Until his early 20s, Dániel Franczia vacillated between music and drama, unable to decide on his life’s course.

Franczia, who turned 38 this year, gives credit for his love of music in general, and drums in particular, to his mentors at elementary school in his childhood home city of Győr (120 km west of Budapest by road).

“The school had a special focus on music, and I had fantastic teachers who taught me classical drums, percussion and other instruments,” he tells the Budapest Business Journal.

However, growing up, he struggled to divide his time between general studies and his two great loves, music and acting. Ultimately, music won out, primarily because of the darbuka, the iconic “goblet drum” used by folk musicians in the Middle East and Balkans.

“I loved [the Hungarian band] Besh o droM, who play authentic Gypsy, Balkan and Macedonian music. The drummer, Ádám Pettik, was playing an Egyptian drum. I saw how beautiful this drum was, and I just loved the sound,” he says.

Serendipity also played a role: “My very first darbuka was a Turkish-type instrument. I received it to have something to practice on. I was playing congas in a band, and the band leader gave it to me. He didn’t even know exactly what it was,” he recalls.

Franczia was in his first year studying Hungarian literature and ethics at Veszprém University (120 km southwest of Budapest), and he initially began teaching himself to play by copying Pettik’s style, holding the drum between his legs.

But digging deeper and researching the instrument online, he soon realized native Middle Eastern musicians hold the instrument to the side, under one arm.

“Looking on YouTube, I saw the way the Turks and Arabs play, and I realized it offered far more potential. The better hand gives the base rhythm, and the other hand gives the melody, the ‘color’ to the music. From an anatomical point of view, you can’t do this by holding the drum between your legs. I had to forget the way I was playing and relearn how to play,” he recalls. He also began to wonder if he could help make the instrument popular in Hungary.

“It’s not taught here in any institutional way, and even in the Middle East, if you want to study drumming, you have to visit a master, privately, to learn,” Franczia says.

From Student to Teacher

Practicing hard daily, he eventually “plucked up courage” and began teaching students motivated by his enthusiasm and the thrill of exotic drumming. Franczia employed skills learned when teaching drama to enhance the learning process.

“I started to transfer these practices into music teaching. In effect, I invented these ways of teaching music,” he says. By 2014, confident that he could make a career from his passion alone, he resigned from his day job teaching literature at a state school to begin the very uncertain life of a freelance music teacher.

“My goal was to speak about music so that the love of music should reach more people,” he recalls. Franczia worked hard in the next few years to build relationships with agencies, schools and institutions, but it was not easy to make a living.

“I had to fight hard to achieve anything,” he says. Then, in 2021, the European Capital of Culture team invited him to apply for the so-called Hangjáték program, designed to involve people in music at the grass-roots level.

“The mere fact that I came into the minds of the decision-makers gave me an awful lot of opportunities, and from that point on, a program kicked off that lasted not only for one year but for three,” he says. “Moreover, this was the very first occasion when I felt I did not have to struggle for some financial income, and I could focus on what I like to do.”

Given a free hand by the organizers, Franczia began holding what he dubs “Joy Drumming” workshops free every week. Typically attracting 10 to 30 people from all ages and backgrounds, they come together to learn simple drumming techniques or basic conducting exercises in hour-long sessions.

“There were no prior requirements. Students came after lessons, single boys and girls came in after work, families, grandparents, sometimes with grandchildren, or alone. Some people came in straight from the factory to participate in making music,” he says.

While he admits that “not so many” foreign tourists attended during the ECoC year, Joy Drumming attracted a good number of foreign Erasmus students from what is now called Pannon University in Veszprém.

Mental Health

Franczia is wary of using the word “therapy” concerning his teaching but says sessions have proved many times to have “a very positive effect on mental hygiene. [.…] I strongly believe that it’s not only about playing music but of making your life complete,” he explains.

“Some people lack things in life, and music can help fill in these gaps in their lives […] to discover another world, to have your own personal experience and be a part of [the] music. Looking at other people playing music does not fulfill this demand. It’s not enough just to listen and see other people playing,” he declares.

Though the Hangjáték program finished with the end of Veszprém’s ECoC program in December last year, Franczia continues to teach and lead workshops, with a good sprinkling of his students initially attracted by the “Joy Drumming” sessions attending.

László Fodor, who lives in the village of Felsőörs, just to the south of Veszprém, attests to the positive effects of Franczia’s work and methods.

“I regularly took part in Franczia Dani’s ‘joy’ sessions. He can speak so easily and naturally to all age groups, from small children to my kind of 60-year-olds. It’s liberating because it brings out the best in you, even without any musical knowledge,” Fodor told the BBJ.

He also highlighted Franczia’s “infinite patience,” adding, “Whenever you make a mistake, and I did a few times, he will just praise you. He is a very kind person, a wonderful teacher,” Fodor says.

Indeed, contrary to the general educational culture in Hungary, allowing people to make errors is central to Franczia’s educational philosophy.

“People look at me as if they’d never heard before that they were free to make mistakes. I encourage them to make mistakes, at least now! Feel free!” he says, adding: “There will be absolutely no consequences here if you make mistakes.”

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of September 6, 2024.