Looking for today's Connections answer to the August 29 Connections 445 question, which was less difficult than yesterday's answer, with a Connections Companion difficulty score of 3 out of 5?

We update our Connections hints and tips daily If the hints are not enough for you, we have also included the answers to all four questions, the category names, and the related words In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 444

There are spoilers for Connection 445 Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections should read on

Alternatively, see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses

If you need a hint to help you solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

If you read these hints, you should at least find the answer to today's connection If not, please continue reading for larger hints Also, if you only want to know the answer, scroll down further

Here's an even bigger clue: Remember the different types of Bach players ahead

Now, what is the answer to today's game #445 connection?

Drum roll, please

As I've written before, it's satisfying when you can push a category

Today I started with electronic pianos, grand pianos, player pianos, and upright pianos

I struck green trying to make counts, judges, dukes, and forcing a Noble title This strike led to the immediate addition of CONSIDER and REGARD by sticking with COUNT and JUDGE

College was quick from there with Brown, Duke, Howard, and Smith [But I had never heard of Noble & (Cooley?) or Young & (Company?), so I wasn't entirely sure Noble & Cooley is a musical instrument manufacturer known for its drum sets Young may be Ernst & Young So, at the end of the day, I am glad that purple was a fill for memorization

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty was 37 out of 5

I started the day with a strike as I assembled the monkey bars, slide, teeter totter, and tether ball I traded the tetherball for a swing for a yellow hat

I wasn't looking for anything beyond the string as a category, but I did get a pendulum, teeter totter, tetherball, and yo-yo

The purple category continued with (baby) blues, boomers, steps, and teeth I first looked at teeth and step and from there combined blue and boomer

The blue category makes sense with what I would describe as dry: dessert, humor, martini, teasotaller, etc

This is difficult and it took a little time to make some connections, but nothing that feels outlandish like some hard puzzles