Hoffman Academy
Bringing free, quality music lessons to users worldwide. Follow us for more content and tips! Super-fun piano lessons that work.
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The most difficult thing about piano is doing different things with different hands and fingers all at the same time. The trick to getting past this, is seeing it as one thing. If you see the notes in each hand playing in different directions, that's one thing, for instance. If on one beat, you play left hand only, that's one thing to think of instead of "left hand plays, right hand doesn't."
Grouping things together conceptually helps you put complex patterns together for each hand. Over time, you can better hear the parts individually. At the beginning, however, it's easiest to think of it as one thing.
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10/03/2026
🚛What does Beethoven have to do with a garbage truck in Korea?
🎹 Find out in this our latest roundup, along with the final piece in Unit 18, our #1 new release on Amazon, and October's Halloween Costume Contest.
https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/monthly-roundup-september-2026
If you learned them out of this context, it can be a little confusing. Think about how many of them can fit into a whole note!
Whole note: 1
Half note: 2 (halves)
Quarter note: 4 (quarters)
Eighth note: 8 (eighths)
Sixteenth not: 16 (sixteenths)
Same for rests!
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10/01/2026
🎃 October's Student Challenge: Halloween Costume Contest
Our Halloween Costume Contest is back, now as part of our monthly Student Challenges! Put on a costume, play a piece from the Hoffman Academy Store, and share your video by October 31.
Beginners are welcome. A short piece you know well makes a wonderful entry.
Our team will choose three favorites:
🎭 Best Costume
👻 Best Spooky Performance
🌟 Mr. Hoffman's Pick
Each winner chooses any three Hoffman Academy books or merch items on Amazon, or a free year of Premium membership for one student. Winners will be announced November 3.
Entry instructions, spooky song suggestions, and tips for making your music sound spooky are all here: https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/monthly-challenge-october-2026
Slurs v. Ties. These markings look so similar you may miss it, but they have completely different meanings!
While slurs connect 2 or more different notes, ties connect two or more of the SAME note. When you see a slur, it means play legato, smooth and connected. When you see a tie, it means to connect all the following notes to the first, instead of replaying them.
So...
Slur = smooth and connected
Tie = only play the first note and hold it
This is especially prevalent in music written for strings where you can sometimes hold one note for most an entire section! You will still see it a lot in piano music.
09/29/2026
🚜 Take a hayride ✔️️
🎃 Visit a pumpkin patch ✔️
🎵 Keep the beat ✔️
Our Rhythm Harvest Packet covers all three! Students choose notes and rests to fill harvest train cars, pumpkin barrels, and pumpkin patches, making sure each measure adds up. There are activity pages for students from Early to Late Elementary, and answer keys are included.
Free with Premium membership, or $1.99 USD in the Store: https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/store/learning-and-teaching-resources/rhythm-harvest-packet
Only if it connects to the same note, will we call it a tie, and not play the same note. A slur will connect two different notes, and in that case, you do play both notes.
A more detailed post to show the difference between the two is coming next!
09/26/2026
What is a piano étude, and which one fits your student right now? 🎹
✔️ Beginner: Simple pentascale études like Unit 2's "Stepping & Skipping," which build finger independence and posture with no finger extension required.
✔️ Early Intermediate: Burgmüller's "Arabesque," which you can learn with Mr. Hoffman
✔️ Advanced: Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff
Find the right étude for every stage: https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/what-is-an-etude
Sometimes rhythms that look complicated are not at all. This 6/8 rhythm with eighth rests between barred eighth notes can look complicated, and when you tap it out, it has a nice feel to it.
one two three four five six
CLAP rest clap CLAP rest clap
The piano is a set of the same 12 keys over and over. You'll see patterns of two black keys and three black keys. In between every set of two black keys, is the note D. Even if it's higher or lower on the piano, it's always D. In the middle of a set of three black keys are G and A. Every set = G and A.
Whenever you write a song, you're really working with 12 notes, and decided what to make higher or lower on the piano.
Follow for more simple explanations of the piano :)
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