M.Mus (U of T)
B.Mus (Oberlin)
Guitarist Gergely Szabo has an Advanced Diploma in Music Performance from Cambrian College where he majored in the classical guitar. Over his time there, he completed 2 years of comprehensive pedagogy courses. He also gained well grounded vocal skills, as well as basic knowledge on the piano. Outside of classical music, he exhibits a repertoire of skills and knowledge in playing the genres of rock, blues, and heavy metal music. He has experience in teaching the guitar and the ukulele to a range of people aged 6 to 54.
Gergely’s teaching methods include both the use of books and digital methods. The three main books he uses to teach guitar are as follows: “Guitar Method Book 1 by Will Schmid and Greg Koch,” “Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests RCM Level 1,” and “Classical Guitar Repertoire and Etudes RCM Level 1.” For teaching ukulele, he uses the book “Ukulele Songs for 1, 2, or 3 players by Elizabeth Ragsdale.” Aside from these, he frequently uses the Muse Score application as a play-along practicing tool.
Gergely’s passion for music and his dedication to growing the love of music in others are the biggest reasons why he teaches guitar and ukulele. His approach to teaching involves learning through play. The material he covers with his students is always delivered in a way that is highly interactive. Most of the assigned exercises he gives involve the elements of play that students can enjoy both in class and as homework.
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Latest Homework from Gergely
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Thursday, May 7th
Josh
Josh is seeing great improvement with more consistent practising habit. We continue working on the few pre chorus bars. For this week the goal is to link up bar 34-36. As a reminder, bar 35 is a repeat of 34, and 36 is the bar that pairs with lyrics “like to say to you…”. Also work on the verse pattern as it comes back in later section.
Aleksander
We ended the class with a successful play through of the song Bring Me to Life. We will move on to Smell Like Teens Spirit next class. The score is available on the drive if he would like to start giving some read.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MwwUXU5Fo4L2iPh-f4Vked6Gy4uD4rtK/view?usp=sharing
Zico
We continued working on The Trooper. Through Stick Control practise, Zico is now in a good place to play the song. The section that could use some slow practising is the guitar solo 2 section, building up the endurance for the bass drum pattern. We will try a play through of the song next week.
Noah
We continued warming up with Stick Control. Seeing greater four way coordination with the drill. Then we segue into the pre chorus section of Smooth Criminal. Noah quickly picked it up, and with that I would like him to work through the chorus section this week.
Finn
Finn is seeing improvement in terms of the choppiness in his playing. The open hihat is now connecting smoothly into the buzz, creating a very cohesive timbre. Practise all the bracketed bars in repeat, and attempt connecting one to another, and we will work on building sections of the song next week.
Mateo
We spent the lesson putting some finishing note on Labios Compartidos. Once again I will like to reiterate, successful practising habit is highly dependent on picking out trouble spots and building upon it bit by bit, and getting comfortable with it. We will put a close to the song and move on to Sweet Child o Mine. Good job Mateo!
Koel
We went back to working on Fool in the Rain. While we work on this material, I would like Koel to also build upon this general technique working on the “Routine” Handout, and as fun, also work on the first 4 lines of the Samba Funk handout. In terms of the song, let’s now focus on Verse 4, and try out all the fills that John Bonham made up for each phrase ending.
Efe — May 9th
Hi Efe!
Here is what to look at for this week.
Artists to listen to
- Van Halen — Rock — Songs to try: Good Enough, Jump, Panama, Running with the Devil, Eruption, I’m the One, Jamie’s Crying, Atomic Punk, Ice cream man
- Joe Pass — Jazz — the link from today — We were about 1 minute in when you noticed a run on the guitar that you liked
- Django Reinhardt — Jazz — This man lost a finger on his left hand in a fire. And yet he still became a magnificent guitarist
Acoustic Open
- Continue to work on the first 16 bars. I saw some improvements today. — Make sure to try it without the video. Then do it with the video at 0.6x speed. I’ve slowed it down for this week. — If it is feeling super slow, raise the speed to 0.65x speed.
- Try the ending chords. Remember to make the last one cut completely short.
The above genres of music are full of countless things to discover and I hope those given songs inspire you to check out even more songs.
See you in a week!
Efe – Jan 10th
Hi Efe!
Here’s the rundown of what to do for this week.
Chords
Reacquaint yourself with the E, Em (E minor), G, and B chords.
- The Google Drive provided on December 6th shows you how to play the E chord. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cURXZdyFoL_6FZX5V4COTxCljwXKq8wO
- The B chord is played on frets 7, 9, 9, and 8 going from the low E string up to the G string. The fingerings are 5 (the thumb), 3, 4, and 2, respectively. Feel free to be nice and tough with gripping this. If it gets painful, rest your hand. Do some stretches (you’ll see some below), then get right back to it.
- Spend 5 minutes holding down the correct frets with the correct fingerings, and strumming them with proper posture.
- Try playing those four chords over the following backing track. Spend 5 minutes doing your best with this. Remember: no need to play fast. Em slow blues backing track
Scale
The Em pentatonic scale.
- This Google Drive has pictures of the fretboard with this scale. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GMsYAiDXsew5x_4fByy4cQp8O6KXeq_6?usp=drive_link
- Please memorize this scale for next class. The shape of this scale is used all over the guitar neck for countless songs in many genres. This scale is an essential tool for most of the guitar music in the world. — Spend 5 minutes a day this week to work on memorizing this. My hope is that by next class you’ll be able to improvise on this scale without needing to look at the provided pictures.
- Experiment with playing any of this scale’s notes over this backing track. Take it as a creative game to keep getting better at. Em slow blues backing track
— Do this once a day; 10-12 minutes everyday.
— Try things like vibratos (you once called them wiggles, haha) and bends.
Song choices
Listen to the following 3 songs. Then choose the one you like best. We’ll work on that one for the spring recital.
- Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day
- Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
- Rumble by Link Wray
Stretching
- Watch this video. In under 10 minutes, this famous guitarist clearly describes the types of stretching he does for his guitar playing sessions.
- What I’d like you to do with this, Efe, is to do these stretches during and after your practice sessions. He does them before his; I don’t think that’s necessary.
Additional notes
- Please get a new guitar strap.
- Please find your pick again. If you can’t then you’ll have to get a new one. My guitar lessons require the student to have a pick.
- Regarding the pain of the hand, there are 2 things to acknowledge.
— 1, this is normal. As with any physical exercise, the body and its muscles will tire and get sore. Don’t give up when this happens. But you also don’t want to overdo this, so make sure to rest during practice sessions.
— 2, everything in this practice plan can be done without days of 0 playing. I.e., no need to rest for an entire day. The aim is to keep exercising the hands so that these pains no longer occur. The day this happens will come once enough consistent practicing has been done.
Final note
I’m sorry I didn’t bring the teacher’s report today. I’ll bring it next class. One recommendation I made going forward is to practice a half hour a day, only. This should make it easier to find time to practice the guitar.
- Notice that I made today’s practice instructions so that they should span a half hour, at maximum. Most of this week’s practice should take no more than a half hour. Including the stretching I’m assigning.
- Going over a half hour this week may only happen because you must listen to each song fully and also see the full stretching video.
Good to see you again today, Efe. I’m looking forward to this new term! See you in a week!
Efe Homework Jan 3rd
Hi Efe! It’s too bad you weren’t at today’s lesson! But it does happen.
Over this week, I’d like you to do the following things.
Listen to these 3 songs:
- Rumble, by Link Wray
- Smells Like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana
- Boulevard of Broken Dream, by Green Day
See which one you like best. Then we’ll use that one as your song for this spring’s recital.
Do what you can from last time’s homework. If you didn’t do much guitar over the holidays then this should help get your hands back into the swing of things again. Otherwise, I hope what you can do from last time’s homework will continue to sharpen your skills in that material.
See you in a week!
Preferred Books for Gergely’s Students
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Hal Leonard Guitar Method
The second edition of this world-famous method by Will Schmid and Greg Koch is preferred by teachers because it makes them more effective while making their job easier. Students enjoy its easy-to-follow format that gives them a solid music education while letting them play songs right away. Book 1 provides beginning instruction including tuning, 1st position melody playing, C, G, G7, D7, and Em chords, rhythms through eighth notes, solos and ensembles and strumming.
Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests
