Review - Hoffman Academy

Hello again lovely peoples, I have decided to take a break from procrastinating today to discuss an awesome website that Miss K and I have had been given opportunity to review. Today I will be discussing the Hoffman Academy.

Anyone who knows me knows I love music. I listen to music all the time, and when I get the chance, I love to play piano. I took lessons when I was a kid, but had to stop for some reason, but the love of playing stayed with me, so when my big sister Sam was gifted an upright piano and she had no room for it at her house I gladly begged mum to let us store it here for her, simply so that I had an excuse to play. I've slowly been teaching Miss K to play, but given I don't have a lot of theory practise under my belt it is a very slow process. So when The Hoffman Academy contacted me and asked if we would review their online lessons I jumped at the chance.

There are two elements to the piano lessons given at Hoffman Academy. The first one is video lessons, which are available for free on their website. The second element is the work books, which are available for purchase at $19 USD per unit, or $85 USD if you purchase all of the units at once, which is a savings of $29! We were given a copy of the first unit workbook, and we have been going through it slowly while watching the videos.

All of the lessons are given by Joseph Hoffman who teaches the "Hoffman method" of piano playing. The videos are definitely aimed at children, with the language used very simple and explanations broken down to a level where children would be able to understand them. For us this was perfect given the student is five years old, however it may be a bit insulting for adults who are trying to learn to play through this website. That being said I don't think anyone should be deterred from trying Hoffman Academy regardless of their age. There is even a fun puppet show at the end of each video, something Miss K looks forward to as a reward for accomplishing another lesson.

The thing I loved about the Hoffman Academy piano lessons was that it made learning the piano both fun and easy for Miss K. Everything was broken down in a way that I find impossible to do, so she picked up new lessons quicker than she ever did with me. It also did away with a lot of the frustration both of us felt when I was handling her lessons on my own. Because she could see results a lot quicker she didn't lose confidence in her abilities when she did make a mistake, and was more willing to give it another go, something I could never get her to do, so Hoffman for the win there.

Hoffman Academy has made learning the piano easy and affordable. The fact that she was able to sit at the piano with my tablet open in front of her has made me happy because I don't have to leave the house, and she can pick it up whenever she wants and try another lesson, so if we're stuck inside on a rainy day (which means all the time right now, thanks very much winter.) then instead of getting in my hair she sits at the piano and works her way through another lesson, and I get to sit in my dressing gown with my unbrushed hair and not worry that the piano teacher thinks I'm a lazy parent. And given that each unit comprises of up to twenty lessons you are certainly getting value for money.

For further information, including looking up Mr Hoffman's impressive resume, check out the Hoffman Academy here. You can watch the videos without needing to purchase the workbooks, but they certainly do add to the learning experience and help reinforce the information given in the videos.

Well that's all from me today, I'm off to enjoy the rare tiny bit of sunshine we're getting here today, it's made even more special by the fact that I had to scrape frost off my car this morning and drive to kindergarten in 0 degree weather. Have I mentioned that I hate winter lately?

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the first unit of lessons in return for this review. All opinions given here are entirely my own *

The best break up mix tape in the world

This week seems to be a lot about music. For anyone out there who hates music I apologise for wasting your time with my obsession with music this week, now please feel free to go back to your little cave in the middle of the ocean.

So tonight I am snooping through my little sister's hard drive to see if she has any music that I don't. Given that she used to own a dance school and her entire job revolved around music, it's usually a pretty safe bet I can get some good tunes from her. During my snooping I have managed to locate a folder called Break Up CD, and not one to be able to resist finding out what a person would listen to if they went through a relationship bust up, I had to click on it and find out its contents. I am surprised to find that I have stumbled on probably the best break up CD in the history of man. The song list is pretty diverse, and includes lots of good break up songs including Fuck You by Lily Allen, Bitches ain't shit by Ben Folds, Love is only a feeling by The Darkness and We used to be by the Dandy Warhols.

Now given that my little sister and her partner have been together for years and years now, and as far as I can tell they have never had a serious break up, I was curious to find out exactly who compiled this list of music for her. The story was not what I expected at all. Apparently when one of her best friends split up from her boyfriend, HE made the CD for her. All of a sudden the song list goes from great angry music to get over a relationship to, to something so much more. (It also begs a huge question, why would he have put on there I touch myself by the Divinyls??) In one fell swoop he has managed to give her a soundtrack to mourn the end of their relationship together, and send her a huge screw you at the same time. With inclusion of songs like Look what you've done by Jet and Heartless by Kanye West, this friendly gesture barely conceals  what he really thinks of her for breaking his heart. I'm pretty sure this CD could be the best middle finger to give an ex ever.

Not that I'm one for petty stabs at former partners, but if I ever did go through a break up ever again, I would be sure to have this album in my arsenal, as it sure beats sitting in my room crying alone and writing angry letters to my exes that I'll never send while listening to Eternal Flame by the Bangles for the hundredth time. Of course given that I'm also not a teenager any more, I do tend to deal with the collapse of a relationship a little bit more maturely than I used to. When my last boyfriend just disappeared into thin air after 4 months, without even so much as a "this isn't working, let's just be friends" I just brushed it off and went back to being single, as if the relationship hadn't even happened. Had he done that when we were 18, it would have been a completely different story. I would have spent nights lying in bed dreaming up imaginary conversations with him where I shame him for treating me so poorly and make him want me all the more at the same time. Thank heavens the days of teenage angst are a distant memory for me. I don't think I could handle that much emotion any more.

But if there is one thing that hasn't changed since I was a teenager, it is the ability for music to get me through even the hardest life events. When my first real boyfriend and I broke up, it was sitting on my beanbag in my bedroom listening to The Bangles on my stereo that got me through it. When my half brother died a few years ago, it was sitting in my lounge room listening to The Eels on my computer that got me through it. When mum and Miss K both almost died on the same day, it was sitting on the hospital bed playing Guitar Hero on my DS that got me through it. The technologies and the tunes may have changed over the years, but their healing properties have never gone away. Now if you will please excuse me, Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson has just come on and I must dance around the lounge room.

Losing touch with what's popular

I mentioned in a post last week that one day I was going to lose touch with modern music. What I didn't realise was that day was going to come a week after that post was written. I have started to play a game on Facebook called SongPop where you battle against your friends to see who knows the most about music of all genres, and I am ashamed to admit that I suck at guessing the top 40 songs.

Having a look at the play lists on my computer, there are some amazing songs on there, by some amazing artists, but very few of them were written in the past 5 years. Occasionally one of my sisters will show me a new song that I absolutely MUST hear, and if I agree with them, I'll go get my own copy of the song for my listening pleasure. But I'm not anywhere near as obsessed with hearing the latest songs as I used to be. Once upon a time I listened to my local radio station every single Sunday so I could hear the new releases and enjoy the other songs that were sharing the popular vote for this week. These days, I am happier sitting in my tiny sheltered cave remembering the artists of yesteryear than bothering to learn any new names.

I know everyone goes through this separation from popular culture, and I probably shouldn't be so surprised that it has finally happened to me, but given how pivotal music has been in my life up to this point, I really thought I'd last longer than this before I got tired of knowing what is cool this week. I mean it's not like I refuse to keep up to date with the latest trends, I know all the current internet memes, I can laugh at the popular jokes, and I even learned that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were getting a divorce at the same time everyone else did. I have just gotten to the point where I've stopped jumping on every single bandwagon as it drives past me, partly due to having no more room to learn new bands and new song lyrics, and partly because I've become jaded about musicians these days. Most of them barely seem old enough to be allowed into pubs without fake ID's, and to listen to them singing about things even I don't understand just seems laughable.

And don't even get me started about the music they play in nightclubs these days. You know you're getting too old to go to these places when the music makes you angry. Once upon a time you had to tear me off the dance floor to get me to stop dancing, and every time they started a new song I'd scream OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS SONG!!!! and off I'd run back into the crowd of drunken revellers, jumping around to the music like madmen. These days, the crowds just make me angry, and the floors are sticky and I could be in bed reading my book or playing a sudoku puzzle. Oh my God when did I get so old??

Ah who cares. If getting old means that I no longer get blisters on my feet from the inappropriately tall stilettos I used to wear to the nightclubs, and the bruises on my shins from falling down the stairs drunk, then I'm old and proud of it. I'll start to worry when I get the urge to buy a sports car and start dating boys fresh out of high school. Until then, please enjoy this list of games for old people to play.

1. Sag, You're it.
2. Pin the Toupee on the bald guy.
3. 20 questions shouted into your good ear.
4. Kick the bucket.
5. Red Rover, Red Rover, the nurse says Bend Over.
6. Doc, Doc Goose.
7. Simon says something incoherent.
8. Hide and go pee.
9. Spin the Bottle of Mylanta.
10. Musical recliners.

HIStory*

So today in a desperate attempt to entertain a very energetic and easily bored 1 year old I turned on my computer and cranked out some tunes. I am very lucky to have a daughter who loves music almost as much as I do, and she takes great pleasure in getting down and funky any time she hears music, whether it be in the supermarket or the kitchen. There is never a bad time to start dancing for Miss K. We were having a lovely time listening to my large catalogue of music, when suddenly one of my favourite songs as a child came on, and as Miss K and I danced away to it, a horrible realisation dawned upon me.

The song was They Don't Really Care About Us by Michael Jackson, and when I was a kid, I loved this song so much that me and two of my best friends choreographed a song to it in grade 6 to perform in front of  our classmates. It was the first really angry song I had ever heard and it really struck a chord with me. At the time I wasn't allowed to listen to a lot of top 40 music as my dad hated it, and we listened to a lot of music from the 60's and 70's in our house. On the plus side I was well familiar with some classic musicians like The Beach Boys, Alice Cooper and Skyhooks. On the negative side, I knew almost nothing about bands like Guns 'n' Roses and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

I was actually quite sad when Michael Jackson died back in 2009. I didn't run out and make a shrine to him or cry in the streets like some of his die hard fans did, in fact I wasn't even really surprised he had died, given I'd watched his slow decline into crazy town over the past decade. But it was the end of an era the day he passed away, a fact of which I hadn't really given much thought to until I was dancing in my lounge room this afternoon with Miss K. That's when I realised that she would never understand the hysteria that he was able to cause in a room full of women. Given that she'll be looking at his life retrospectively there will be no surprise for her when she reads that he was charged with molesting a child, nor will she get as excited as I used to when she hears one of his songs on the radio. I'm sure she'll find musicians and bands of her own to idolise, but I will probably be so over popular music and old fashioned by then I'll just shake my head and smile at her.

And that's when I realised exactly how much wonderful music moments Miss K has missed out on purely because she was born in the wrong decade. All of the things I thought of as revolutionary will be dated and daggy by the time she's able to really appreciate music, and I have a horrible feeling that all musicians will have finally been replaced by computers (it's happening already) and real music will be a thing of the past. Of course anyone born in the fifties and sixties has been saying that for years and years, but this time I think it's really going to happen. And that makes me sadder than you can know.

But I can and will do something about this. For right now I have a very impressionable young mind at my disposal who is willing to take anything mum says as gospel, so her music education starts now. I will have a child who will be able to sing any Beatles song she hears, and will be able to tell the difference between the poppy, upbeat songs by Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the angry, angst filled music of the Eels. And if she wants to stay in my will, she'll also hate Nickelback.

*For anyone who has been living in a cave for the past twenty years or was born after 1996, HIStory was an album released by Michael Jackson in 1995 and the first album that I ever coveted. Of course I couldn't afford the album being 11 years old at the time, but I had a good friend whose parents loved her more than mine did obviously and they bought it for her, so I spent all my spare time over at her house listening to it.