Beating expectations

My grandfather was a timmerman, and although I don’t recall him as a very open and warm person, having lived through poverty and involuntarily working for the nazi’s, he somehow tolerated a 4-year-old me on my noisy wooden clogs to accompany him in his shed. This is probably a good moment to explain that the word timmer translates to; to hammer/ beat/ strike and more of those hitting synonyms, and to simplify my passion and career: I apparently loved to hit things.

Around this same age, when we would not be at my grandparents’ house, I would often end up frustrating my mother when she wanted to cook food in the afternoon, because I often had stolen most of her cookware. After some time my grandfather must have gotten aware of this daily battle of the pans, because he made me my own mini kitchen, with an oven, stove and (sometimes) working lights. I played a lot with it alternating between stirring in right-side-up pans (possibly explaining my passion for cooking and food) and banging the bottoms with wooden spoons.

The Netherlands is a very wet country, and to prepare Dutch children for a safe life between our many canals, rivers and lakes, the first ‘official’ swimming lessons were given in Amsterdam in the mid-19^th century. More than 150 years later 90% of children at least acquire diploma A, 75% diploma B and around 33% diploma C. After I had proven to be able to probably not drown by completing this 3-letter hattrick, my parents told me I could choose a sport and an instrument to play. I, apparently still loving to hit stuff, choose tennis and drums.

First steps… in 2006

My first teacher Giovanni Timmermans taught me to hold my sticks, to play all kinds of different genres, and that he was a big Apple-nerd. He also taught me to always show up, even when not prepared, and to deal with the fact that the lesson might be awkward the first minutes because of this lack of preparation. And that if I was willing to put in the effort, there was always something to work on and to learn. I now realise that Giovanni was also the very first friend I made through music, and that I have not seen him in way too long, and that I will contact him soon (I promise!).

In the summer just after my first drum lessons, me and my family went to The Hague, at the Dutch coast. After spending the day on the beach, we were on our way back to the car, which was parked in the garage just across the theatre in which all the big Broadway-like musicals were performed. My parents had visited the Elton John and Tim Rice version of Aida a few weeks earlier, and my whilst my dad was talking about that visit, an elderly couple exited the theatre. My dad bluntly asked them: “You are not leaving, are you?” But they were, because of some issue with their ears and loud music. My dad proceeded his blunt intrusion of their evening by asking whether we maybe could have their tickets, and this is how 7-year-old me and my older sister got to see the (rather confusing) second half of the show. Afterwards, I insisted on taking a look into the orchestra-pit, and after gazing down and talking to some musicians, on the way out I declared: “That’s what I am gonna do when I grow up”.

This plan stuck, all the way through primary and secondary school, so much so, that I did not really have any back-up plan for when I might not get accepted into a conservatory. The plan was to apply for studying drums, and therefore on the T-junction between Jazz and Classical, choosing the jazz-direction. My once hobbyist-guitarist father had mainly shared BB King, Santana and more guitar-dominant music with me, and although I had been playing in the local wind band with my sister for a while, I had never properly experienced the beauty of classical music.

Classics in the Club

Up until this point, because I skipped an introductory musical instrument like the very common recorder, I could not read music well, only scores for drums. Because this skill was necessary for subjects like harmony and solfege, at the age of 16 I got a second teacher to help me prepare for the auditions. This new teacher, Marleen Verhoeff, chose to do so by playing Bach inventions on marimba together. This music, its composer and all the other music Marleen introduced me to, completely shifted my paradigm, and after a few months I said goodbye to the desire of studying jazz-drums and started an intense 2-year preparation for an audition to study classical percussion.

I am still not entirely sure what it was in Bach’s music that immediately struck the right chord with me upon hearing this music for the very first time. I might have heard some background-Bach in commercials, bookstores or in some tv-programme, but since I had never attentively listened to classical music, I could never tell for sure. Over the years, I have come to realise that it is probably the sheer logic and mathematical preciseness of Bach’s composing that resonates so well with me. There is a sense of predictiveness, which never becomes dull or monotonous to me. I was definitely not the top of my class in harmony or analysis, but somehow, I seem to intrinsically know and feel how the music of Bach and his contemporaries ‘should’ sound.

Going classic!

Furthermore, playing the inventions with my teacher gave a me my very first experiences in playing something not-exclusively rhythmical, and together with another musician too! I do not want to depreciate drums (I still very much like to play them in my cover band), but there was something about the flowing melodies which supplemented each other in such a satisfying way that made me want to make more music than I feel I might have been making when pursuing ‘only’ drums.

I am very happy about this sudden change of plans. My father has always described me as someone who sees a very small possibility and jumps in headfirst. Sometimes finding that the possibility was too slim to work out, but much more often diving so determined that the small opportunity has no other choice than to grow bigger and eventually work out in my favour.

My life in classical music has brought me many beautiful friends and wonderful experiences. These friends and the history of music and the world around it have taught me almost everything that I believe in and stand for. I think I may have found the true value of music in our world, and I strive to share it with as many people as possible.
Please stay tuned for my upcoming posts and follow me on Instagram (@JarickB), I have much more to tell you!