Donahue Guitar Studio

Introduction: -TEACHING EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION Michael Donahue has been teaching guitar lessons for over a decade to all levels ages 4-80. Mr. Donahue holds advanced degrees from two highly ranked conservatories of music. He has a Bachelor of Music from New England Conservatory and a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music. Michael specializes in teaching classical guitar, along with steel string acoustic and electric. Michael has 20 years of experience playing the guitar. -LESSONS Each student receives 35 lessons per academic year with options of 60, 45, and 30 minutes. -PERFORMANCE CLASSES Four Performance Classes will be included with the Lessons providing opportunities for informal performing and peer learning. -STUDENT CONCERTS 2 Recitals will be scheduled per year that all students can participate in. -CONSULTATION Before enrolling, a free information session may be scheduled with the teacher. -TUITION Tuition includes weekly lessons, performance classes, and recitals. Tuition may be paid monthly. -CANCELLATION POLICY Cancellations require 24-hour notice by phone. Each student is guaranteed 4 makeups per year. Four makeup weeks are built into the schedule. -ATTENDANCE & PRACTICE If a student is accepted into the studio, it is understood that it is for the full school year. The student must set time aside for daily practice, consistently attend the weekly lessons, and participate in the performance classes. -TEACHING PHILOSOPHY Michael Donahue’s primary goals are to instill the following behaviors in his students while they learn the guitar: curiosity, enthusiasm, patience, diligence, and confidence. Through musical experiences in lessons and in practice, the student will uncover a wide variety of styles and develop an openness for new music. Student repertoire choice and listening assignments will allow students to take ownership of their learning and discover favorite styles and artists. By drawing on his student’s interests, Mr. Donahue can create the proper environment for enthusiasm, but ultimately it is the student’s success, brought out by effective teaching, that is the primary motivator. Lessons will be oriented towards the process of learning rather than the results so students will develop patience realizing that the joy is found in the journey not the destination. Critical thinking skills will be acquired while studying guitar with Mr. Donahue and students will develop a ‘tool kit’ for solving problems. Michael teaches students to honestly self-assess their performance on a regular basis so they can work independently at home. Mistakes will be seen as opportunities to learn rather than failures to be ashamed of. They will discover confidence and good guitar playing are the result of proper preparation. Mr. Donahue’s lessons are supervised practice sessions, where learning occurs naturally through experiences and discoveries. Students will learn music through listening, singing, and tapping rhythms, before they start practicing them on their instruments. New notes, techniques, and challenging passages will be explored after the preliminary stages of understanding what the piece is communicating. When the student is ready with their ‘tool kit’ in hand, they will ‘dive right in’ and begin to practice the new music with Michael’s close supervision and guidance. Mr. Donahue’s goal is to train his students to become complete musicians and ultimately, artists. Along with a repertoire of performance pieces, all students will attain the vital skills of musicianship and technique such as, sight reading, music theory, scales, arpeggios, slurs, and chords. Ambitious students will learn how to arrange, compose, improvise, and play in different styles. -WHY CLASSICAL GUITAR? Sight Reading – Classical Guitar is the only style of guitar playing that utilizes modern staff notation throughout all levels of performance. This enables students to work independently. Music notation serves as a map for learning new material and a visualization for understanding. Advantageous Technique – The use of the right hand fingers facilitates a more progressive and less frustrating way of learning the left hand. Plucking with the fingers allows for a greater variety of musical textures, resulting in more interesting and educational music. Solo Focused Music – The great majority of classical guitar repertoire is written for solo guitar unlike the electric and steel string acoustic that play more of an ensemble role. 500 Years of Musical Styles – The classical guitar repertoire, stylistically, is the most expansive out of ALL the instruments. Students will experience a whole world of possibilities. Ideal Work to Satisfaction Ratio – Classical guitar has a teaching tradition going back 200 years with the highest quality student-music, making it the most satisfying and least frustrating style to learn in the beginning to intermediate phase. -BIOGRAPHY Mr. Donahue has dedicated himself to teaching since he has entered into professional life and has a decade of experience teaching guitar lessons with students at all ages, levels, and styles, teaching classical, acoustic, and electric guitar. This Fall, he will be teaching Intro to Guitar and General Music at Hudson Way Immersion School in Manhattan and Stirling, NJ. He also teaches introductory to intermediate guitar lessons at Areté Music Academy. Michael has guitar studios in Denville and Chatham, where has students actively participating in the Royal Conservatory’s – Music Development Program. Mr. Donahue’s students have gone on to win awards and have performed in Carnegie Hall. Many of his past students are now pursuing professional careers as guitarist, now studying at renowned colleges and establishing their own careers as performers. He has committed himself to developing not just guitarists, but musicians; to elevate guitar pedagogy to the highest possible level. Guitarist Michael Donahue regularly performs in various events throughout the New York Metropolitan Area. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist in Manhattan, Boston, and New Jersey at Greenfield Hall, Jordan Hall, St. Botolph Hall, Pforzheimer Hall, Myers Hall, Schare Hall, Nicholas Music Center and the Kirkpatrick Chapel. Michael was the director and featured performer of a benefit concert titled, Harmonies for Healing, raising funds for Denville’s disaster victims of Hurricane Irene. A native of Denville, New Jersey, Michael, scholar-athlete Luzzi scholarship winner, hadn’t begun serious study of the guitar until age 16. After rapid progress, he decided to dedicate his life to the instrument. During his college auditions he met world renowned guitarist, Eliot Fisk. That summer he traveled to Vienna to study with Eliot at the “Wiener Meisterkurse”. Michael continued his studies with Mr. Fisk throughout his undergrad at New England Conservatory in Boston, where he received a Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance. Winner of the Joseph M. Smith scholarship for outstanding talent and academic achievement, Michael graduated from Manhattan School of Music, with a Master of Music, where he studied with Mark Delpriora. Michael Donahue has played in master classes for Adam Holzman, Dmitri Goryachev, Stephen Goss, David Leisner, Nicholas Mann, and Emanuele Segre. He has been coached in chamber music by Oren Fader and Robert Sullivan.