THE best piano technique excerises

[frederic]

Which one do you find the most useful for you? and why so? Any tips on using them? And please reccomend any other books that you enjoy using.

[stevie]

i own all 3, cortot is the most extensive, hanon is the most...sh*t, and dohnanyi is the most efficient - timewise.

id say the dohnanyi is best, but if you want to work on a very specific thing, go for the cortot, the double-notes section is very thorough but some might say a bit pointless.....one things for sure, youd be a DN maztah.

[odsum25]

The Dohnanyi are my favorite by far. Hanon is utterly useless and the Cortot are so extensive that they become completely overwhelming. Dohnanyi's excercises are efficient and very effective to make your technique develop. They are not for beginners however.

[cfortunato]

Schmitt.  Opus 16.  They are very focused and very repetitive, and seem to cover just every finger combination.

For students, Czerny, because the musicality makes them interesting to play as well as useful.

Every loves Hanon, but I find him so boring that it just doesn't get done.

[pita bread]

i own all 3, cortot is the most extensive, hanon is the most...***, and dohnanyi is the most efficient - timewise.

id say the dohnanyi is best, but if you want to work on a very specific thing, go for the cortot, the double-notes section is very thorough but some might say a bit pointless.....one things for sure, youd be a DN maztah.

Do you have the Cortot as a pdf?

[danyal]

Does anyone have the Dohnanyi as a pdf?

[thalbergmad]

Does anyone have the Dohnanyi as a pdf?

But of course.

[thalbergmad]

Do you have the Cortot as a pdf?

Here is the Cortot.

[kreso]

Unfortunatly I don't have Cortot, but I recomend Cortot's edition of Chopin Studies, in which you can find a lot of usefull stuff..

[pita bread]

Here is the Cortot.

Thank you kind sir.

[rosana]

Here is Cortot's Chopin Etudes op 10 pdf file.

Thanks thalbergmad for the other ones.

[darla]

Interestingly, I had been looking for technique book and narrowed my search down to
Dohnanyi, Liszt, and Cortot.  I'm planning to spend the next 6-12 months on it.  I decided on the former primarily due to it having a similar reputation as the other two, but somewhat less overwhelming.

I would be interested if anyone that has gone through if they have suggestions on strategy to tackle it (order, speed, HS vs. HT, etc., etc.)

Dohnanyi support group anyone?

Thanks,
D-

[stevie]

at the start of the dohnanyi book he lists them in an order of difficulty, so that might help if you want to be progressive

[pianalex]

brill pdfs, thanksguys!  I've always liked the cortot method - anyone got the scherzi?

[frederic]

I own Cortot's edition of the Chopin Etudes and they are indeed very good.
I use Dohnanyi. The pianists who uses this as well, do you have any tips on how to practice these excercises to make the most out of them?

[bonbonbon]

my favorite : Brahms 51 execises and Dohnanyi essential finger execises

[presto agitato]

my favorite : Brahms 51 execises

How good are those exercises?

[demented cow]

Re Brahms 51 exercises: One of them is dangerous, the one with double notes played with 2-4 and 3-5 while the thumb is turned under the hand. I knew somebody who practised this every day - until something snapped and he couldn't use the hand for months. (BTW Does anyone have the Naxos recording of the Brahms 51? Does it actually sound musical?)

[stevie]

Re Brahms 51 exercises: One of them is dangerous, the one with double notes played with 2-4 and 3-5 while the thumb is turned under the hand. I knew somebody who practised this every day - until something snapped and he couldn't use the hand for months. (BTW Does anyone have the Naxos recording of the Brahms 51? Does it actually sound musical?)

hahaha, the brahms exercises are a bit random, good and interesting, but just not as practical and useful as old DON

Here is Cortot's Chopin Etudes op 10 pdf file.

Thanks thalbergmad for the other ones.

thanks!

got op25?

[rosana]

got op25?

Unfortunately not.

[danyal]

I was quickly reading through the Dohnanyi when I got to the chords at excercise 25a and it said "to be practised with closed eyes".... HAHAHA... I'm still laughing... heehee. I'm trying to imagine what it would sound like if I tried. Ok, maybe I should print it and try now (9:30pm). My neighbours were annoying me today.

[rimv2]

I was quickly reading through the Dohnanyi when I got to the chords at excercise 25a and it said "to be practised with closed eyes".... HAHAHA... I'm still laughing... heehee. I'm trying to imagine what it would sound like if I tried. Ok, maybe I should print it and try now (9:30pm). My neighbours were annoying me today.

tha true road to mastery

[bonbonbon]

The Brahms 51 is like a bible to me helps to build a reliable motor-control, hand-touch yet very musical...yeah many of them stretch a lot (must be practised carefully) but these finger execises are execellent for introducing to his unique keyboard and a hint as to the colour and texture of his sonorities.

[applelover]

Someone at the top of this thread said the Hanon excercises are useless.  I'm starting them now my piano teacher says they're good, why do you say they're useless.  Please help, I don't want to waste my time on useless excercises.

[stevie]

Someone at the top of this thread said the Hanon excercises are useless.  I'm starting them now my piano teacher says they're good, why do you say they're useless.  Please help, I don't want to waste my time on useless excercises.

for beginners they are good, i guess

they 2nd half of the book is pretty standard, basic 3rds and scales etc. and these are covered better in the dohnanyi and others.

but the 1st half are basic figurations that arent really useful for anyone that is beyond the beginners stange, they basically have you repeating fingerings like 132435 or 12435 or 15423 etc etc.

good for basic coordination, but....

[erak]

What about Herz?

[frederic]

Dear Dohnanyi users. How many of you have mastered the insanely difficult No.9?

[daniel patschan]

I think the Cortot exercises are really good. This man knew the instrument. Of course, there are different approaches to learn technique (everything about this topic has been discussed intensively in this forum) but Cortot shows one possible way i think. He is one of the few people who really describes movements and who explains how to achieve this and that. The 'Principles ...' are an excellent work in my opinion. Unfortenately, i takes a long time to go through everything - so my suggestion for the technique book of (second) choice goes to Dohnanyi. He focuses on the most important aspects of mechanism. Nevertheless, some of the are hard to perform (No. 9-11) but at the end it's definitely worth it.

[BoliverAllmon]

Schmitt.  Opus 16.  They are very focused and very repetitive, and seem to cover just every finger combination.

my teacher would agree. He says, "true finger independence cannot be achieve until one has shoveled enough schimitt." LOL

[g_s_223]

Re Brahms 51 exercises: One of them is dangerous, the one with double notes played with 2-4 and 3-5 while the thumb is turned under the hand. I knew somebody who practised this every day - until something snapped and he couldn't use the hand for months. (BTW Does anyone have the Naxos recording of the Brahms 51? Does it actually sound musical?)

I have this recording. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

[rob47]

the only technique books i ever used were when i was a small child. They were quite wicked:



However my double notes are quite brutally bad

[presto agitato]

After talking to several piano teachers and concert pianists, all agree that the best book of piano technique exercise is Bach´s WTC num 1.

What you say?

[iumonito]

After talking to several piano teachers and concert pianists, all agree that the best book of piano technique exercise is Bach´s WTC num 1.

What you say?

Right on the money.  I would add the Mozart sonatas.  Practice them carefully and you shall be rewarded.

...and next time there is one of those idiotic "rate these pieces in order of difficulty" there should be a reference to the very amusing and yet interesting repertoire list in the back of the Cortot studies.

[turner]

I haven't checked this board for a while, and when I tried to download the PDFs today I got a message saying that the files were damaged. Would any of you be able to upload the files again? Thanks in advance.

Regarding Brahms, Idil Biret recorded his Exercises in her complete set for Naxos. If you look her up on Amazon.com, you'd actually find audio samples of her rendition of these exercises. And I'll leave you to decide whether these are musical. 

Re Brahms 51 exercises: One of them is dangerous, the one with double notes played with 2-4 and 3-5 while the thumb is turned under the hand. I knew somebody who practised this every day - until something snapped and he couldn't use the hand for months. (BTW Does anyone have the Naxos recording of the Brahms 51? Does it actually sound musical?)

[ted]

The only purely technical device I use is my practice clavier, and then for only around ten minutes a day. I have used it for over thirty years and I consider it has accrued me incalulable benefit, especially for finger work. I haven't played exercises at the piano for decades; once I'm at the piano I just make music.

[pita bread]

Re Brahms 51 exercises: One of them is dangerous, the one with double notes played with 2-4 and 3-5 while the thumb is turned under the hand. I knew somebody who practised this every day - until something snapped and he couldn't use the hand for months. (BTW Does anyone have the Naxos recording of the Brahms 51? Does it actually sound musical?)

That's a vital technique for the Stravinsky Petrushka and maybe the Busoni-Liszt Mephisto Waltz.