The Case Against Hanon and Pischna

[clariniano]

Having started working on the Hanon exercises only for a week now (my teacher assigned number 1 to me), I think that at least for some students, they are very benefical.

For students with small hands they help extend the reach between the fingers. Normally I can comfortably reach an octave in my right and a major ninth in my left; but now my right hand can easily handle a ninth and my left can now almost take a tenth. It has helped me in playing 4-part chords a lot easier, and 7th chords in root position. (which I have the latter in one of my exam pieces both in melodic and harmonic form)

Many pieces and studies require strong 4th and 5th fingers. I used to make higher notes on those fingers, especially in the RH, too soft, or even miss them altogether. My exam pieces and studies have been sounding at least 10x better since starting to learn the Hanon.

My goodness, wind players practice several exercises that don't involve actual music, but the exercises can be applied to written music. Some exercises are designed to help correct playing faults, or introduce a new playing concept. The Hanon, for example, can be used to correct problems with playing on the flat part of the fingers or playing with a flat hand.

So don't despise Hanon. Or many other exercises either.

Meri

[thalberg]

I wasted my whole life playing hanon and now I live in a dumpster. 

[tmbias]

I think that there is no problem with Hanon or Pischna or technical exercises Each technical exercise book serves a different person. First, you said that Hanon and Pischna did not help you over the difficulties of Beethoven's Sonata. Hannon and Pischina are not geared towards Beethoven's music but Czerny exercises which are more compositional etudes and exercise are geared towards Beethoven's music. Czerny studied under Beethoven so he incorporated some of his techniques in his exercises such as the Art of Finger Dexterity and Passage Playing and his School of Velocity. If you read the foreword part of these books it will tell you that the exercises are geared towards the music of the classical and early romantic period of Beethoven and other composer. You have also have to study the time period for which the composer of the technical book or exercises lived in. For example Bach exercises are geared towards students playing more Fugual and Counterpoint pieces which is not helpful for Beethoven. Clementi exercises my be geared towards more of Early classical period Haydn, Mozart because of the technique they used in that time period. Czerny is geared towards more modern composers Beethoven, Listz etc... Brahms exercises are geared towards the playing of his music. Hannon is good for modern and strengths the fingers and Pischna is geared towards more contemporary and Late Romantic period looks at the time periods these composers wrote the exercises for. Finger Independence is used to strengthen the weak fingers which are the right hand fourth and fifth fingers and left hand fourth and fifth fingers. These exercises also helps with practical fingering and different techniques such as wrist, hand and finger placements which are very important for enhancing your articulation, dynamics and accuracy of your playing. I say use a combination of each exercises. You should analyze your compositional pieces each measure for technical areas such as arpeggios, broken chords, scale passages etc.... such as a Beethoven Sonata I am sure Czerny has some type etude or exercise that will help with this.

[awesom_o]

It is very important that the exercises of Philipp are NOT included in the same catch-all umbrella that we use for the exercises of Hanon and Pischna.

It is also very important that you do NOT try to work with the the Philipp exercises without a highly experienced teacher who understands their purpose well.

Philipp studied under some of the most renowned musicians of his day including Camille Saint-Saens and Stephen Heller.

I would think twice myself before trashing any of his work.

[j_menz]

For example Bach exercises are geared towards students playing more Fugual and Counterpoint pieces which is not helpful for Beethoven.

Presumably not including the fugal passages in Beethoven.

I should also note that Bach (WTC in particular) provided (in part at least) Beethoven's own technical foundation.

Oh, and couldn't you have found a slightly more recent thread to resurrect on the topic? 

[gyzzzmo]

I never really understood what the fuss is about technical etudes, and especially Hanon.

The only problem there seems to be, is the lack of common sense that is present in all too many people who call themselves 'teachers'.
For example, would you like to spend months on learning Für Elise when you're a fourth year conservatory student? Probably not. The same for Hanon. At the moment you control the etudes at a good speed, there is little point spending 45 minutes replaying them every day because there is relatively very little that you are improving and they change into mere finger movement. You better playing them like once week or less after you gain control, and consider only playing the ones that you dont play as fluently or that match an issue that you have in another piece you're currently studying.

Gyzzzmo