Learn How to Play Piano with The Hoffman Method

At Hoffman Academy, you’ll learn how to play piano by practicing real songs from day one. It’s what we call experience before explanation. It’s fun, builds confidence, and leads to better results. It’s one of the reasons we’re so different from other music programs out there.

Learn how to play piano with Joseph Hoffman, creator of The Hoffman Method.

Become a well-rounded musician.

Rooted in early child development and learning theory, the Hoffman Method teaches you to not only play piano but to truly comprehend music. Its multi-sensory approach engages your natural curiosity and creativity while providing a high level of musical proficiency. Your child will love gaining the skills to become a confident musician with Mr. Hoffman! Kids start playing music by ear to build a strong foundation of musical understanding. Students will progress to understand music theory, learn to improvise, read sheet music & rhythms, and more!

Here’s what you’ll learn with the Hoffman Method

Sight Reading

Play a song that you’ve never played before just by reading the notes on the page. At Hoffman Academy, we know that learning to read music by sight is an important skill that needs to be cultivated on its own. Our series of Sight Reading Trainers and fun online note reading games like Staff Crawler and Sea Turtle Shuffle will give students the tools they need to become super sight readers!

Music Theory

Master concepts such as chords and key signatures, so you understand music at a deep level. Learning music theory helps musicians make better music! While covering a comprehensive music theory curriculum in its video lessons, Hoffman Academy also offers music theory reference guides, worksheets, and an excellent blog that covers music theory topics including music terms, rhythm, chords, harmony, all 24 major and minor scales, and more!

Rhythm

Understand the patterns of sound in time, so you know when to play each note. When it comes to playing music, rhythm is just as important, if not more important, than pitch! Our method lets students experience rhythms first, then guides them as they learn to recognize and write them down.

Ear Training

Learn to hear a melody, identify its unique patterns, and recreate it on the piano. If you can sing a tune you've heard before, then you already know how to sing by ear! Playing by ear can become just as natural with practice. Hoffman Academy encourages students to learn music by ear and by sight, taking advantage of the benefits of both.

Improvisation

Create your own music on the fly, exploring your way around the keyboard without sheet music. Improvisation might seem intimidating if you've never tried it, but at Hoffman Academy we encourage all our students to make improvisation a fun and playful part of their daily music practice. We think it's as natural and essential to becoming a good musician as learning how to have a conversation is when learning a language.

Technique

Set yourself up for a lifetime of healthy playing with good habits like correct posture and hand position. Learning good piano posture from the start will help you look, feel, and sound your best at the piano every time you play.

Solfege

Recognize patterns and relationships between different notes in a musical scale. Every note in the scale has a different job, and solfège will help you get to know each note and how they all work together to make music. At Hoffman Academy we use moveable solfège, where "do" always represents the first note of the scale. This makes it easy for students to transpose songs they learn to any key!

Composition

Write original piano pieces and share them with the world. It’s a great way to reinforce learning and feel a sense of ownership! From simple composing projects for beginners to advanced music theory topics for harmonizing and arranging, we're here to support you on your journey of musical creation.

Try it for free