1
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I play the violin.

2
00:00:38,260 --> 00:00:44,360
I got my first violin at the age of five.

3
00:00:45,290 --> 00:00:46,780
I've been playing the violin since thiat time.

4
00:00:47,500 --> 00:00:53,480
I never wanted to play 
 any other instrument but the violin.

5
00:00:53,760 --> 00:01:00,220
I started like this when I was a child,

6
00:01:00,460 --> 00:01:04,040
because my deceased father was 
also a double bass player,

7
00:01:04,970 --> 00:01:10,550
who was an excellent musician 
and he led me to it.

8
00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:17,400
But it already came with that,
 as we were still only in the contact with music.

9
00:01:17,930 --> 00:01:23,300
At home and also at school when I went.

10
00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,190
At work, we only talked about music as well.

11
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Music was everywhere around us.

12
00:01:30,370 --> 00:01:35,040
My father was not a musician,
 but my uncle was a violinist.

13
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A very good violinist.

14
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And he said I should go to music school,

15
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that I have talent to play the violin.

16
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I went to school and they saw that 
I had what it takes to keep playing.

17
00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:00,280
I have elementary art school and high school.

18
00:02:03,300 --> 00:02:08,990
I didn't want to go to study further,
 because I already used to go to play with the band.

19
00:02:09,540 --> 00:02:13,500
I started playing when I was thirteen years old.

20
00:02:13,790 --> 00:02:17,520
I went to school in Fiľakovo,
 I also went to music school in Fiľakovo.

21
00:02:18,020 --> 00:02:19,410
I went to Fiľakovo.

22
00:02:27,130 --> 00:02:32,460
we came to live in Strážské.

23
00:02:33,290 --> 00:02:36,520
It is located before Humenné and Michalovce.

24
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My father played there in an ensemble.

25
00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:43,850
There was a music school.

26
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He wanted to put me there, I went there

27
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and there the teacher told me 
that I had no ear for music.

28
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I sat down at the piano and couldn't sing with him.

29
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But I could already play the double bass.

30
00:03:05,810 --> 00:03:09,630
There was such a small table at home, I stood on it

31
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on it and I started learning.

32
00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:20,700
So dad didn't send me there,
 to that elementary school.

33
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:24,980
Years later, we met the teacher again

34
00:03:24,980 --> 00:03:29,760
and he wondered how was that possible.

35
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I was about nine years old
 and I had already 
started playing the double bass nicely.

36
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He was surprised.

37
00:03:40,450 --> 00:03:45,390
Then we returned home, to Veľké Dravce

38
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One must have a very good ear to be able to learn.

39
00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:31,200
Even such a good teacher must 
know what needs to be taught.

40
00:04:31,690 --> 00:04:37,540
At home we always listened to gypsy normal...

41
00:04:40,580 --> 00:04:43,930
...a cimbalom music, and bands like this.

42
00:04:44,380 --> 00:04:49,920
We turned on the radio, and they
 always played at noon.

43
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Gypsies, we listened every day.

44
00:04:56,660 --> 00:05:03,030
And at home we only learned gypsy music

45
00:05:03,710 --> 00:05:05,720
and we listened to it everywhere.

46
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:07,720
Ours were also...

47
00:05:08,260 --> 00:05:12,100
My father had five brothers, 
that was the whole band.

48
00:05:12,590 --> 00:05:19,960
There were so many that they had a violinist, 
a cimbalom player, all brothers, made a band.

49
00:05:20,150 --> 00:05:25,980
They just missed a violist,
 they always took one, the second, the third,

50
00:05:25,980 --> 00:05:29,220
They didn't have one of their own.

51
00:05:30,500 --> 00:05:37,840
And the music was also 
folkloric, gypsy Hungarian.

52
00:05:39,950 --> 00:05:45,720
But even I, when I was older,

53
00:05:46,190 --> 00:05:53,180
so the guitars and keyboards 
were already coming.

54
00:05:53,350 --> 00:05:55,780
You know, times have changed.

55
00:05:56,220 --> 00:06:01,520
So as a young boy 
I was not interested in the double bass,

56
00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:05,610
but I was interested in electrical things.

57
00:06:06,390 --> 00:06:10,580
So I had dealt with that for about five years.

58
00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:13,870
But then my poor father died

59
00:06:14,950 --> 00:06:17,970
and to that band where I also played the guitar,

60
00:06:17,970 --> 00:06:23,340
so I went to play double bass 
and bass guitar again.

61
00:06:39,590 --> 00:06:45,420
We have a friend in the band,
 Roland Horváth, a clarinet player.

62
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He is my good friend and he already knew
 those boys, the cimbalom player and the violist.

63
00:06:54,630 --> 00:06:59,770
And he said we'll go
 together to play at a wedding sometime.

64
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And since then we have 
been going to play together.

65
00:07:05,550 --> 00:07:10,950
We are such good friends, as a family.

66
00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:13,630
In addition, we also go to play with others.

67
00:07:13,630 --> 00:07:17,680
We also have a second band where we go to help.

68
00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,080
In our country, there are few musicians.

69
00:07:22,380 --> 00:07:25,920
Those older musicians died out.

70
00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:31,400
They are not anymore, 
the young generation of 20-year-old boys

71
00:07:31,490 --> 00:07:33,760
can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

72
00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:36,390
And that's just the violinists.

73
00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,950
And there are no players 
for double bass and viola.

74
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,400
Not so much for these tools.

75
00:07:46,820 --> 00:07:48,650
That's for searching.

76
00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:53,810
There are few of us in our region.

77
00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:01,590
If there are two or three bass players at all,
 around Rimavská Sobota, Fiľakovo and Lučenec.

78
00:08:01,590 --> 00:08:03,370
You won't find them anymore.

79
00:08:33,980 --> 00:08:37,840
We also play wedding things because 
we use to go to weddings.

80
00:08:38,390 --> 00:08:43,800
And such a fun, cultural - fun,

81
00:08:44,610 --> 00:08:48,000
Gypsy, Hungarian, Slovak, if they want Slovak.

82
00:08:49,250 --> 00:08:56,180
We have to learn all kinds,
 because people ask us everything they can.

83
00:08:57,140 --> 00:08:59,920
Both modern and classic.

84
00:09:03,820 --> 00:09:09,450
It's up to the people, the guests, what they ask for,
 so we'll try to satisfy them.

85
00:09:09,540 --> 00:09:13,990
I also listen to modern Roma music at home.

86
00:09:14,450 --> 00:09:18,460
- They are very good bands.
- It's on another level.

87
00:09:19,420 --> 00:09:23,320
They played very nicely.

88
00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,030
And I like it.

89
00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:29,400
It is very advanced.

90
00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:35,080
But my heart is only captured 
by gypsy music, folklore.

91
00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,160
It's hard for us musicians these days.

92
00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,630
To make living somehow.

93
00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:53,820
Restaurants are no longer 
meant to hold live music.

94
00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,160
Wine bars closed.

95
00:09:58,010 --> 00:10:01,250
It wasn't like that years ago.

96
00:10:01,850 --> 00:10:08,810
There were ten restaurants, and about eight, 
seven of them were with music.

97
00:10:09,330 --> 00:10:15,020
Now if you find one,
 where's a piano or keyboards.

98
00:10:15,180 --> 00:10:18,960
Yes, covid came and it was even harder.

99
00:10:19,540 --> 00:10:23,900
We sat at home for two years.

100
00:10:24,140 --> 00:10:27,180
Even the owners don't want to pay for live music.

101
00:10:27,910 --> 00:10:31,530
This way we don't make a living
 in restaurants anywhere.

102
00:10:31,990 --> 00:10:35,180
In Lučenec, in Rimavská Sobota, 
there is no such place.

103
00:11:00,190 --> 00:11:06,990
I am a musician, I play every week, 
at home and everywhere.

104
00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,270
I have four bands and I still go to play.

105
00:11:12,420 --> 00:11:15,040
With one, with the second, and with the third.

106
00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:22,090
I go three or four times a week.

107
00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:24,720
The mother tongue is Hungarian.

108
00:11:26,130 --> 00:11:29,930
- Everyone speaks Hungarian at home.
- That's how they brought us up.

109
00:11:30,410 --> 00:11:34,750
We have a Hungarian primary 
school, but also a Slovak one.

110
00:11:34,750 --> 00:11:39,710
It's not a problem here in Fiľakovo,
 that someone is Hungarian or Slovak.

111
00:11:40,340 --> 00:11:44,410
But we also normally learn 
the Slovak language there.

112
00:11:45,430 --> 00:11:48,990
- We try, even if we don't speak very well.
- We also studied the Russian language.

113
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But we understand a little and talk a little.