A Fresh Approach to TutoringLearn the Necessary Skills to Excel in School!
The academic tutoring program at the Joe Ferrante Music Academy began when parents asked us to apply the same commitment to excellence we provide in our music training to academic scholarship. Under the development of Dr. Allyson Salinger Ferrante, PhD the program was launched in 2006 and offers private tutoring in the following subjects: Math, Science, Language Arts, and Foreign Languages. The program’s goals are to support students’ school curriculum while developing the individual’s confidence, grasp of difficult concepts and fostering a passion for academic learning that will aid them in every academic pursuit. Students improve with test taking, comprehension, homework, and any special projects or individual goals. Often, our tutoring students see their grades raise significantly with our academy’s private tutoring sessions as one of our parents recently reported; “my daughter’s grade went from a D to a B+ with three months of private tutoring.” With a blend of patience, total customization, and a commitment to overcoming all obstacles, our academy teachers get great results with their students. By careful examination of textbook requirements and traditional school objectives, our academy tutors build the important links between individual students’ unique needs and scholarly improvement.
Levels K-12
In our private science tutoring sessions, teachers focus on building a student’s understanding of scientific concepts rather than just doing homework so that the student is empowered to do future assignments independently. Our students learn to master equations, practice problem-solving skills, and beat the pressure of a science test. Special emphasis is placed on how to effectively take quizzes and exams, and how to pace oneself in order to complete them in a timely manner. Because students’ learning styles can be different with respect to how science is learned, our teachers work to unlock which methods work best for each student as an individual; therefore, private tutoring is recommended as the best approach to effectively improve one’s science skills, rather than group classes.
All levels are offered to all ages. We teach alongside school curriculum rather than introducing students to new curriculum, helping them to improve on homework, quizzes, and exams. On average, our students’ test scores dramatically improve up to two grade levels.
Tutoring is taught in sessions of 30 minutes, 45 minutes and one hour, with the cost being the same as that of private music instruction.
Essay writing, English Grammar, and Creative Writing
Improving one’s language arts skills aids a student’s socialization, academic performance, and communication, and most importantly these skills are practiced and relied upon every day. We help students get better results with their homework, essay assignments, special projects and presentations, quizzes, and exams. Our Language Arts teachers share their passion for reading, writing, and literature with their students focussing on dispelling any intimidation and progressing into developing a deep appreciation and talent for self-expression. Special emphasis is given to conversational language studies, expository writing, critical reasoning and interpretation, and reading comprehension, in addition to grammar, punctuation, syntax, and vocabulary. Private tutoring offers the student complete curricular flexibility ranging from a formal academic approach to those preparing to vacation in a foreign country. From the high school student with a desire to improve his SAT scores to the weekend novelist, our academy’s Language Arts tutoring sessions have proven to be very effective in helping our students to attain their individual goals.
Tutoring is taught in sessions of 30 minutes, 45 minutes and one hour, with the cost being the same as that of private music instruction.
One fifth of the world’s population, over a billion, speak some form of Chinese as their native tongue. Among what are considered a variety of dialects, Standard Chinese is based on Beijing Mandarin and is the most spoken form, as well as the official language of China and Taiwan, one of Singapore’s four official language, and one of the United Nation’s six official languages. In our private one-on-one lessons, beginning students focus on learning the alphabet, numbers, basic vocabulary, nouns, verbs, basic Chinese characters and pronunciation. They will learn such useful conversational speech as greetings, requests, and self introductions. As the student advances to an intermediate level, they learn how to use past tense, future tense and a variety of word labels, learn sentences wants and needs. Our teachers will work to expand the students’ basic vocabulary and comprehension of Mandarin working towards the goal of navigating a conversation solely in Mandarin to communicate everyday business, transactions, and interactions. At intermediate and advanced levels, students study literature and learn to translate texts. Studies have proven that people who speak more than one language ward off alzheimer’s and have stronger interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
Spanish is the second most popular natively spoken language in the world after Chinese, and the second most studied language after English. Spanish is used in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In California alone, more than a quarter of the residents speak Spanish at home and it is the second most spoken language in the United States. In our private one-on-one lessons, beginning Spanish students focus on learning the alphabet, numbers, basic vocabulary, nouns, verbs, and pronunciation. They learn basic basic conversational speech such as greetings, requests, and self introduction. As the student advances to an intermediate level, they learn how to use past tense, future tense and a variety of word labels, learn sentences wants and needs. Our teachers will work to expand the students’ basic vocabulary and comprehension of Spanish working towards the goal of navigating a conversation to communicate everyday business, transactions, and social interactions. At intermediate and advanced levels, students study literature and learn to translate texts. Studies have proven that people who speak more than one language ward off alzheimer’s and have stronger interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
Arithmetic, Multiplication and Division, Algebra I and II
In our private math tutoring sessions, teachers focus on building a student’s understanding of mathematical concepts rather than just doing homework so that the student is empowered to do future assignments independently. Our students learn to master equations, practice problem-solving skills, and beat the pressure of a math test. Special emphasis is placed on how to effectively take quizzes and exams, and how to pace oneself in order to complete them in a timely manner. Because students’ learning styles can be different with respect to how math is learned, our teachers work to unlock which methods work best for each student as an individual; therefore, private tutoring is recommended as the best approach to effectively improve one’s math skills, rather than group classes.
All levels are offered to all ages. We teach alongside school curriculum rather than introducing students to new curriculum, helping them to improve on homework, quizzes, and exams. On average, our students’ test scores dramatically improve up to two grade levels.
Tutoring is taught in sessions of 30 minutes, 45 minutes and one hour, with the cost being the same as that of private music instruction.
Create Your Own Music!
At Joe Ferrante Music Academy, we encourage our students’ creativity in songwriting and composition and believe they go hand in hand with excellent musical training and performance skills. For the student with a desire to learn songwriting, we have superb teachers who are professional songwriters and recording artists themselves. Our trained teachers engage our students’ desire to write music in a stimulating and supportive atmosphere. A general music background is required for our songwriting lessons, although if a student is interested in songwriting without prior music training, the Joe Ferrante Music Academy can set him or her up with a songwriting teacher who can begin teaching them the essential skills of musical and instrument training and eventually progress into songwriting lessons.
If Acting Is For You
At Joe Ferrante Music Academy, we have top teachers who are experts in the craft of theatre. Students with an interest in acting and the performing arts can study privately with one of our degreed theatre teachers. Our private coachings prepare them for their performances or big auditions. Students will study the importance of stage presence and posture, how to exude confidence while speaking, how to project and support their voices, as well as text, scene and play/script analysis. Our Drama teachers will use exercises, warm-ups and techniques with their students to warm-up their voices, bodies, and minds. Students can study classical or contemporary texts. Many students come to us to work one on one on monologues, audition material or a specific role in their school play.
Learn To Compose
For the student who wants a more theoretically-based approach to music training, we have teachers who specialize in theory. Whether you’re studying music theory for fun or need help with music theory for school or a larger goal, such as composition or songwriting, we have excellent teachers who are also professional composers and performers to guide you. Learning an instrument is the best way to understand basic music theory.
Students who would elect to study theory at Joe Ferrante Music Academy begin by learning music fundamentals like: music reading, rhythms, and musical expressions. Theory students study scales, the circle of fifths, intervals, harmonic function, tonic chord progressions, figured bass, numerical analysis, counterpoint, and ear training.
Students of music composition need a solid background in music theory and our teachers work with their students to develop short melodies and learn how to develop them and make them interesting with just one line. Depending on the students’ interests, our composition teachers make listening recommendations in order to better comprehend the variety of musical instruments and instrumentations including each one’s particular strengths and weaknesses. At a more advanced level, students work with dynamics, color, texture, tempo, and articulations.
Begin Music At A Young Age!
Our Pre-K Music Exploration program makes a fantastic introduction to music for kids between the ages of 3 ½ – 5 years old. Our Pre-K instructors teach our youngest students how to read musical notes, identify rhythms, to count while singing, and most importantly to have fun making music. This is an excellent choice for those children who are interested in music, but are not able to concentrate for a full 30 minutes at the piano. Each Pre-K music exploration class is split between learning with the piano and rhythm instruments, and with an instructional emphasis on building the foundational skills for continuing their musical study as they get older. Studies have shown that children in the Pre-K age range age retain not only the foundations of the musical principals, but also the positive associations and personal development that come from expressing oneself through music. Some of our best 8 and 9 year old students started in our Pre-K classes and have progressed through our academy to study a variety of different instruments. Although it varies from student to student, children at age 4 are able to study piano or violin for a full 30 minutes and we recommend private instrument lessons at that stage.
The Brass Family
The Brass instruments taught at Joe Ferrante Music Academy include the french horn, the trumpet, the trombone, and the tuba. Students learn basic techniques such as: assembling the instrument correctly, how to hold the instrument, proper breathing techniques and body posture, how to use the reed and mouthpiece, and how to produce quality tones. Teachers focus on fundamentals like reading music, rhythms, dynamics, key signatures, and the different fingerings to play each note. Brass instrument students practice a variety of technical exercises to study how to produce quality sound, long tones, and to develop their breath support, tongue positioning, embouchure, and intonation. Additionally, students studying the brass instruments concentrate on how to smoothly connect the lower and upper ranges. Once our students have mastered music fundamentals and basic brass techniques, they progress onto more advanced techniques such as scales, arpeggios, tonguing, articulations, and hand and finger positions in order to gain both speed and agility in their playing. Students will continue to study the rudiments of the technique, master scale drills, study out of etude books, work on orchestral excerpts and more difficult brass instrument repertoires.
Learning specific repertoires alongside technical training, our teachers aid students in learning their school music, master a solo, or get into their varsity marching band. At their inclination, students can study jazz, pop or classically based music, music for their school band, and/or how to improvise on the brass instruments. At a more advanced level, students continue to study the rudiments of the technique, master scale drills, study out of etude books, work with speed and agility in the higher range and how to achieve flexibility in their playing.
At Joe Ferrante Music Academy, each lesson has three major components. The first segment is devoted to last week’s lesson assignment where the student gets a chance to demonstrate what they’ve worked on. The second component is time spent on technical development and music theory training. Students are taught how to read music, increasingly complex rhythms, note interval recognition, ear training, and chord construction. The third component is introducing the next assignment and teaching the student the important elements of their new song(s). Students are tested for their level of achievement twice a year, we have 10 levels of achievement, and are given the opportunity to perform in recitals from a beginning level to an advanced.
One of the oldest musical instruments dating back to 1500 BC, the trumpet has the highest register in the brass family. The instrument is played by closing one’s lips and blowing air to produce a buzzing sound. Primarily made of brass these days, through history trumpets have been made of bronze and silver in Egypt, Scandinavia, Peru, and Central Asia. Trumpet players were often among the most prized members of a troop as they were responsible for relaying military instructions to other sections of an army. Today, the trumpet can be heard in classical music, jazz, big band, and pop. Its repertoire consists of solo pieces, ensembles, orchestra, and band parts. Played around the world the trumpet is often associated with its most notable players, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis.
Originally played by blowing on the actual horns of animals, today the French horn is an orchestral instrument made of over 12 feet of brass tubing and wrapped into a series of complex coils flaring out into what’s called a bell. Musicians of the French horn are known as horn players. Sound is played by buzzing through one’s closed lips, and pitch is controlled through adjusting one’s lip tension in the mouthpiece and operating 3 valves with the left hand to control the flow of air. The French horn is the third highest sounding instrument in the brass family, below the trumpet and the cornet and is often utilized in school bands and orchestras. It is commonly played in chamber music and as part of an orchestra.
Nearly all trombones have a telescoping slide mechanism that changes the length of the instrument to vary its pitch. A variety of mutes can be used with the instrument to alter its timbre; many are held in place with the use of grips and others fit over the horn like a bucket. Additionally, mutes can be held in front of horn, called a bell, and moved back and forth to create a “wah-wah” effect, the familiar sound of adult conversation in the Peanuts cartoon with Charlie Brown. The trombone can be found in wind ensembles, concert bands, symphony orchestras, marching bands, military bands, chamber music, brass bands, and brass choirs which can number from five to more than twenty members.
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched instrument of the brass family. It is also the most recent addition to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th-century. Orchestras usually have a single tuba and it is the principal bass instrument in symphonic and military bands. It is often played to reinforce the bass voices of strings and woodwinds, as well as a solo instrument, and are used in concert bands, marching bands, drum and bugle corps, jazz bands, and orchestras. A tuba can be played either sitting down or standing and when in American marching bands, wraps around the body and is called a sousaphone after American bandmaster and composer, John Philip Sousa, requested its more comfortable and mobile design for his marching band tuba players in the 1890s.
Flutes To Clarinets To Saxophones…
The wind instruments include the flute, clarinet, oboe, and saxophone and all students studying these instruments at Joe Ferrante Music Academy learn the foundational techniques of: assembling the instrument, holding the instrument correctly, proper breathing techniques and body posture, making basic tones. Teachers focus on fundamentals like reading music, rhythms, dynamics, key signatures, and the different fingerings to play each note. Wind instrument students practice a variety of technical exercises to study how to produce long tones and develop their breath support, tone production, tongue positioning, embouchure, and intonation. Students studying wind instruments concentrate on how to smoothly connect the lower and upper ranges. Once our students have mastered music fundamentals and basic wind instrument techniques, they progress onto more advanced techniques such as scales, arpeggios, tonguing, articulations, and hand and finger positions in order to gain both speed and agility in their playing.
Learning specific repertoires alongside technical training, advanced students play orchestral excerpts and study etudes. Our teachers aid students in learning their school music, master a solo, or get into their varsity marching band.
At Joe Ferrante Music Academy, each lesson has three major components. The first segment is devoted to last week’s lesson assignment where the student gets a chance to demonstrate what they’ve worked on. The second component is time spent on technical development and music theory training. Students are taught how to read music, increasingly complex rhythms, note interval recognition, ear training, and chord construction. The third component is introducing the next assignment and teaching the student the important elements of their new song(s). Students are tested for their level of achievement twice a year, we have 10 levels of achievement, and are given the opportunity to perform in recitals from a beginning level to an advanced.
Aside from the human voice, the flute is the oldest known musical instrument. The oldest flutes found by archaeologists are made of bear and bird bones, but today most flutes are made of silver-plated metals like brass, copper, and zinc combinations. Most professionals play on solid silver flutes. Unlike its other woodwind siblings, the flute does not need a reed to play, but produces its sound just from the flow of air across an opening. The flute is one of the most versatile instruments for playing different styles and is used in classical, rock, jazz, pop, and hip-hop. One of the most famous flute players in popular culture is featured in our academy hallways, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He took up playing the flute when he played basketball for UCLA to relax before games.
The clarinet has the widest pitch range of the woodwind family and is used in jazz and classical ensembles, chamber groups, orchestra, and as a solo instrument. Popular in klezmer music the clarinet also is also an integral part of Brazilian choro and samba, Bulgarian wedding music, Romani folk music, and the music of Turkey, Greece, and the Arab world. The clarinet was invented by a German named Johann Christoph Denner in the early 18th-century. The first great composers to write for the clarinet were Vivaldi and Handel, followed by Mozart and Beethoven. However, it was the Romantic Era composers like Carl Maria von Weber, Schumann, and Brahms who really showed off the full potential of the clarinet as a solo instrument. Sometimes referred to as a licorice whip because of its dark wood and shape, no orchestra is ever complete without a clarinet.
Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax created the instrument in 1846 when he wanted to create the most powerful and vocal of the woodwinds to fill the middle ground between the brass and woodwinds. Usually saxophones are made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to a clarinet. Saxophone students can study jazz, pop or classically based music, music for their school band, and/or how to improvise. At the more advanced levels, saxophone students continue to study the rudiments of the technique, master scale drills, study out of etude books, and learn standard higher saxophone repertoire, modal scales and jazz runs. Saxophone players have been known to become the President of the United States, like Bill Clinton.
The oboe is a soprano-ranged double reed member of the instrument family that makes versatile bright sounds by blowing into the reed and vibrating a column of air. Intermediate and advanced students learn how to manufacture their own double reeds. Most professional oboists make their own reeds to fit his or her individual needs. Thereby oboists can control factors such as tone, color, and tuning. Most often used in European traditional and classical music it has also been used in jazz, rock, pop, and film music. When Peter Gabriel was the lead singer of Genesis, he played oboe on the group’s studio recordings. The oboe is featured as the solo instrument in John Williams’ score to Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and in Basi Poledourius’ score to Conan the Barbarian, and in Indian composer A.R. Rahman’s score to Jodha Akbar. The oboe is a standard member of any orchestra.
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically appears in orchestra, concert band, and chamber music literature. Known for its distinctive tone, color, range, and agility the bassoon creates a warm, dark, reedy timbre often compared to that of the male baritone voice. Unlike the flute, clarinet, or saxophone, the bassoon cannot be supported by a player’s hands alone. Most commonly, it’s held with a neck strap or shoulder harness or a seat strap is attached to its base to hold it up. Bassoon embouchure is an important aspect of producing a full, round tone and is made by putting one’s lips together as if one were to whistle but the jaw is dropped as if were to yawn without opening one’s mouth. Students typically start with another wind instrument like the clarinet or saxophone and then progress onto the bassoon. Two of the most popular symphonic solos pieces written for the bassoon are the the grandfather’s theme in Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and the opening solo in Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
Also known as the double bass, the string bass is the largest and deepest sounding of the string family. It stands around six feet tall and is used in Western classical music, jazz, blues, rock and roll, rockabilly, country, bluegrass, tango, and folk music. Like its string siblings, the bass is played with either a bow or by plucking its strings, which is called pizzicato. When playing the double bass, a bassist either stands or sits on a high stool, leaning the instrument against his or her body. Traditionally, when playing a solo performance a bassist will stand and when playing with an orchestra or in the opera pit, a bassist will sit. Even though a string bass has thick strings and takes a considerable amount of arm strength to play, this isn’t an instrument only for the boys. Did you catch the beautiful Esperanza Spalding playing her string bass at Nobel Prize Peace concert in 2009?
Dont Forget Your Drum Sticks!
Our Drum students are given an excellent foundation for any musical genre they might advance to. Their musical foundation begins with: identifying various drums and cymbals, learning different methods to strike the drum, looping drum beats, learning to identify and understand bars and measures, identifying and performing rhythmic denominations (i.e. quarter notes, half notes, etc.), and sight reading rhythm charts. A variety of styles are taught at the academy including pop, rock, and jazz. We have amazing degreed teachers who are also equipped to rock out! Our drum students will get a first rate musical foundation while having a lot of fun at the same time. Please take note that a student does not need to own a drum set in order to learn beginning drums. We teach a variety of different genres including rock, pop, jazz, reggae, and funk.
At Joe Ferrante Music Academy, each lesson has three major components. The first segment is devoted to last week’s lesson assignment where the student gets a chance to demonstrate what they’ve worked on. The second component is time spent on technical development and music theory training. Students are taught how to read music, increasingly complex rhythms, note interval recognition, ear training, and chord construction. The third component is introducing the next assignment and teaching the student the important elements of their new song(s). Students are tested for their level of achievement twice a year, we have 10 levels of achievement, and are given the opportunity to perform in recitals from a beginning level to an advanced.
A Traditional Approach
The banjo is a 4, 5, or 6 metal stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity as a resonator. African slaves in the colonial Americas were responsible for refashioning the instruments in the New World. The banjo is commonly associated with country, folk, traditional Irish, and bluegrass music. Banjo students learn the fundamentals of the instrument which include: tuning, hand positions, knowledge of the fretboard, and chord construction. In addition to chord construction and other techniques, students will work on right hand picking patterns which are taught continuously throughout their training up to advanced levels. The instrument has recently gained recognition through musicians Mark Johnson, Emory Lester, and comedian Steve Martin.
An Intimate Experience
The ukulele is a member of the guitar family and originated in 19th-century Hawaii when Portuguese immigrants came to work the sugar plantations. The famous late Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, known more commonly as “Iz,” brought great attention to the instrument when his medley of “Somewhere over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World” featuring his singing and ukulele playing appeared in several films, television programs, and commercials after its release in 1993. Students learn the fundamentals of the instrument including: tuning, hand positions, knowledge of the fretboard, and chord construction. Ukulele students are taught how to read single line melodies and chord constructions, which are taught continuously throughout their training up. The ukulele is easy to learn and a great starter instrument to guitar, even for little kids who want to progress to guitar training in the future. Students who want to learn ukulele can also study songwriting if they choose. Should they be inclined, students will also be given the opportunity to train with a teacher who can teach them how to sing and play simultaneously.
The ukulele is a member of the guitar family and originated in 19th-century Hawaii when Portuguese immigrants came to work the sugar plantations. The famous late Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, known more commonly as “Iz,” brought great attention to the instrument when his medley of “Somewhere over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World” featuring his singing and ukulele playing appeared in several films, television programs, and commercials after its release in 1993. Students learn the fundamentals of the instrument including: tuning, hand positions, knowledge of the fretboard, and chord construction. Ukulele students are taught how to read single line melodies and chord constructions, which are taught continuously throughout their training up. The ukulele is easy to learn and a great starter instrument to guitar, even for little kids who want to progress to guitar training in the future. Students who want to learn ukulele can also study songwriting if they choose. Should they be inclined, students will also be given the opportunity to train with a teacher who can teach them how to sing and play simultaneously.
