Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

  • We recommend that caregivers attend lessons for beginning students and for students 9 years old or younger. Most students will need some guidance, encouragement, and support at home to complete their daily practice assignment. When a caregiver attends the lesson this prepares the caregiver to be able to support the child at home. In the lesson you will learn what your teacher wants the student to focus on during the week and what the student is already doing well. We have found that children progress much more quickly and get more out of lessons when they have effective, well-informed help and support at home. It doesn’t matter whether or not you have training in music. The most important way to help is by providing structure and encouragement to establish good daily practice habits.

  • The specific amount of time students spend practicing is not nearly as important as having consistent, daily practice. Here at the Academy we expect students to practice six out of seven days a week, if not every day, and that during this time they complete their daily practice assignments from their teacher. For beginners, 15-20 minutes a day is usually sufficient. As students progress, daily practice time should increase.

  • We have a reputation for providing music lessons that most kids find engaging and fun. Many of our caregivers report that their children love lessons, and will go willingly to practice without being asked. However, our students also experience times where they may feel discouraged and even resistant to practicing. Developing musical skills takes years and years of dedicated practice, and sometimes a student might hit a “hump”. Best solution: a supportive home/teacher team. Developing musical skills is not easy, but it is worth it. Kids need love, encouragement, and consistent support.

  • Students at Hoffman Academy have multiple performing opportunities available to them throughout the year, including our end-of-semester recitals and during special ad hoc mini-recitals.

  • Two times per semester, a special group class will be held in place of the regular weekly lesson for our semester piano & voice students. Guitar & coaching students do not participate in CTW.

    Learn More about Come Together Week.

  • At this time we have no in-person offerings for children under the age of 5. However,  we recommend checking out our Online Academy, which has over 300 video piano lessons available for free, as well as online games, sheet music, theory worksheets, and more! It's a great way to start getting little ones (and older beginners, too!) excited about music.

  • We are focused on having a balance between both quality and fun. Our young students actually enjoy learning music, because we engage their natural curiosity and creativity using an innovative multi-sensory approach, while still providing them with the expert training to reach a high level of musical proficiency. Our teachers don’t just teach—they are all practicing, expert musicians as well! The learning environment here is fun and nurturing, and our innovative, research-based curriculum has proven itself to quickly enable students to play music they love.

Guitar

  • Tablature is not included in our curriculum. While tablature is useful for quickly writing music, it omits many crucial details. Our program emphasizes learning standard music notation, enabling students to become proficient in the universal system used by musicians across all instruments, not just guitar.

  • Absolutely! At Hoffman Academy, we ensure that our guitar students learn to read music. Unlike many programs, we break down the process into small, manageable steps, making it accessible for almost any student. Our curriculum not only supports music reading but also helps students develop essential skills that many young guitarists miss out on.

  • Our minimum age is 8 years old, with occasional exceptions. If your child is under the age of 8 and is interested in guitar, please contact our office to discuss enrollment options.

  • All students need to purchase a guitar tuner and music stand. If your guitar is an electric guitar, you also need to purchase an amplifier and instrument cable. More information about equipment can be found in our Equipment Guide.

  • Hoffman Academy of Music recommends Five Star Guitars as the top choice for purchasing student guitars in the Portland/Beaverton area. For more personalized guidance on where to buy a guitar, please ask your Hoffman Academy guitar instructor for a recommendation.

  • At Hoffman Academy, our students are welcome to use any type of guitar they like. However, for young students (10 or under) and beginners, we typically recommend a nylon string guitar. Please refer to our Guide to Purchasing a Guitar for more information on how to select an instrument. If you have any additional questions, or would like one of our teachers to make a personal recommendation for you, please send us an email.

Piano

  • Here are two names of tuners that we have used in the past, and we have been pleased with their work.

    Eric Leatha: 503.997.1725

    Dennis Wilkinson: 503.246.3337

  • For purchasing or renting a piano, our Academy families have had the best experiences with Classic Pianos. We have found their selection of both new and used pianos to be the best in Portland, and their customer service has been excellent. Please also mention that you have a student at Hoffman Academy so you can receive preferred pricing as a part of belonging to the Hoffman Academy Community.

  • Ideally, you would want to have a real acoustic piano to practice on, since a quality acoustic piano will provide a beautiful tone that can’t be matched by a keyboard. Perhaps even more importantly, practicing on an acoustic piano will prevent bad playing habits from being formed since the touch of an acoustic piano is nothing like most keyboards. However, if you can find an 88-key digital piano with “weighted keys”, that would be fine to practice on, too, for the first year or two of lessons. For more information, read our Guide to Choosing a Piano or Keyboard for the Beginning Student.

Policies

  • When driving conditions around the Academy appear dangerous due to weather, for the safety of our students and employees, we may choose to close the Academy for that day. A closure notification will be emailed to students and posted on the Academy website no later than 2pm on the day of the closure. When the Academy is closed due to inclement weather, instead of a live lesson, private lesson students will be offered a video lesson with their teacher at the same day/time as their regular lesson. Group class students will be offered an online video check-in with the teacher and an online assignment. No make-up lessons will be given for snow days, even if the student chooses not to participate in an offered video lesson.

  • We do not provide make up lessons for lessons missed or canceled by the student. However, if you know in advance that you will need to miss a group lesson, at your request, your teacher can make an audio recording of the lesson for you. This article helps explain why we can’t do make-up lessons:

    Make-up Lessons From An Economist’s Point of View.

  • No lessons will be held during the extended Thanksgiving weekend, the 2 weeks over the Winter Break, the week of Spring Break, and the extended Memorial Day weekend. For exact dates, please contact our office.

Private Lessons

  • We believe that great teaching and learning takes time, and it is simply not possible to offer a quality learning experience in such a small period of time. We want to inspire our students with a love of music, connect with our students, and truly understand them. This takes more time. If price is an issue, please consider our group lessons, as opposed to the private ones. They have proven very popular and effective.

  • Yes! We offer packages of private lessons that are scheduled around each student’s summer availability. We also offer week-long, half day piano summer camps! Summer schedules are normally posted near February. For the most accurate information, check out our Summer Programs page!

  • Caregivers who are unable to attend piano lessons for whatever reason should work with their child’s teacher to ensure good communication about practicing and getting the most out of the lessons. One possibility is to join the lesson for just the last 5 minutes to be present when the teacher reviews the practice assignment.

  • The age at which your child is ready to begin music lessons really depends on the child and your own judgement. However, we find that using the Hoffman Academy Methods, children can begin piano lessons successfully at age 5-6, and we offer lessons to children ages 5 and up.

    For guitar and voice lessons, our instructors will accept students around the age of 8 & 9 years, respectively. This has to do with the physical maturity of the voicebox (for vocalists) and fine motor skill development (for guitar).

Registration

  • No, we do not offer a sibling discount at the Academy.

  • If enrollment is canceled prior to two weeks before the first day of the semester a refund will be processed on the tuition only. As of two weeks before the start of each semester, tuition payments are non-refundable. Registration fees are non-refundable except in the unusual circumstance where a lesson time acceptable to both parties cannot be found during the scheduling process, in which case registration fees will be fully refunded.

  • Absolutely! The option to pay through our online registration system is for your convenience. Checks are always a welcome form of payment. Checks can be mailed to:

    Hoffman Academy
    515 NW Saltzman Rd. #816
    Portland, OR 97229

  • The registration fee covers:

    • Curriculum materials such as workbooks, CDs, and sheet music
    • Access to our music lending library, which provides a large selection of sheet music
    • Recital and concert venue fees
    • Administrative costs
    • Except in rare circumstances, registration fees are non-refundable.

Teaching Method

  • The Hoffman Method is based on Kodaly Philosophy and is an approach that is a balance between ear based and sight based learning. We strive to provide a fun and nurturing learning environment that includes group learning, in addition to individualized instruction, during our come together week lessons.

    Learn more about the Hoffman Method.

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