Taylor's Third Class

It was supposed to have been the third music class.
It ended up being a night to remember.

I knew Taylor from the Ulpan. He was one of the American kids. I was never real friends with any of those kids until pretty much after the Ulpan ended. Maybe some jams with BJ, maybe some nights out smoking with Josh, but certainly not much with Taylor. But after that night, it all changed.

Wow, it sounds pretty gay so far. Let me just clear out that I’m Caio. One of the Brazilian kids. Maybe that old Brazilian dude with the long hair and the guitar. The one who spoke English so well, that his pickup line was that he was from Baltimore. The salty Balties. Hey, that’s a great name for a band!

And my relationship with Taylor was only that of two friends, school-mates sort of speak. Two guys studying and living in Israel in a six-month Jewish program. And we both, since the beginning, established ourselves within a certain stereotype, we willingly embodied an archetype. I was the guitar dude, with the long hair. He was the raver, with the cool gloves. Some people thought they were lame, I always thought they were kind of cool.

The first time that me and Taylor connected, musically, was one night on the beach. Hannah and Maya wanted to go explore the cool crisp eastern Mediterranean beach vibe, and so some guys decided to come with. And among them, there was me with the guitar, and Taylor with the gloves.

The night was fun. We crashed a 70s style tent party, filled with 30 year olds. Danced a little and then moved to a quieter side of the beach. We then jammed a little with the guitar. I led, as usual, but Taylor, surprisingly was one of the most enthusiastic about it. He actually joined me for pretty much the entire session. We actually liked the same style of guitar rock and so we sang many songs together.

Despite the fact that first jam was a success, the history of the Ulpan would show, if ever re-written, that me and Taylor naturally started moving apart, pledging allegiance to certain groups, naturally sprung around that unforgettable Ulpan.

And the weeks turned into months, Taylor gradually stopped playing with his gloves in public anymore. Or at least that was what seamed from my perspective. So when they put together the talent show, around October, I was the one who really gave incentive to Taylor’s glove act. And even though he was reluctant at first, he eventually sign up in the talent show.

And he did very well. I didn’t do as well as him, when I performed solo. Sure, my duo performances with Jimmy and Etai were pretty good. But when I was alone up there, playing for the first time in my life with the strap on, I wasn’t very good. Shit, I sucked! But Taylor didn’t, he really delivered. And I think that episode had something to do with his participating way more actively towards the end of the Ulpan, especially the barbecue that he and Menachem organized for New Year’s Eve. That was a night to remember!

Well, after the Ulpan, there were only twenty some people left. And that was when those that stayed a little bit longer had their best times there. I’m sure that was my case! And that was when our friendship started to grow stronger.

It all started one night, in Taylor’s room. He, BJ, Josh, Michael and I were smoking, drinking and talking about the Ulpan, the people, Mike, the next move and all those things that we wanted to have done with the people that had already left. Phew.

One of those things was mine and Taylor’s music classes. Once I think he asked me if I would teach him something. Maybe we had a moment or two in the piano together. Maybe he saw me teach something to somebody, I don’t know. But that night me and him decided to have the first music class.

I got so excited that I put a class plan together in a second. A jiffy if you would. The concept was simple. Improvisation, jamming and music theory. Music philosophy, if you would.

The first was class was very theoretical and philosophical. Most of the parenthesis that I opened during my monologue, are still waiting to be closed to this day. I went on and on about what was sound, music, art, language, science and the humanization of nature. The mathematical transcription that we apply to nature. Digitalization, bro.

That somehow led us to western music, its musical notations and symbols. And we almost jammed a little in the end. It were good two hours spent together. I’m sure he didn’t regret sitting in that cold piano room, with a dude six years older than him, listening to that Brazilian guy babble on and on about all that shit that’s way more interesting when you’re high. And that has to be said, in that class, the teacher was high on Picon3. The student too, sure, but in another way. If you know what I’m saying, of course.

The second class was more of the same. He showed me some stuff he had done by himself. His homework, his ideas and his doubts. We jammed some more, maybe played a song of two, and I saw promise in that kid. He was only 18, an electronic music fan. A raver, for crying out loud. And he was my first true music student.

Time then got away from us. We could never find time to have that third class. The one to end things in a high note. When we realized it, January was over and we would have to leave the kibbutz. Oh those were amazing times. The Ulpan at Ma’agan Michael. Highly recommended. Vai com fé. Just beware of Mike.

Then the last day came. Me, him and Menachem were the last ulpanists left. And that last afternoon, I was heading to Tel Aviv, to meet up Avi, Patrick and Natasha. Oh yeah, I was also going to the city to busk and try to make some money in the streets. I was already used to doing that by myself, had made actually a good amount in my busking attempts in Tel Aviv, Eilat and Amsterdam.

That was when we realized. Why didn’t he just came with me, tagged along with a real life musician for a night out in the streets? It was a perfect unplanned ending. The musician wannabe watching the working musician. As any true class should end. With the student actually witnessing the importance of what’s being taught. If the techniques aren’t used precisely in that manner I was taught, then why did I learn it? So that’s why teachers should follow in my footsteps and always try their best to make it clear to every student, the importance of what’s being taught.

I took him with me to Tel Aviv to show him what living from music really meant. At least to me, at that point. I was trying to live from music, make money from it. And he would like, one day, why not? Sounds pretty good. It’s everybody’s dream, isn’t it? Living off of music? I would love to. But it’s hard.

On the way there, we, for some reason, started talking about giving and paying it forward. Helping people without looking for some in return. Oh yeah, I remembered why. It was because we hitchhiked from the kibbutz to the train station and we got a bad lift. I mean, the lady was nice enough to drive us all the way to Binyamina, but dropped us 10 blocks from the train station. I mean, sure, she lived right there, she was home. So she had helped us a lot already. But come on, just take a 3 minute detour in your day and give a 30 minute gift card to a couple of striving musicians!

So that’s how we started talking about being kind and giving gifts to people. Helping people and telling them to pay it forward. Hell, that’s the beginning of all the ramifications that led me to write the Brazilian-Hungarian manifest, in my last night in Budapest, some weeks after that.

But this is already getting too big. I’ll continue it later.

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