4) For the hanonists the scale is seen as a technical exercise ( again we find another hanon-like exercise in the motif). Which confirms what Bernhard once said:" If you play all the motifs of the inventions, you're almost playing all of Hanon's exercises"
To me this is backward thinking and actually supports the use of Hanon. I believe the biggest problem with Hanon is not with the exercises themselves but with the way they are used by teachers. I see Hanon as have great value extremely early on, starting from day one actually. Yet so many teachers don't even introduce Hanon until much later. The value of Hanon has already decreased by that time. The second problem with Hanon is many people see them as exercises that should be mastered with hours of practice devoted solely for those exercises. Again, I believe that is totally incorrect use of Hanon.
Hanon should be used as exercises for smooth cadence and perfect synchrony, and as a gauge of how well a student is progressing. They introduce various finger patterns and the concept of cadence to very early students at SLOW SPEEDS. Yet they can also offer experienced pianists a challenge to play at faster speeds whilst still maintaining a smooth cadence and perfect synchrony. Trying to get students to master Hanon at faster speeds is the folly of teachers. That's total misuse of the exercise IMHO. The aim should be for perfect cadence and perfect synchronization, not speed.
To dismiss Hanon as being redundant is absurd. It's only the poor way that teachers use Hanon that is absurd.
But more to the point, your observation here is that students will eventually get Hanon-like exercises anyway via things like the Bach Inventions. But, to me, that's missing the point. The idea is that Hanon was supposed to be used to introduce the student to these types of exercises far before they were ever able to play anything as complicated as a Bach Invention. So that when they get to the Bach inventions they won't need to learn them for the first time.
I mean, think about this, if you apply the idea that that "you'll eventually get Hanon-like exercises anyway in repertoire so why bother with Hanon in the first place?" to everything you teach. Then why not just start the students off at level 10 and say, "Hey don't worry about it, you'll get all the previous lessons in the repertoire of level 10 eventually anyway so why bother practicing anything less than level 10?".
So your comment above actually supports the value of Hanon showing that Hanon exercises are indeed used in actual pieces that the student will eventually play at higher levels. Of course, it would be a total waste to introduce Hanon at the same time. But that goes back to the idea of teachers introducing Hanon far too late.
So just to summarize my points of why many people don't like Hanon:
1. They simple don't understand how to properly use the exercises.
2. They introduce them far too late after their value has diminished.
3. They try to play them too fast early on instead of using them for proper cadence and synchronization.
4. They view them solely as exercises to be "mastered" rather than seeing them as gauges of improvement.
Obviously I'm a Hanon fan. But that too is usually quite misunderstood. When I say that I'm a fan of Hanon people imagine that all I do is play Hanon, or that I build my practicing schedule around it. But, again, that's because they have a completely wrong idea of how to properly use Hanon. It's there, I use it, I see it as being extremely valuable. But it is not the core of my practice schedule. It is a valuable side-dish on a larger menu.
So in other words, you can take the statement: "If you play all the motifs of the inventions, you're almost playing all of Hanon's exercises", and just turn it around to say: "If you play all the Hanon exercises, you're almost playing all of motifs of the inventions". But the key is that most students can learn the Hanon exercises long before they are read to tackle the Bach inventions so when they get to the Bach inventions they will be much better prepared to play them.
And now that I have that off my chest you may return to your regularly scheduled Invention analyses.
