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.
Get to know Gergely…Beyond the Bio!
Coming soon!
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Latest Homework from Gergely
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Efe — Jun 13th
Hi Efe!
Here is what to work on this week.
Find your pick
It is a strict rule that you have your pick. All of the music we have done requires you to use one, and every other genre of music you’ve shown interest in needs one.
Enter Sandman
Check out the whole song on YouTube so that you know how the riffs sound.
- The same riff as last week.
- The newest riff we covered. G5, (E5 F#5 E5 F#5 G5 F#5) E5
— Everything in brackets is palm-muted.
— Strumming Pattern: Down, Up Down Up Down Up Down Down — Everything bolded is supposed to sound stronger (that is, louder).
Use the video from last week’s post to work with.
- Remember: for a practice session, 60% of your practice should be you playing this slowly (0.75x speed). 30% of it should be done at a somewhat higher speed (0.85x speed). 10% of it at full speed (1x speed). Going in this order— slowest to fastest. Adjust the speed with the YouTube widget to the appropriate speeds — the x speed numbers shown here are what to adjust the video to, if you use my video.
- This practice description goes for most of the things I assign. Including the chord game below.
Hendrix chord
— IF you don’t have a pick, strum with the outsides of your fingers. The nails, or the hard part of your finger. Think of flicking something quite strongly.
- Use the thumb and the index finger.
- Also try with all four fingers “rolling” down on the strings, and then striking up with the thumb.
— Play the chord game I talked about in last week’s post. But this time, use the B7 chord instead of the G chord.
- B7, B7 B7, B7 B7, E7#9, E7#9 E7#9, E7#9 E7#9. — The rhythm played on one of these chords takes up a full bar.
- Strumming Pattern: Down, Up Down, Up Down.
- The B7 chord is shown in the following picture. — Its shape is very similar to the Hendrix chord, which makes it much easier to play this game than if you were to use the G chord. — Fingers 2, 1, and 3 don’t leave the strings; they just shift up 5 frets. Finger 4 finds fret 8 on the B string. — That X means you don’t play that string.
Remember what times to meet up
- Next class we start at 1:15PM.
- The following week, 10AM is likely to be our start time. We’ll soon confirm with you.
That’s all for this week. Thanks Efe! See you next week!
Homework for June 10-17
Dear students,
Great work today! Here’s homework for this week:
Nova
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Lightly Row, If I Were a Rich Man
How to practice:
Lightly Row- Practice hands separate until very solid. Be aware of when you’re playing staccato, legato, or detached.
If I Were a Rich Man- Review
**If you have any higher level piano books at home, look at key signatures and see if you can figure out keys of pieces based on what we did in the lesson
How parents can support practice: Listen and guide as needed
Maya
Recommended minutes to practice: 5-10 minutes a day
What to practice: Autumn Song, Hiking
How to practice:
Autumn Song- review the rhythm for bars 3 and 4 both lines. Bar 3 is 4 1-beat notes (ta) going down by steps, followed by two 2-beat notes (ta-a). Practice that section repeatedly to get the correct rhythm, without stopping. When connecting it to the rest of the piece, do not go back to the wrong rhythm.
How parents can support practice: Practice the rhythm in Autumn song with her, and make sure she gets all the half notes without stopping or changing the rhythm midway.
See you next week :)
Efe — May 30th
Hi Efe! Great seeing you today!
Here’s what to look at for this week.
— Gm (G minor) “jazzy” scale
- See the picture in this Google Drive. — The closest scale to this one is the Gm natural scale.
- As discussed in class, play around in this scale for fun. The only rule is don’t stray away from these notes or frets. — The red squares are the frets you’d play. Aside from this, the open strings G, B, and the high E string are part of this scale, too.
- The section highlighted in blue is of the area on the fretboard where you would be playing this scale.
- The section highlighted in purple is of the part of the scale that’s chromatic. That’s the rather funny part. This is where you can make a particularly jazzy sound with this scale.
- Here are 2 backing tracks that you can play along with. Jazz backing track 1. Jazz backing track 2. There are jazzy sounding chords in these; you’ll see some 7th chords, like we were discussing.
— Enter Sandman
- Its first “lick,” as us guitarists call it.
- See my Unlisted YouTube video of how to play it. Enter Sandman 1st lick.
- You’ll find the PDF of this in the Google Drive.
- How to practice this: 60% of your practice should be you playing it slowly (0.75x speed). 30% of it should be done at a somewhat higher speed (0.85x speed). 10% of it at full speed (1x speed). Going in this order— slowest to fastest. Adjust the speed with the YouTube widget to the appropriate speeds.
— Make sure you show your parents these Homework Posts every time you receive them anew.
- And please talk to your Dad to see if he can access the Client Comments. If it’s linked to his email, then he should have access to them.
- I’ll iron out yours and my scheduling questions at the school as soon as possible.
- You’ll hear from me on the Client Comments page very soon. So once you have access to it, please check that page everyday.
I may or may not see you in a week. Good luck in your exams! Talk again soon!
Efe — May 16th
Hi Efe!
Sorry to post this homework late. Here is what to look at.
What to listen to
— Django Reinhardt — Jazz guitarist
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxQxajcOyCI — The 6.5 minute long video we saw last class. Rewatch this as something to more specifically remember what kinds of things you like in jazz guitar.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUmPhZpoFZU — This one’s a 12 minute long video. It has a number of examples of Reinhardt’s playing. Several other wonderful pieces are played here. (Audio only.)
I’m glad we’ve found that you like jazz guitar, Efe. We can definitely do some work on that kind of music next year. I would be happy to make simpler arrangements of jazz guitar music for you to play. Working on something like this is a plausible idea for your progress on the instrument next year.
Acoustic Open
- Continue to work on the first 16 bars. I saw some improvements today.
- Try the ending chords. Remember to make the last one cut completely short.
- If you have time, then keep going with the piece. Keep trying to play more and more of it. — Since there is no imminent performance goal, I’m not pushing super hard in terms of what you must learn. But one day, a good goal will be for you to memorize the piece.
Thanks Efe. An important reminder: I won’t be there this coming Saturday. We’ll get back to all of this on the following Saturday. Have a great two weeks and I’ll see you then!
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
