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!
Hobbies:
Musical influences:
Favourite food:
Least favourite food:
Favourite music:
Favourite album:
Favourite movie:
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Latest Homework from Gergely
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Homework for May 6-13
Nova
Rec min to practice: 15-20 per day
What to practice: Mixed up Man, If I Were a Rich Man
How to practice:
Mixed up Man- Pay attention to rhythmic pattern throughout. The main melody is played with right hand leading first, the second time either left hand leading. Practice hands separate slowly first, then hands together when ready.
If I Were a Rich Man- Pay attention to fingering in all the different scales. Chromatic scale and minor scale are new.
How parents can support practice: Listen and guide them as needed.
Maya
Rec min to practice: 5-10 min per day
What to practice: Baby Bear, Autumn Song
How to practice:
Baby Bear- practice with visual aide (CDECEDC paper) and try to eventually be able to play without it.
Autumn Song- practice transitions between right hand and left hand. Line 2 is a repetition of line 1.
How parents can support practice: Supervise, especially the difficult passage in Baby Bear. I created the visual side but the goal is that she will eventually be able to rely on looking at the music and not need it.
Saturday, May 9th
Jack
We continued building upon Imperial March and now heading into the second phrase. I introduced the black keys as the “higher ground” in comparison to the white keys. We will continue to observe if Jack is interested to dive more into xylophone playing and note reading.
Nova
We started the session with more Stick Control practise. I have attached a link to the e-book version of the book. We will spend more time on page 14, with now a bigger focus on the rolls. A good way to practise stick control is also to combine two similar lines together, eg. playing line 9 after line 1. Regarding the note reading exercise, we touched on syncopation and dotted rhythm this week. We will talk more about that next week. For Sparkle, we are onto bar 59-62. We mentioned how the phrase has its own melody, and this particular line shares a similar melody as the phrase before. Pay attention to that during practising, and we will connect some phrases together next lesson and perhaps introduce some new material.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ADGiCCfAkWJGercA3ivs8DTQwjXziGzk/view?usp=sharing
Adam
Since Adam still doesn’t have access to his drumset, instead of learning a new song, we talked about some new rhythmic concept. Today it was triplets. We used the handout Stick Control p.14 to build that concept. Adam can either focus on line 1 and 2, or simply practise the few lines I wrote on his hand out this week.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ADGiCCfAkWJGercA3ivs8DTQwjXziGzk/view?usp=sharing
Jonah
During today’s online lesson, we worked through verse 2 of the new song Super Bad. We did a shorter lesson this week so we will compensate that 10 minutes in next week’s lesson.
Efe – Feb 21st
Hi Efe! Sending you strength for this Ramadan!
Here is this week’s material.
Google Drives
— Em pentatonic scale – Feb 14th & 21st
This week’s Drive has the picture for the last set set of frets for this scale. The Feb 14th Drive gives you access to the other recent frets I assigned in this scale. Improvise with all of these on this backing track. Cool blues
— F#m scale – Feb 21st
This week’s Drive shows an F sharp minor scale. This is what Greenday uses when playing their melodies and the solo of Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
- Start getting used to playing it in this position.
- Start to remember what it sounds like.
— Octave chords
- Try playing those octave chords I was showing you in class. Fingers 1 and 4 only.
- Bottom 2 strings: 2 frets over and 2 strings up. This “square” shape makes the octave. Make sure finger 1 is muting the string in between.
- Middle 2 strings: 3 frets over and 2 strings up. The “rectangle” shape makes the octave. Make sure finger 1 is muting the string in between.
- We’ll be using these chords in Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
— Boulevard of Broken Dream – Feb 14th
- Last time’s Drive has the video to practice the same chord progression with. Please keep going with this. Really well done on this today!
- Listen to the song some more. YouTube link — You’ll hear the chords that sound like the octaves I was telling you about.
— Acoustic Open – Feb 7th
- Keep playing the first 12 bars.
- Try playing bars 13-15.
- (Bars 16-19 are a good challenge IF you have time for this. Not urgent.)
Efe – Feb 14th
Hi Efe! Wishing you guys a great week!
Here is this week’s material.
Em pentatonic scale
We’re almost done this scale now. Once we get to the 12th fret, you’ll have access and the ability to solo all over the guitar neck for many, many songs and pieces in the Em key.
This week’s pictures show the added 9th and 10th frets to the scale.
– Please memorize these.
The new backing track to play over: Cool blues
Chord game
I was impressed with your work on the chords over the past week, Efe. Here is the next challenge to help you work on the proper transitioning techniques.
- I’ll have the required videos uploaded to this week’s Google Drive tomorrow.
- Practice these transitions alongside the Muse Score video in this week’s Drive. — It’s geared toward making your skills in this sharp; especially regarding Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
- The other video has me describing what fingerings to use, and how to execute the transitions properly.
Acoustic Open — Until bar 12
Keep using the ideas I gave you today to help decipher (or just read, haha) the musical notation. It was a great class of you learning the methods to deciphering the musical notation. The tips to remember:
- Where is Middle C? And where is my finger in relation to it? Close? Far?…
- See what string your Left Hand finger is on. Then go over the note names (the letters) all the way up to the fret your finger is holding down. — HINT: The only notes that need one fret (that is, one semitone) to get to the next letter are B to C, and E to F.
- Be mindful of the shapes of the melodies written. If they recur, but on different notes, then they might be played in the same way. For example: Bars 5 & 6 have a very similar shape to bars 9 & 10.
- “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”
- “FACE”
- A note on a space right beside a note on a line is just one letter over. Same goes for the opposite.
Strumming
This is the least important homework. It’s more just for fun, if you have time. Keep working on that flicking style strumming we were talking about today.
- Outsides of the nails.
- Thumb and index finger, or thumb and middle finger.
- Don’t move your arm too much. The strength is in the fingers for this, more than anything else.
I’ll soon make the decision on which song you’ll do for your recital, Efe. Smells Like Teen Spirit or Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Thank you for your patience.
See you in a week!
Preferred Books for Gergely’s Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
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
