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!
Hobbies:
Musical influences:
Favourite food:
Least favourite food:
Favourite music:
Favourite album:
Favourite movie:
Favourite musical theatre/opera:
Best quote from your teacher:
Favourite quote:
Favourite book:
Latest Homework from Gergely
Is Gergely Your Teacher?
Sign up now to get your weekly assignments delivered, and never lose your homework sheet again!
Saturday, March 1st
Nova
Benny Greb’s Rhythmic Alphabet
–Play our sentence in steady time, no break sbetween the letters
–Try putting the different letters on different parts of the drumset
Groove 1 FAST
–This week, play the first section (4x) switching between 8th-notes on the HH and 1/4-notes on the ride to give your RH a break!
–Create fills to play every 16 measures
Three types of creativity:
1) Reproducing
2) Responding
3) Imagining
Use this to guide you in creating drum beats and fills on the song “Baby Beluga”
–Sing the melody in yoru head, and see how you can reproduce, respond to, or imagine alongside it
Jonah
==Xylophone==
Warmups: see Xylophone Warmup Sheet in the Google Drive PLEASE PRINT
–This week, add in Bb Major and D Major***
Bruno Mars: Locked out of Heaven CHORD CHART EXERCISE
–I added some more to this this week! PLEASE PRINT***********
G Blues Scale: G-Bb-C-C#-D-F-g
Next time: Back in Black on the xylophone
==Drums==
Warmups:
–Paradiddle combo exercise with bass drum playing quarters. Accent the beginning of each paradiddle
Paul Simon: Late in the Evening
–You can find the chart for this song in your google drive personal folder
–This week we learned the main beat. Continue getting it clean and up to speed
Jared
Warmups:
–Stick Control ex 14-23 (80bpm***)
Igoe’s Groove Essentials – Groove 1 slow (track 1)
–Same assignment, but now move the RH to the ride and put LF hihat “chick” on a) “2” and “4” (b) “1 2 3 4” and (c) “1+2+3+4+”
Funk Groove Eleven FAST (in google drive)
–Learn the beat up to speed
–use fills handout to practice fills at this speed
–begin looking at groove variations
Tracie
Warm-ups:
–Triplet ex. (85bpm, 1min)
Benny Greb: Rhythmic Alphabet
–Have fun creating words
–Use the four words on the handout from today to help you create some fills. Try putting each letter on a different drum
Groove Essentials: Groove 1 (find chart and backing track in the Freq. Used folder)
–Good work on variation A this week! Keep it up
–Try using some of your Rhythmic Alphabet words from above to create drum fills that you can play in this song
Montell Fish: Don’t you Love Me
–Play the main groove up to speed
Mateo
Warmups (30 sec each) **pulling your thumb back:
–8 on a Hand
–Single Stroke Roll (RLRL…)
–Double Stroke Roll (RRLL…)
Drumset Musician p27, ex. 10-12**
–Aim to keep the flow of the eighth-note pulse STEADY
–try looping these exercises, so that the crash after the fill becomes beat 1 of the beat again
–count aloud!
Tommy Igoe’s Groove Essentials, Groove 1 SLOW
–Drill Variation A this week, making it fit tidily along with the recording
Survivor: Eye of the Tiger
–This week, learn everything up until the Verse on p. 2
–See handout for help with the fills
Koel
Warmups (1min each):
–Triplet Ex. 130bpm***
–Sixteenth-note exercise 95bpm***
–Sixteenth-note exercise ON THE BASS DRUM goal tempo: 70bpm
—-Try adding the sixteenth-note subdivision into your metronome to help with your rhythmic precision
Tommy Igoe’s Groove Essentials: Groove 11 SLOW (track twenty-one)
–Variation B still needs a bit of work to get up to speed
–Variation A good
–This week, see the 16th-note fill exercises (in gdrive) for fill inspiration
—-Use ex. 18, 21, and pick two more to play at the end of every 8-bar phrase during the backing track (sorry, I uploaded this now)
Duke of Edinburgh
–Koel logs the hours
–Smart goal: measurable, achievable, and in a timely manner (end of school year)
–SMART GOALS: 1) triplet exercise up to 140bpm 2)sixteenth-note exercise up to 110bpm 3) Master six new grooves from the Tommy Igoe Groove Essentials book (2x rock, one funk, one r&b/hiphop, one jazz, one world) 4) Learn one new song
Assignments from February 27th
Hello Everyone!
Wow some awesome progress this week!!
Noreet:
Today we reviewed the D Major and A Major scales hands together. Noreet can continue to warm up with these, however please pay extra close attention to the descent of these two scales and review the fingerings slowly to ensure Noreet’s fingers don’t get tangled. Practice the descending pattern, hands separately, 3 times each, increasing the speed of the tempo each time. Then play the scales descending hands together. Noreet can also practice E Major hands separately slowly. Noreet would like to continue to review “More Ice Cream” this week. Please help her and remind her that this song starts on a D. Noreet can also slowly start to practice Mr. Hayden’s Theme. She will have to sight read this herself. Should she get stuck, or not recognize a note, help her find the answer by asking if the next note is higher or lower than the one she just played and by how many steps.
Vida:
We are working on Green Frog Hop! Remember that this piece has both an F sharp and an F natural in it and sometimes alternates between these two in the same bar. Please remind Vida the difference between the two and help her to identify both on the page and keyboard. Also, a correction from the lesson…The small triangle symbol in the piece is NOT a marcato as I called it in the lesson, it is an accent. But they mean very similar things – make sure Vida emphasizes the accented notes and phrases by pressing the keys firmly. Finally, please help Vida to sight read the second page of Green Frog Hop as we did not get to that in the lesson. When practicing this piece, please dedicate more tome to reading and practicing the left hand to help Vida become more familiar with the notes in the bass clef. Start with the left hand, then read the right hand, play both together when Vida is confident. Feel free to record Vida playing this one when she is “performance ready”, it sounds like this was helpful last week.
Eva:
Great first virtual lesson today! We started to read through “Piano Adventures Level One” today! You can find this book available on amazon here. Today we looked at page 4 in the book “Get Ready for Take Off”. A copy of this has been uploaded to the google drive. We reviewed our note values with flashcards, talked about time signatures, reviewed our dynamic levels, and played through some rhythm patterns! For this week, I have uploaded both the note values flashcards and 9 different rhythm patterns for Eva to review. With the rhythm patterns, Eva can feel free to clap these rhythms or play them on the piano. When playing these rhythms, please ask Eva to count out loud to ensure she is holding each note for the correct amount of time. Should Eva get stuck, or is unsure of how a rhythm pattern is supposed to sound like, use the Note Values Flashcards to help remind her how many beats each note gets. You can find the flashcards here.
Awesome work this week! I’m so excited to see how much we all accomplish in March!
Happy Practicing!
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
