Ervin Szabo
Short bio
Ervin Szabó, guitarist, was born in Hungary in 1975. He was only 6 years old when a music teacher noticed his talent in the first grade of elementary school and recommended to his parents that they teach him at a music school. Even then, the guitar was the most attractive instrument for him, and this feeling has remained ever since.
However, his early start - especially since his studies were conducted in a frontal education system, where they dealt exclusively with classical music and solfège - did not work out to his advantage, and so although his teachers considered him a talented musician, he wanted to quit very soon and only finished his general music studies at the age of 12 due to his father's strictness.
After he was allowed to leave music school, he did not look towards the guitar for years, which was only changed by the high school atmosphere, the friendships he made there, and the opportunity to play new types of music that could be learned there. He formed a high school band with his friends and played their own compositions at many concerts as a teenager.
He did not think for a long time about making a living as a professional musician. He graduated from university as a history teacher and journalist, started working for newspapers, then got a job as a press officer at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and later founded his own communications company, where he conducted market and public opinion research, developed and implemented marketing strategies, and performed other consulting tasks for clients.
Music remained a very important part of his life. During these years, he founded his own band, where he performed as a lyricist, songwriter, and guitarist. They appeared on TV and radio shows several times, gave many concerts at festivals and other concert venues, and in 2010, they released their first album.
After the release of the album, he decided to become a professional musician. He moved to Brussels and, for the first time in his life, voluntarily accepted the need for external help and formal training. He turned to studying and playing jazz, especially because he had always wanted to learn the theoretical background of music and play with the best musicians in his environment. Therefore, he took jazz improvisation courses at Berklee, Rochester and Edinburgh Universities, as well as taking lessons from Belgian jazz guitarists for years. Later, he started playing in different formations and diverse styles, and since then he has been performing regularly at festivals, restaurants, hotels and bars, and has been teaching children and adults for almost a decade.
About his teaching method
Ervin - especially due to his experiences at an early age - does not believe in frontal education, where the teacher must follow a pre-prepared curriculum with all students in roughly the same way, regardless of the student's age and interests. According to him, teaching should be a continuous interaction between teacher and student, so that together they can find the student's own path through which he can enter the infinite world of music without losing his natural curiosity for new things and the joy of discovery.
It is impossible to precisely categorize his teaching method, because for him there are as many methods as many students he has, and he believes that the most important task of a teacher is to find the most appropriate motivational factors and the most direct path for each of them, which depends on their age, experience, interests and personality.
Students say...
Peter Marsi
Erik Janssens
Mate Barsi
Maria Teodora Iancu
"I felt stuck on a certain level of playing when I first see Ervin about helping me. He supported me in building up a proper practicing method, and what I realized soon that I started to get more closer to music theory and because of that I have not just played the pieces, but understand their structures and logic. Thanks to this I learn much easier new songs and since I have been participating his lessons my stylistic range has been expanded.
During his sessions beside the technical and theoretical parts there is always some "playing for fun" section when we play together and what I always enjoy very much :)
Concerning his stage experiences he could also provide me good practical advices. With the skills I gained in the last three years - I could prepare and play on gigs with much more confidence.
"Ervin is a patient teacher who gives explanations as many times as you need it. He teaches me not only to play the guitar, but we also talk a lot about music in general. Now I understand and enjoy much more the different types of music than before, from Mussorsgky to Grease, the musical. Over the years, we went from teacher and student to good friends."
"He is very kind and funny, and sometimes when I am in a bad mood after the school he makes me laugh. My dad played water polo when he was young, and he always says to me if he could had a teacher like Ervin he would grew webs between his fingers. However, Ervin told me I should not do that otherwise it would be much more complicated to play on the guitar :)"
"I have a typical story about him: I am Romanian girl, but we moved here when I was very young. Before Christmas time Ervin arrived with a Romanian Xmas song what I have never heard before, but my mum knew well. He searched it us in the Internet, he made a notation and he taught me with big patience, so I would had been able to play it at Xmas night in front of my family. My mum said with teardrops in her eyes: it was the best present ever from me to her..."