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.
Get to know Gergely…Beyond the Bio!
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Latest Homework from Gergely
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Efe — May 2nd
Hi Efe!
Proceed to check out the bands I described in last week’s Homework Post.
— An artist I’m adding: Megadeth.
- The same way: be warned about the content in their music. It’s controversial and dark.
Acoustic Open
Here’s the link to its Unlisted YouTube video. Link.
— Work on the first 16 bars.
- Practice it at 0.75x speed.
- Remember: finger 3 is never used in these bars. There are a lot of stretchy Left Hand positions and fingerings here. Be mindful of posture and push the guitar forward from your left side. — Anytime there’s a question relating to posture and the comfort & strength of your Left Hand, it’s usually helpful to push the guitar forward from your left side.
- Alternate picked. Pay close attention to this. Down-Up Down-Up Down-Up. (It can help to know that Down is usually played a bit louder than Up.) Where there are rests, just down-pick.
— The goals:
- LH (Left Hand) technique, in those stretchy positions.
- Getting used to alternate picking.
- Learning to locate the where what notes are played on the fretboard from the musical notation.
See you in a week!
Saturday, April 25th
Jack
Jack has been making good progress with Seven Nation Army but just at times lacking focus. I am ready to move him onto a new song as he has been able to play with the music and displayed the ability to change from pattern to pattern.
Nova
Going forward Nova’s assignment will always be in three part: a reading exercise, a rudiment page from stick control or other method books and section of the song we are working on. The rudiments assigned this week focuses on triplet and is geared towards learning our new song Sparkles by REDWIMP. Practise the triplet exercise pulsing every beat on the bass drum, so they know they are playing the triplet accurately. For the reading exercise, I would like Nova to work on two lines each week. We did the first two line this week. I told Nova they have the choice of either practising it at home, or we will do it as sight reading during lesson. Either way I would like them to read more. As for the new song, I have showed the first phrase. I will like them to try to read the song until bar 52 this week.
Adam
Since Adam has no drum set to practise on these past few weeks, I have resorted to giving him more rudiments exercise to work on. On the Stick Control book, he did a good job on the 16th notes exercise, and I would like him to try the page next to it which will introduce him to double strokes and roll in general. On top of that, I have assigned him several two bar drum patterns from the Drumset Musician book. This will get him well prepared to approach Under the Bridge when we are back to working on the song.
Jonah
We played through Superstition this week with the music, and Jonah did a superb job despite all the crazy transitions and how complicated the rhythms are. I have assigned Super Bad by James Brown to him this week. Please print it out and I would like him to first only work on the main pattern which is the first bar. That bar gets repeated a lot until the bridge section.
Efe Homework Nov 22nd
Hi Efe!
This week’s homework.
Blues — page 10, Guitar Method 1 book
Be mindful of the correct picking directions.
Goals with this piece:
- Reading musical notation.
- Good posture of hands, arms, and body enforced. Remember the slanted body position I was demonstrating today.
- Getting the hands used to the correct picking directions, as well as ingraining the habits of proper string crossing.
Little Drummer Boy
The Google Drive link from last time is here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cURXZdyFoL_6FZX5V4COTxCljwXKq8wO
In here, you’ll find my newest videos. One is of the D and G chords’ transitions. The other is of the melody for this song.
What to practice:
- The strumming pattern — both slowly and faster, as shown.
- The transitioning exercise — both slowly and faster, as shown.
- The song at its regular, allegretto pace; play alongside my video of the melody
Goals with this song:
- Good posture of hands, arms, and body enforced. Remember the slanted body position I was demonstrating today.
- Getting used to the hard transitions. Especially between the G and D chords.
- Being able to play accurately in an ensemble setting. Having me play the melody while you play the chords will help you learn the essential skill of playing with others. Musicians must be good at this. I know you’ve been playing the drums in your ensemble at school so that’s a good start for this. — if you stop or make any mistakes, then just resume the piece wherever my video is. Don’t go back and correct it; remember, you can’t do that in a performance :)
When any mistakes are made, work on them individually before attempting to play the whole piece again. Once they’ve been fixed, you can start the piece from its beginning again.
E Major string crossing
This is the melody from that Crossroads solo the kid was playing. The above link will have the following video and picture in it.
- 65BPM fastest. Strictly.
- The picking pattern is ALWAYS down-up down-up. Keep paying close attention to this.
- The left hand fingerings are always going to be 4, 1, 2, 0. In this order. No finger 3 is ever used!
- The picture shows the guitar tab and musical notation of this.
- The video is of me demonstrating this exercise. — practice it just like I’m showing; 8 repetitions at a time. 2 bars of rest. Then do this all again. Do this for at least 5 minutes a day. Do not increase the tempo of the metronome for this exercise.
Goals with this melody:
- String crossing — this is an essential technique that all guitarists come across sooner or later. It’s best if you start working on this as soon as possible. This technique can be and stay difficult for many guitarists. This catchy melody should help you start to get into the habit of executing this technique properly.
- Building the habit of sticking to the rule of alternate picking only. — Many songs have different rules for when to pick which way. But countless songs have the rule of playing exclusively with alternate picking. This melody will help you get into the habit of following this rule.
- Building the habit of sticking to the best strumming pattern at hand. — the acute attention you give to sticking to the rules of your pieces’ picking directions will get you in the habit of following the correct picking patterns at all times.
Remember, even just 5 minutes of practice a day is better than failing to practice on several days of the week. Ideally, I’d like your practice sessions to be a minimum of 40-45 minutes a day. But if that’s not possible, I do understand; it does happen. So in cases like that, find some time in your day to do a smaller amount of practice, covering whatever you can in the detailed list above.
You’re improving in the concepts I’m passing on to you, Efe. Good work on that. Now you must keep at it with the new ones I’m giving you. Have a great week and I’ll see you on November 29th!
Efe November 8th
Hi Efe and family!
Here is Efe’s homework for the next 2 weeks.
Little Drummer Boy
- https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cURXZdyFoL_6FZX5V4COTxCljwXKq8wO — check out the video and pictures I have for this piece. They should help you practice it
- The pictures are of the pages I’ve written out for the chords and the strumming pattern of this song
- Remember, check out the Pentatonix version of this song. It’s not in the same key, but the melody sung here is the same
G to D chords exercise
- 50bpm, 4 beats per bar
- 1 bar of G, 1 bar of D. Looped (as in repeated over and over).
- When transitioning between bars, leave out beat 4. That’s the “cheat beat.” This is when you switch to the next chord
- Leave finger 3 on fret 3 of the B string
- Refer to the chord diagrams below for the correct fingerings. Memorize the fingerings of the D and G chords
Blues, page 10
- Keep going with this piece
- 5 minutes a day
- The point of this one is so that you don’t forget to keep honing your alternate picking and outside picking skills
Ode to Joy, page 10
- Just do as much of this as you can. But it’s the least important thing on this today’s homework
In due time, we’ll get to looking at the work of Metallica and Pantera :) In the meantime, keep exploring the genres of music with guitar.
See you in 2 weeks Efe!
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
