Hoffman Academy
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Bringing free, quality music lessons to users worldwide. Follow us for more content and tips! Super-fun piano lessons that work.
Start playing songs from your very first lesson! With our groundbreaking method, you’ll learn to read, understand, and create music. It’s a complete education that’s affordable and packed with fun for every age.
08/04/2026
In our latest video, Mr. Hoffman breaks down minor 7ths and major 7ths. Discover how these expressive intervals bring unique emotion, drama, and spice to music. Designed for intermediate pianists while offering ear-training insights for learners of all levels, this lesson shares easy visual shortcuts on the piano and practical ways to spot intervals in everyday music.
https://app.hoffmanacademy.com/lessons/piano/major-minor-7ths/video/
Basically: keep the thumb off the black keys. When playing the B-flat major scale, starting on a black key means structuring fingerings so the thumb lands smoothly on the white keys. This sets you up for ultimate speed and agility down the road.
We have a free guide to all scales and fingerings as part of our "Store" of resources. hoffmanacademy.com/store
08/01/2026
🎹 August Student Challenge: Happy birthday, Mr. Hoffman!
Mr. Hoffman has a birthday coming up, and we are celebrating all month long! We invite your piano student to learn and play "Happy Birthday" in any style they choose to help us celebrate.
🌟 Share your video at https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/showcase. Our team picks a favorite each month to win Hoffman Academy merch. Pianists of every experience level are welcome to join in the fun!
🎂 Get started with “Happy Birthday” sheet music, tutorials, and history in this blog article:
https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/how-to-play-happy-birthday-on-piano
👀 Coming in September: Sit tall and get ready! Next month is all about your very best piano posture.
Time signatures can feel like a mystery, but they are simple once you break them down! The top number tells you how many beats are in each measure, and the bottom number shows what kind of note gets one beat.
In 2/4 time, that means counting 2 beats per measure with the quarter note getting 1 beat. The best part? This rule applies to every single time signature, whether you are playing in 3/4, 4/4, or even 6/8!
Head over to hoffmanacademy.com/blog to read our full guide on time signatures and keep building confident music skills.
Inversions can seem like a lot at first, but once you start regularly thinking about what type of inversion you can do in a chord progression, they get easier and easier. Next time you're playing chords, find the common notes between two adjacent chords. Keep the common notes, and from there, find the rest of the notes you need. Usually everything is close by!
Follow for more simple explanations of complex music theory topics!
Oh do we know the feeling.
07/23/2026
Ever notice how easy it is to clap or march along to certain music? 🎵 That STRONG-weak pulse is the 2/4 time signature at work, which is why it's often called "march time." Our latest blog article covers how to count it, the note values that fit inside two beats, and why you'll hear it everywhere from ballet to polka.
🔗Find the full guide at https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/2-4-time-signature
It's the beat before the song really begins. If you watch a conductor, you'll see them lift their baton right before beat 1, and that will be the pickup.
Using "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" as an example, this breaks down why pickup notes exist and how to count into them.
The easy formula is:
From your basic minor scale, raise the seventh note of the scale one half step.
D minor: D E F G A Bb C D
D harmonic minor: D E F G A Bb C # D
If it starts on a line, skip a line to find the 5th.
If your note starts on a space, skip a space to find the 5th.
Part of sight reading is quickly recognizing shapes in your music, rather than seeing all notes individually.
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12660 NW Cornell Road
Portland, OR
97229