Technique

[bachapprentice]

Hello, I have been practising techninique starting with Hanon and I was wondering if you should finish the book before moving on to books like:

Czerny
Clementi
Brahms

If so what order should it be in?

[mike_lang]

You could be doing Czerny School of Velocity at the same time as Hanon if you'd like - it is a different type of thing.  (I find that Hanon is more for strength and Czerny for speed and sight reading).  I don't know about the Clementi, but I find the Brahms to be clear and away from the Czerny and Hanon in terms of difficulty; therefore, I would do it last, and proceed with caution.

Best,
ML

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

I did the Clementi Sonatinas, if they are the ones you are referring to. I think that they are very important and lead to harder sonatas. There is also Kuhlau. Do Czerny at the same time and Hanon too if you want. I only did some Hanon excercises and don't like them too much. I think that Czerny is more usefull, but that's just a conjecture based on personal experience. I haven't yet done any Brahms, so can't comment on that.

[mike_lang]

Regarding the Hanon exercises:

There is a quite a controversy on this forum over their effectiveness.  Although I realize this is unsolicited advice, my two cents on Hanon are that you must realize that much of the purpose of the first 30 exercises concerns finger strength (and of course independence).  The general technical issues that the remainder of the book deals with (scales, arpeggi, octaves, thirds, sixths, etc.), I believe, are things that should be part of your daily practice regimen regardless.  I hope that this lends credibilty to my opinion that you should proceed with Czerny simultaneously.

ML

[bachapprentice]

Thanks for the help everyone. This was very helpful. I will use both Hanon and Czerny for my technical exercise's.

[nightingale11]

stop with HANON immediately and take a look at this book

https://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm   - and you will understand why

[tac-tics]

stop with HANON immediately and take a look at this book

stop reading from that URL immediately and take a look at this thread:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9159.msg92755.html#msg92755

Scroll down to the second post (about 1/4 down the page) and look under the section labeled "TECHNIQUE".

And then read everything else on that thread you find interesting. It's good stuff.

[henrah]

stop reading from that URL immediately and take a look at this thread:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9159.msg92755.html#msg92755

Both stop what you are doing!

Please, please, don't impress anything upon other members of this forum, especially when it comes to technique. What may work for you may not for others, and visa versa. Allow them to take on board what you have offered them in terms of advice or literature, but please don't force it upon them.


Back on topic: I think Hanon is useful, but only in one area: and that's finger independence and strength. The link between my third, fourth and fifth fingers has always been weak and sloppy, but the Hanon is helping. If I were to use repetoire to learn this technique, it would be exactly the same except bundling a whole load more things to consider on top of it. Hanon simply isolates this area of weakness, and in practicing it you don't have to worry about musicality or anything else that comes with performing a piece. Once you have gained finger independence and evenness, Hanon effectively becomes useless (Imho) as everything else it teaches you can be learnt through repetoire.

Looked over some Czerny yesterday, and it's actually quite fun. Very enjoyable to play
Henrah

[monsieurrenard]

Hi,

Many students aspect forget there are two aspects to technique:
1. Be able to play any repertoire at speed.
2. Be able to do it without injuring yourself (hands, wrists, etc...)

The second one is much more important and continually undermined by non-professional teachers. However it's the most initially challenging part, because the tendency when playing, say, Hanon or Czerny is to tense up your hand so you feel like you have more control.

Yundi Li basically completely ignored the second aspect, and it's sad to see such a talented pianist knowing he's going to have tendonitis in a few years.

Since others have answered the original question I will not even bother

-Monsieur le Renard.