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!
Coming soon!
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Latest Homework from Gergely
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Tuesday, November 26th
Josh
Post Malone: I Had Some Help
–Good work on this!
–To help get that main beat coordinated at performance speed, isolate the “2 + 3” portion of it, making sure to line up the bass drums with the hihats. When isolated, you do a great job of this at high speeds. Can you bring the same coordination to the main beat overall?
–The pre-chorus fill (flam-bass…) is great! Make sure to play it four times, not three
Play-along Tracks:
–In your personal folder, find tracks to play along with
–The “rock” track can be used to work on VD #9, the same beat as in “I Had Some Help”
–Play your soca beat along to the soca track
Myles
Drumset Musician p81 ex. 9-12
–Polish these off this week
Weezer: My Name is Jonas
–Drill the intro and main groove on p.1
–See worksheet for explanation of new bass pattern: master each exercise and then we’ll put it in context next week
–For next week, we’ll warm up with some of these fills (V1 out fill)
==Xylophone==
Warmups (***G Major):
–Scale, one octave, ascending and descending, saying the note names as you play them (G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G’)
–Arpeggio (G-B-D-G’-D-B-G)
–Broken thirds (G-B A-C B-D…)
Cirone Book: “Step Six” ex. 5-8
–Flashcards for note identification
–Next time we’ll do eartraining
Finn
Warmups (30sec each, counting aloud):
–Single Strokes
–Double Strokes
–8 on a hand
White Stripes: Seven Nation Army
–Great work! Make sure to play the regular beat during the chorus EXCEPT for that one moment when you play the triplet
Joan Jett: I Love Rock and Roll
–begins with “watermelon watermelon” on the snare
–Play the main beat (1+2 3+4)
Fruit Salad game
–Four fruits: pear, apple, blueberry, watermelon
–Each fruit has a rhythm. Experiment mixing up to four fruits together to create your own rhythms!
Visual Drummer: Drum Beats ex. 1-3
–Let’s try to polish these off for next week
–Aim for four repetitions of each. Keep the rhythm steady.
Francisco
Warmups:
–Stick Control*** (in google drive), first page ex. 1-8 (4x each, 100bpm goal tempo)
Stevie Wonder: Superstition
–Everything up until the end of page three
–See google drive for simplified fill from the second last bar of that page
–Think about how you’d like to proceed
Noah
We’ll come back to our regularly scheduled programming next week. For this week, work on the shuffle-train two-beat we learned today
Shuffle-train Worksheet
–Learn the accent patterns from these five exercises
–Pay close attention to the volume of the accented vs non-accented notes. Make them as different from one another as possible
–Also, be sure that the coordination between limbs is precise. This will make these really groove
–For backing tracks, try “That Was Your Mother” and “All Around the World” from Paul Simon’s album Graceland. These aren’t a perfect fit, but work well as a slower-tempo example for this beat. Give it a try!
Chris Away Dates for December & January
Hello Everybody!
We are writing to update you that Chris has an amazing opportunity to join and play with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England over a number of weeks in December and January for the second time, and that we are delighted to support him in this effort. How cool is that? We’ll ask him to provide some video for us to see if we can get a sense of what that looks like.
We are, as always, working to make sure the flow of lessons and learning is uninterrupted, so we have team member Jasmine and Thomas (who we will invite to the team as we have need) to cover dates for us. Not all are confirmed, but we wanted you to know that if you get notifications about lesson changes, this is what it is for.
Dates you will see a substitute are:
- Tues, December 10th (Jasmine)
- Saturday, Dec 14th (Thomas)
- Tuesday, December 17th (Jasmine)
- Saturday, December 21 (Thomas)
- Sat, Jan 4th – pending
- Tues, Jan 7th – pending
If you have any questions or concerns, please call or text the office.
Additionally, since these absences will also be during our dedicated make-up times for December, we will push owed lessons and make-ups to a later date.
Thank you!
-Barnaby
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
