyone and there's a lot of people out there. When your with a group of people..when your with a band..or a couple of other guitar players than it is somewhat comfortable and the sound you can make with each other is really amazing.