Dive into the Music World and Learn It with Maarten Crefcoeur

“Oh, can I make one more suggestion?” For the third time, I’ve changed my mind about where Maarten and I should meet, “What would you say about Parukářka or somewhere you like in Žižkov? As it turns out, I should be later in the evening at the Brix hostel for this sing-along event my boyfriend co-organizes.” “I live close to Brix hostel. If you want we can meet there. Or medium 43 is also a nice bar in that area if Brix is too crowded.” Maarten is on board, and we meet a couple hours later at Brix. It’s not crowded at all – the COVID aftermath.

“I originally come from Holland, where I studied music before I moved here,” Maarten says when we both have a beer in front of us. “And whatever job I did in Prague, I was always looking for fun things to do with music.” Maarten is one of the most music-passionate souls I’ve met. You can find him involved in all kinds of music projects around Prague. From organizing open mics, rearranging music for the live version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, playing guitar and keyboard in an ambient jazz looping project called The Zandloopers, from time to time creating sound effects and music for video games and audiovisual productions… And he also passes his musical wisdom and passion on to his students. 

“Music is all about algorithms” 

Maarten’s music lessons are the main topic I want to talk to him about today. Recently, I started to learn how to play ukulele and got this sudden urge to learn as much about music as I possibly can. But first I’m curious about what Maarten does for a living right now. “Currently, I’m doing a part-time job in IT, so I can still do my music lessons. And I’m very thankful for having that job, because teaching was not going on during the pandemic, so I had a bit of a rough patch.”

“How do IT and music go together?” I ask. “I think there are a lot of parallels between music and logic,” Maarten explains. “It’s all based on algorithms. It’s…” he looks around in search of a metaphor. “It’s similar to cooking; you go to a store, you buy a piece of chicken, and then you already know I’m not going to make bolognese. Because bolognese requires minced meat. So imagine music being like that – there are choices that you can make, and they can heavily affect how it sounds, or what mood you’re trying to set.”

“I can completely lose myself in playing”

“I was never too good at some other subjects at school,” Maarten revisits his childhood in the Netherlands. “Mathematics was perfect, but anything that didn’t involve logic, I just struggled with. And music was something that I would do after school; I would go home, I would play piano for an hour, maybe two hours, and it provided me with an escape from some stress I had. And even nowadays, I can completely lose myself in playing piano or playing guitar, like I’m in some kind of meditative trance state, where somebody needs to physically touch me and say like, ‘Hey, dinner’s ready.’” I laugh at that and Maarten grins, “I have a lot of stories like that.”

As a music student, he lived a couple of hours by train from his mom’s house. “If I wanted to have dinner there, I had to call first. You know, I would need to make a reservation,” Maarten makes me chuckle. “I usually had some cleaning up to do before leaving home, I would start and then play some piano, and then my mom would call, like, ‘Are you already in the train?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh no, I got distracted. I played piano, I only washed like two cups. I’ll go finish it and go.’ And then I would do another two cups and go back to playing piano…” Maarten laughs.

“Music has always been a nice outlet for me. It’s always there. If I’m not feeling good, I can play piano or guitar for an hour, and my day’s great again. Or if I need a solution to a problem, I just start making music and my brain goes into this magical place where basically nothing happens, and where I can just reflect. To be honest, that’s how all the best ideas come to me,” he laughs.

“I’m very passionate about teaching”

Maarten teaches guitar, both electric and acoustic, and piano, and he tailor-makes the lessons for the needs of his students. “Like how?“ I ask. “For example, right before the pandemic, I started group guitar lessons, mainly aimed for advanced students. It’s really fun, we’d all have a beer after the lesson and I could get feedback like, ‘So what do you guys want to learn about?’ And they would go, ‘I want to learn about this, and I want to learn about that.’ And I’m like, ‘Cool!’” Maarten snaps his fingers. “‘I’m gonna fix that for the next lesson.’”

“I mainly teach expats because I don’t speak Czech well enough to do a full lesson with proper feedback. I teach in English, Dutch, and in German, all levels, all ages… No one I have is 80 years old, but you know, parents, kids, and working adults. I just don’t like to combine kids and adults, because kids usually kick ass, and then the adults are like, ‘Mmm, never mind, I don’t want to play guitar anymore.’” Maarten laughs. “I’m kind of joking, but kids indeed learn a lot faster.”

“I do have recommendations for particular situations; so for instance, kids have slightly less of an attention span if they are of a certain age. So for a seven-year-old, it would not make sense to book a lesson for a complete hour because, after thirty minutes, they prefer to show me their Lego collection.” “That must be fun!” I bust out laughing. “Yeah, but that’s not what I’m there for,” Maarten chuckles. “I have recommendations also for people who want to do preparations for studying music and I have also people that just want a few lessons on a very specific subject.”

“Unfortunately, due to corona, everything is postponed to September”

Because of the pandemic, Maarten came up with a new strategy to keep the ball rolling. “I was toying with the idea of online lessons. For some time I’ve had a doubt, because if you’re teaching guitar or piano, it’s all about your posture, how you sit, and how you put your hands around the guitar, and how you place your fingers. These are all things that are very hard to do online because you cannot physically touch someone’s hand and put it in the correct place. If you learn something incorrectly, it’s very hard to unlearn it and I want to provide the best quality of education that I possibly can give.”

However, Maarten figured out a way to share some music knowledge online with advanced students. “Those usually already have the correct posture, so I don’t need to tell them, like, ‘You’re holding your guitar upside-down.’” I laugh at that statement and think to myself that I would totally be the student holding an instrument upside down.

Online Music Theory Masterclass

Maarten continues with a deep dive into his new four-day online music theory lessons. “The first two days are about the basics of music theory and writing down music so that if you give it to someone else, they would be able to play it as well. So it’s very practical for people that hire studio musicians to do some of the work for them.” 

“And the last two days are about understanding compositions. It talks a lot about different types of scales, and what these scales imply; what does it make you feel, or what type of mood it is setting. If you understand the algorithms, you can make better choices on what you want to do with your music, and why you want it to sound like that,” Maarten elaborates.

“People who could benefit from this are people who already play an instrument but don’t know much about music theory. And it’s also for people who already know music, and already know the theory, but want to have a deeper understanding of composition.”

I’m Learning Music Theory

Mmm so the course is not for me, I figure. But the next day I have a message from Maarten, “I was thinking… maybe it would be fun for you to join the lessons. But I understand if it might not be your cup of tea.” “I waaant!” I answer immediately. On Monday at 17:00, I’m ready on Zoom. And expecting that I will probably have no clue about anything. And it is true. But it is also true that Maarten makes sure I’m not left behind. And doesn’t let me give up on myself when I feel like, I will never get this. 

“Good job!” and “I like what you did there,” Maarten encourages us, and so I feel actually pretty accomplished. The lessons are much less theoretical than I expected. It’s super interactive and engaging, full of practical examples and exercise, so the three hours fly by. The last day I’m totally not catching up and eventually decide, despite Maarten’s protests, to leave the session. However, with the taste I got, I’m ready to recommend Maarten’s lessons to anybody who is interested in music.

“I enjoy inspiring other people, or seeing other people thrive”

Back at Brix, I ask Maarten, “What do you enjoy the most about teaching?” “Seeing progress. For sure,” Maarten says without hesitating for a second. “And I feel almost proud when I see somebody that learned something, it’s beautiful. It’s very satisfying.”

“Back in the Netherlands, I had one student. His son was mentally and physically handicapped and unfortunately passed away. But the guy remembered picking him up from music therapy, and there was somebody playing guitar there. And I’ve never had a student so motivated to learn guitar. He would email me the next day after our lesson, like, ‘Oh I know all this stuff now!’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, here’s some more stuff!’ And he would be like, ‘Oh okay, this is hard, but can you explain to me how it goes?’… It was so nice to see how motivated he was, it was very inspiring.”

“I really enjoy inspiring other people, or seeing other people thrive; it’s nice for me to see somebody that is struggling with something, and then being able to help them. And then – I’m not saying within a week, or within a couple of weeks, but within a certain timeframe – see the progress, and see people being grateful for it; it’s a beautiful thing. If I could do this for the rest of my life, I would be very happy.”

Contact Maarten and book a lesson

I rejoice when I find out Maarten also teaches ukulele and is willing to review with me any areas I want to work on, “I always do the first lesson for free. Let me know when you have time and where you think would be the best to meet,” Maarten suggests when I say that I prefer to meet in person rather than via video. So now I’m looking forward to my first lesson!

If you’ve always wanted to learn how to play guitar or piano or improve your skills, then talk to Maarten to find the most fitting type of lesson for you. 

If you’re interested in the online music theory masterclasses, there will be a set of sessions starting on the 3rd of August and the 24th of August (find the schedule at the end of this post).

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And share if you go for some lessons, as I’m collecting your experiences for this month’s blog topic – Learning New Skills!

Learn music theory from the comfort of your home:

Day 1: Basics

• 17:00 – 17:45 Major and minor scales.
• 17:45 – 18:30 How to create a major or minor chord
• 18:30 – 19:15 Circle of 5th’s
• 19:15 – 20:00 Classify chord symbols up to 7’s

Day 2: Classic music notation

• 17:00 – 17:45 Basic overview, clefs time signature, etc.
• 17:45 – 18:30 Rhythmic notation
• 18:30 – 19:15 Melodic notation
• 19:15 – 20:00 Sharps and flats, recognize tonality, differences for different instruments.

Day 3: Modes and scales

• 17:00 – 17:45 Modes within the diatonic scales with examples
• 17:45 – 18:30 Melodic minor and modes
• 18:30 – 19:15 Harmonic minor and modes
• 19:15 – 20:00 Pentatonic, hexatonic, super locrian, bebop

Day 4: Music composition

• 17:00 – 17:45 Functions of intervals / chords
• 17:45 – 18:30 Modal changes
• 18:30 – 19:15 Tritone substitution
• 19:15 – 20:00 How to use reference music for own compositions

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