May 1, 2017

Meet Derek Ferwerda of The Guitar Room and The Music Dojo

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Derek Ferwerda.

Derek, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Every aspect of my life has led to exactly where I am and why.

My heart has always been open, and I have always done my best to embrace what has been presented to me in life. That includes both tragedy and joy. Notice I didn’t say happiness, happiness is circumstantial and joy is a miracle that comes from within even in the face of tragedy or hardship.

My overall attitude was formed by four of my Dutch relatives that were survivors of World War II concentration camps. Before I move to the United States, having been raised in Puerto Rico and Holland, my relatives sat me down and started their conversations with me by presenting their tattoos from the camps that incarcerated them. They simply said this and I will never ever forget it, “Derek, despite our unspeakable tortures, the Nazis could only take away our love for God, our love for life, our education and our love for people if we let them! Have faith that God can and will carry you through anything and give you the power to not let your heart go bitter! “If I have one major inspiration in my life it is this. My relatives were people of faith who were tested like no other. They were part of the Dutch underground that hid all the Jews that they possibly could until they were caught in early 1945. I had the immeasurable honor and blessing to be both related to and inspired by them.

I am the son of a Holland born civil engineer who came to the United States in 1936 and by 1942 was on Guadalcanal winning several medals for bravery. My mother was an Italian immigrant who also came to the United States in the 1930s. She went on to earn four Master’s degrees and two doctorates. She became a medical doctor and an educator having taught in many of the world’s universities including Columbia in New York and the University of Columbia in Bogotá, Columbia.

Having grown up in Puerto Rico, music was a critical part of our culture and part of my first language. A neighbor and friend was famous folk singer songwriter José Feliciano. He held an annual Christmas Eve party that we attended every year. Also New York born jazz musician Latino Tito Puento had a place near us in Puerto Rico. Young Tito Jr. and I were friends. I learned how to play all my percussion instruments, trumpet and trombone while living in Puerto Rico. I learned it all by ear, initially, like we all learned our first language.

At age 10, I moved to the Netherlands, my father’s birthplace, and lived next door to eccentric rock musician Frank Zappa. My sister’s job all through high school was babysitting Moon Unit and Dweezal Zappa. I guess I was meant to be a musician.

In the Netherlands, I began playing euphonium and wound up playing first chair in the Royal Dutch Youth Orchestra in Amsterdam. After the Netherlands, I came to the United States and moved to New Jersey.

I had no aspirations of being a musician. My forte was martial arts. I had started martial arts in Puerto Rico being inspired by Bruce Lee and The Green Hornet TV show. By the time I moved to the United States I was already a 2^nd degree black belt. I hadn’t even touched a guitar yet, and I was 12 years old. I landed myself in a good martial arts school that was run by legendary martial artist Ed Parker, who was based in California. I wound up advancing through the ranks in martial arts, and fighting my way through the national circuit. By the time I was 16, I had earned 3 national titles and a world record but had developed an endocrine disease, which was completely debilitating. During this time, I learned how to play guitar. My mom got me a guitar to help me overcome a crippling disease and depression. It worked. The physiological condition went away and I sat down, having much time and patience, and taught myself how to play guitar by using my ear and listening to everything and anyone around me. When I finally made it back to school, many kids and teachers asked me if I would help them learn.

Since I had been a successful martial arts teacher, because teaching is part of the package when you earn a black belt and keep increasing your ranks, teaching guitar came naturally to me. My martial arts students were doing amazing, and now I had guitar students. I was still in high school and found myself morphing into the teacher that I wish I had, someone who is patient, encouraging and would nurture my ear and would treat music like a lyrical and rhythmic conversation that you would have with yourself and others. I didn’t know how to articulate it then, but that’s what I did.

I received an invitation to the 1980 US Olympic karate team, but since the games were boycotted, I never went. Soon after that I had a major knee injury from martial arts and that ended my martial arts career quickly. So, I took my music hobby, along with that patient and steadfast focus that I had from martial arts, and turned it into a career. I would get jobs when much better players would have been more suited, but I was hungry, eager and enthusiastic. That helped pave my music career, however, I always loved teaching and maintained students.

Eventually, I got really good gigs on the road. Marvin Gaye, Hall and Oates, Rick Springfield, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, The Spin Doctors and many more. But I love teaching. I love teaching!!! I love teaching because there’s no such thing as teaching!!! There’s only learning. And you have to create an environment where someone can learn. From everything that I have come to know and surrender to as a person and as a musician, you learn by example. You learn from someone who will intentionally give you something to model or follow. Sadly, this works in the negative as well. Anyone who has come from an abusive background can testify that this dynamic works.

Like any other language in the world, music is a language, and it is learned initially by mimicking sounds and rhythms. We learned our language because we had a desire to communicate with the people around us and we listened to conversations already in progress. We didn’t “learn” how to speak. We started speaking. Then, we learned how to read and write after we learned how to speak. Anyone who studied a foreign language in school remembered sitting in a classroom for five years yet not being able to have a conversation. I don’t believe there are bad students. I believe there are bad teachers. I have learned as much if not more from my students as they have learned from me! If your heart is open, and you are accountable to God, your students and their families, it’s amazing what can get done.

I have a video that speaks into all of this directly. I would be very honored if you would choose to watch this to the end. It is 13 minutes of dialogue followed by three minutes of music. And it is very close to my heart.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has been intense.

I find myself wishing I could erase many of my memories.

But through my faith and allowing the people around me to support me knowing that they were put in my life for a reason, I have not only survived, but have thrived.

I find inspiration in people who have suffered greatly and have chosen to love, regardless. I think of precious little Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan. This precious young girl fought for her right for an education. She was shot in the head, survived and went on to champion women’s rights for an education. She was 13 years old. God bless her. Things like this inspire me.

All right – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Guitar Room and The Music Dojo – what should we know?
I offer an intense variety of instruments and styles of music and training for many different musical environments. “The Guitar Room” is an affectionate term. “The Music Dojo” is really what it is. We get in there and play together. Soon after students learn very simple basics on their instruments and start playing with others.

Specifically, I play electric and acoustic guitar in many different music styles: Rock, county, jazz, contemporary, blues, R&B, alternative, Latin jazz, metal and more. I was a session player for more artists than I can remember. I feel like I have toured with more people than I can remember. That background sets me apart.

Most teachers will sit down with a music stand and a sheet of music. Most teachers came out of music school and began teaching. That is a lot of work and I admire it. But that’s not what I offer. I have had a huge career in music. My students already have had huge careers in music and continue to have them – The band Manchester Orchestra for starters.

As a teacher, I offer electric and acoustic guitar and in various styles, bass guitar in several styles, drums in several styles, and percussion, mostly Latin percussion.

I also develop artist and singer songwriters. I have a Cleo award for 1987 jingle, “The great American road belongs to Buick.” The Cleo awards are the Grammys of the jingle field.

So, I also teach song writing. I do artist development and coach bands, both start up and professional. The environment where I teach is very communal and playing in bands happens naturally. I have a YouTube site that is under my full name and most of those videos are actual lessons with students. They are not rehearsed.

What sets me apart is the combination of my background, the manner in which I teach as well as the incredible success rate of my students.

Finally, I do not avoid reading or writing music formally. I am not a proponent of illiteracy. However, I don’t introduce it at first. Regardless of what our first language was, we learned first by speaking and then we learned how to read and write. Every single person in the world learns their language in this manner when our brains are at infancy. I don’t change up the natural process.

What is amazing is that when you create an environment for people to learn, they quickly come to realize that they learned on their own, and they feel empowered. It’s incredible for me to watch and to be a part of. It’s like watching somebody be born.

Any shout outs? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I do not mean this lightly or flippantly; I am inspired by just about everyone and anything. Yes, there have been specifics. I mention my relatives in the beginning. My father, who was an emotionally cruel man, did break the chain of many abuses that existed and his family! And I will always admire him for that.

I am inspired by a man who I met 10 years ago when I worked in youth ministry at a major church in the Atlanta area. This man was cleaning out the septic tank. It literally blew up and covered him with waste. And knocked him down to the ground. When I asked him if he was OK and if I could do anything for him this was his verbatim response “Thank you fine sir. I am OK. Thank you fine sir. I am OK, and I am glad to be alive in the Lord”

I hope one day to have his attitude!

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