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 5, 2025
Shakira
Focusing on reading Lead Sheets – another strategy for reading written music.
Unlike the written music on the grand staff that we’ve been working on (Treble clef and Bass clef showing all notes and rhythms for both of our hands), music written on lead sheets provides us only with our melody and chord symbols. Depending on how/where they are written this can give us information about our rhythm and exact chords we will need to accompany our written melody.
Using our strategies for working through lead sheets as discussed on the following songs:
- Abide with Me
- Amazing Grace
- Scarborough Fair
Clara
Technical Exercises:
- Continuing with D and A Major scales – 1 octave
- Practicing hands separately as blocked hand positions and stepping
- Practicing hands together – Watching for finger 3’s together
- A Major Triads – RH focus – finding triad shapes (root position, 1st inversion, second inversion)
- Practicing finding chord inversions on their own (ex. all of the A Maj. root position triads bottom to top)
- Then practicing moving between chord inversions slowly (ex. moving back and forth between root position and 1st inversion – watching RH finger 1 move between A and C#)
- Watching fingerings – always using fingers 1 and 5 on our outside notes, make sure you know if we need finger 2 or 3 for inside notes.
Bartok – Exercises #7-8
Trampoline – Still thinking about our 3/4 time signature – make sure we don’t accidentally add any extra beats
- Remember: whole rests can either mean we are resting for 4 beats, or we are resting for the whole measure (could be 3 beats, 7, 100, etc.)
- Focusing our RH practice on our large jumps and 2 note chords at the end – watching finger 5
Bluebottle – Now that we are fitting this quite well hands together, we want to make sure we are comfortable fully with our counting.
- Tapping our LH and RH rhythms on our lap (instead of playing on the keyboard) will let us focus on our counting.
- Counting out loud/writing in our counting so we can notice all of our rests (breathing in on rests helps us focus on them when playing!)
- Working on not stopping or hesitating when the pattern between our hands shifts
Homework for April 1-8
Henry
Great job today Henry! Here is this week’s homework:
How long to practice: 5-10 min per day
What to practice: Baseball Days, The Postman
How to practice:
Baseball Days- Good work! Remember to let go of the E before the left hand comes in on line 1. Legato (connected), but not overlapping the next notes.
The Postman- Audiate (meaning sing/count in your head) the counting of 3 while you play, only hold dotted half notes for the same value as 3 quarter notes.
How parents can support practice:
Listen and guide him. Playing together helps too.
See you 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
