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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Assignments for the Week of April 23, 2025
Clara
Technical Exercises – A Major
- 1 octave scale, hands separately and together: practicing as solid blocked hand positions and stepping
- 1 octave triads – solid hands separately
- Finding separate root position, first inversion, and second inversion triads from the lap to the keyboard
- Moving back and forth between chord inversions, as well as ascending/descending through all inversions
Bartok – #7 hands together fully – practicing saying note names out loud
Melody in G Major – Focusing on dynamics overall
- Making sure our right hand is “singing” over our left hand! Sing along as a way to help bring it out in the fingers
- Keeping our left hand gentle (instead of thinking “loud-soft-loud-soft”, thinking a gentle “down-up-down-up”)
- Clear difference between mezzo-forte and mezzo-piano dynamics
- Watching out for decrescendos, as well as our ending ritardando
On the Trampoline
- Excellent work getting our time signature comfortable! Keep up with focus on this, especially in our last line as our right hand jumps around
- Focusing on the right hand ending, practicing moving back and forth between chords (focus on finger 5!)
- Dynamics at the end – crescendo to a full forte (don’t forget the left hand!) ending in a sudden mezzo-piano
The Storm – Thinking about our new composition idea!
- Thinking about what kind of scene/story you want to share with it – What kind of rain is there? Is there heavy thunder? Is there a lot of lightning? Is it a hailstorm? How fast is the wind? Is there a tornado with a herd of cows spinning around in it?
- Try writing all of this down in a short story, poem, couple of sentences; try drawing a picture of the storm
- Think about the kinds of sounds you might hear, or how they might sound on the piano
- Try drawing a visual score with shapes and lines that could represent your storm like we tried in lesson!
Hakim
Technical Exercises – A Major
- 1 octave scale hands separately and together, practicing as solid hand positions and stepping
- 1 octave triads, hands separately – solid and broken
- Ascending and descending
- playing through root position – first inversion – second inversion – root position
- Make sure you are using the same fingerings in solid and broken triads. Always using fingers 1 and 5 for outside notes
- Rh finger 2 only in first inversion, Lh finger 2 only in second inversion
Gymnopedie #1 – please make sure this is printed and brought to next week’s lesson! We want to make sure we are using consistent fingerings so things stick in the brain more efficiently, and this will help.
- Focusing on hands separate practice from measures 13-21, making sure we can comfortably play through this at least hands separately
- Trying to fit from the beginning to measure 21 fully hands together if you are up for it!
- Lh watching out for new hand positions (F#, B, E) in measures 17-20
- Make sure you know which chord our LH moves to on beat 2 of each measure
- Practice moving back and forth between bass notes and chords in the Lh to get them as comfortable as our introduction
- Watch out for Rh playing different notes measures 8-11 (A moves down to F#) and measures 16-19 (A moves up to C# moves up to F# leaps down to E)
- Rh moving on trying to read through measures 22-31, writing in note names with pencil
Assignments from April 19th
Hello! Happy Easter!
I have a few updates and reminders for this week. First, progress reports have gone out this week! Please review thee with your child and let me know if you have any questions next week. Also, please see the note on the bottom of the reverse side of the report for information about summer lessons and fall registration.
Second, our student recital is in two weeks! It will be 1:30pm on May 4th! While not everyone will be performing, we do consider attendance mandatory as we find this is an important opportunity for students to meet their peers, and for students and families to experience and hear live music together. If we have talked about possibly participating in the recital, feel free to continue this discussion with your child. Have them choose one of the songs we have learned and encourage them to perform it for you for practice.
Berke:
When practicing the Minuet this week, please use a metronome. Start at 85BPM (beats per minute) and increase the metronome by 5BPM each time you play the song through. Try to keep up with the metronome and ensure there is no pauses where there shouldn’t be. If you need to start slower in order to do this then do so. Remember to play the whole piece with the repeat! Should any mistakes happen, push through to the end of the phrase! At the end of the phrase you can go back to the bar where the mistake occurred and iron this out. Break down these errors into smaller chunks; practice the bar hands separate before trying the bar again with both hands. When reviewing mistakes hands together play these slowly and focus on how things line up in your hands and against the macro beat. Please circle the 3rd note of bar 3 and the first note of bar 8 as these can be challenging spots. Finally, use the recording we listened to in class as a tool and a reference. Challenge yourself to play along with the recording, but resist the urge to mimic the performer. Play along, but play the way Berke would – not Mozart. You can find that recording here.
Practice the chord progression in bars 5-9 of Moonlight Sonata in your left hand. When you feel confident playing these 4 bars, play the song start to finish, connecting bars 1-4 and 5-9. You can play hands together during the first 4 bars of music if you wish, do not play bars 5-9 hands together until you feel confident in the right hand. On your own, sight-read the right hand from bars 5-9.
Great class this week! I look forward to hearing you play more music next 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
