 At age 10, Deriashnyj began to learn to play the bandura from his father, a known performer on and maker of banduras Fedir Deriashnyj.At age 17 he began to study guitar.In July 1968 he began to study the Kharkiv style of bandura from Hryhory Bazhul who in the early 1930s in Ukraine had studied bandura under Hnat Khotkevych.