Bastiaan van der Waals studied piano with Geoffrey Madge at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he graduated in 1999. He received his first training at the music school in Meppel where he studied with Arnold Akse. He got lessons song accompaniment from Han Louis Meijer and instrumental accompaniment of Hans Eijsackers. He attended master classes by Irwin Gage, Ivan Moravec and Rudolf Jansen.

Now he teaches at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Here he gives harmony at the piano, classical piano and methodology minor classical piano. He is also teacher at PIPO (Introductory Piano Education Programme), where children are offered an integrated programme of general music education and piano lessons. He also has a private teaching practice.