How valuable, if at all, are technical exercises?

[eddie92099]

I don't understand why you started a conversation subject while at the same time you don't want to hear anything about it.
I don't want to waste this more.  

Clearly I want to remain open-minded and hear other people's opinions.

And I did study and did play with Aschenazy for 3 years and I have to say Ed, you don't know what you are talking about. Ashenazy never did excercises himself because by nature has many facilities, like many other people.  

I said that he does not practise technical exercises. It appears I do know what I am talking about.

Now, because I know you are a big fun of that female named "Martha" or whatever, let me tell you that in a concert she suppose to play Prokofiev 3rd, she came on stage 20 minutes before and started to play scales, C major, C# major, D major etc. I was lucky that night to hear only major scales, she didn't do minor.. I guess because she has a big minor part in her life.
I'm saying this because MAYBE now you've changed impressiong about excericises!
 

Firstly, I don't know how the orchestra would feel about this considering they are meant to be playing the overture at this stage. Secondly, she is not using these scales to acquire technique, she is using them to warm up her fingers!

I find it slightly suspicious that he claims to have studied with Ashkenazy, yet cannot spell his name........

I was thinking the same thing.

Actually I don't find Ashkenazy any special as performer or teacher, pretty much waisted time, so you have no case here! (it seems that he is a BIG name for you) Sorry!

It is a fact that he is a big name in the music world, whether you agree with his position there or not. He is one of the world's most renowned and respected conductors and his recorded piano repertoire for the major labels is huge and, with the odd exception, extremely impressive,
Ed

[JohnOgdon]

Kontanwhateverthehellyournameis, I really feel sorry for you. You are a sad, confused individual who doesn't really know what to think about things, and is so desperate for recognition that he has decided to bypass the achievement of understanding and knowledge to exchange with other musicians, instead to make random and peculiar statements (which he often contradicts later). Well, my friend, you have achieved recognition. As a MORON! - good day  

[JohnOgdon]

By the way, in response to Ed, I would be very interested to see the reaction of Dutoit or Ozawa or whichever illustrious conductor partnered Argerich's Prokofiev, to have their performance of Siegried Idyll (or whichever chosen programme opener) interrupted by the singing tones of a C# major scale. Also, to fill the maestro in on some other basic information he is not acquainted with, the piano is not actually on stage during the overture.

[Greg_Fodrea]

Well, this is my first post to this wonderful site, and boy can I pick a forum!

While good points have been made on both sides, as a piano instructor, I have to say that exercises (particularly Czerny) are extremely valuable.  As several have already posted, athletes rely on drills and sequential exercises to train the body.  We pianists would do well to take heed and train our hands.

To answer Eddie's oft-repeated response that the same can be accomplished by playing songs, I disagree based on my personal experience and my experience with my students.  The problem with using performance pieces to gain skill is that if you encounter a technical problem in learning the piece, the brain struggles to overcome that obstacle, and learning takes longer.  Technical exercises are designed to sequentially build skill, fluidity, and accuracy, and, once mastered, allow my students to learn concert pieces more quickly and easily.  I suppose if you wanted to struggle through song after song to build the full repertoire of skills, feel free.  But why not build all of those skills in advance, and conquer complicated pieces more easily down the road.  That seems to work for me, and it works wonders for my students!

[Wired]

I recant my position. I've been working with the Hanon exercises for the last few weeks, and I can say that I personally am feeling much more free in my hand movements. I just wish my piano teachers had made me realize this earlier on

[chopiabin]

I know the scales, but I never "practice" them. When I am improvising I use them a lot, and I find that this has been one of the best ways for me to gain scale technique (it's actually interesting). Sometimes I just enjoy doing different things with chromatic scales, but this is the extent of my "technical excercises." I believe that nearly all technique can be gained from repertoire.

You play a basic piece and it provides you with a little technical difficulty, then you play another piece that has a similar but much more demanding difficulty and the first one is like a gateway to the next. That is how I learn.

The problem I see with working on technical excercise is that they are amusical. Eventually these amusical exercises will produce an amusical technique. Plus, all the time spent going through Hanon could be used on Chopin and Liszt etudes, pieces which are, in my opinion, better than Hanon or Czerny.  

[ted]

In answering Eddie's question I speak only for myself. I know very little about the training of pianists.

I do find purely mechanical exercises useful but I do them in a peculiar way. I have a Virgil Practice Clavier and usually for five or ten minutes a day, no more, I run through my fingerwork on it in the form of scales (single and double note) and little bits from difficult pieces.

It is hard to convey in words the precise benefit this discipline imparts or exactly how it works, but for me it works exceedingly well. I don't much like the sound of straight scales and rarely play them in that normal way during improvisation (90% of my playing time comprises improvisation, so that probably sets me in a minority to start with).

I sit down at the piano to make music and let my creative mind run free, not to restrict it with unnecessary disciplines. Therefore the separation of music and technique, although frowned upon these days, works for me - in moderation. I could quite easily get adequate exercise from my pieces and improvisation, but yes, technical exercises do benefit me.

[chopiabin]

Yeah, but your not going through Hanon for 16 hours a day while reading a book.

[ted]

No, certainly not !

[anda]

Yeah, but your not going through Hanon for 16 hours a day while reading a book.

i did! not 16 hours, of course, but i really did my technical exercises, scales, hanon, hertz, while reading the three musqueteers and le vicomte de bragelonne, and so on - i was about 7-8 so...