Hannon Exercises

[trampindenial]

I'm thinking of taking up these exercises as I want to improve my technique, I just wanted to know if anyone here has tried them and whether they worked or not.

[Alde]

Hanon is awesome.  Just make sure to observe tension and take breaks.

[trampindenial]

How do you mean observe tension?

[thierry13]

How do you mean observe tension?

Allways stay conscious of the amount of tension you have to reduce it the most possible. A good trick for beginners is to make an impulsion/complete release on neach note very slowly, and very gradually increasing speed with that same feeling.

[guendola]

Hanon can help! But don't overdo it because Hanon is very intense when you follow the instructions exactly. Don't play on when you detect any major tension in your hands/fingers/arms and don't increase the tempo before you feel completely comfortable with the current tempo. If you feel any pain after playing Hanon, ask a teacher what is wrong and put Hanon aside until you have worked on that problem.

But the best way to improve your "technique" is to get a teacher and tell him that. He will be able to help you much more effectively.

[cygnusdei]

If you feel sexual tension, you need to release!

[jinfiesto]

Hanon is fine and dandy, but there are better ways to improve your technique. I suggest that you seriously sit down and consider your technical strengths and weaknesses, actually write it out, and establish a plan to deal with it. Mindlessly plodding through hanon will just get you tendonitis. In fact, in my mind, the first 20 are only good for teaching gestural technique, and the same gesture at that. By the time that hanon becomes feasible, the point of the first twenty is moot anyways, since the main points of the exercises should already be taken care of by now.

Also, Maurice Hinson edits an excellent collection of exercises published by alfred, It shouldn't be that hard to find, it's a collection of studies from lots of people. Also, personally, while there are some good hanon exercises, I'd take some time to familiarize yourself with lots of exercise literature, before starting on a regimen, and try targeted practice, so you get the most out of it. Czerny has some excellent studies, personally, I'm a fan of the 8 bar etudes. Also, you may want to consider the Bartok Mikrokosmos, Dohnanyi exercises, Brahms exercises, and Feuchtwangler exercises. The latter are hard to find. I also have a hand written copy of Alicia de Larrocha's exercises, they are not in print, and I'm unfortunately not at liberty to distribute them, but someone else may have them who is, although they're extremely rare, as they were never published. The situation with the Feuchtwangler is the same I believe. Although, I can supply you with those. I think someone else on this site has them though, and has posted them already.

[gyzzzmo]

Ive tried them, but i dont think they're really usefull, except for the scales.
Most excersises are terribly repeatetive and boring, and because of that you tend to play them like automated wich isnt good. So you'll need alot of self-discipline to make Hanon worth the effort.

[guendola]

Ive tried them, but i dont think they're really usefull, except for the scales.
Most excersises are terribly repeatetive and boring, and because of that you tend to play them like automated wich isnt good. So you'll need alot of self-discipline to make Hanon worth the effort.

You definitely need a good amount of self-discipline to become a good pianist anyway. And anything can be played with musical expression, even garbage.

[jazz-piano]

Hanon's Exercises are useful to develop a piano technique.
I suggest you to play these exercise also in D flat Major key or in other keys.

[Alde]

Here is what Hanon suggests:

"The entire volume can be played through in an hour; and if, after it has been thoroughly mastered, it be repeated daily for a time, difficulties will disappear..."

I can't imagine doing all 60 exercises in one day or all of them in an hour.  Does anybody know if Hanon was a phenomenal pianist?  I don't I recall reading about him in Shoenberg's "Greatest Pianists" book.

[gyzzzmo]

You definitely need a good amount of self-discipline to become a good pianist anyway. And anything can be played with musical expression, even garbage.

True, but since there are very few good pianists who use these boards to actually get even better, i wouldnt advice doing Hanon to the average pianostreet reader

Gyzzzmo

[sarah the pianist]

I think that Hannon is quite good but I prefer Czerny. Have you tried it?
My teacher told me that it would be better to practice parts of pieces in rhythms (dotted etc.) and make up little excersises to suit what you are trying to achieve.

 

[gyzzzmo]

Czerny is good too yes, but has its pro's and cons like Hanon. Czerny has more melody (wich is better vs boredom), but is less focussed on perticular techniques.

[slobone]

The main disadvantage of Czerny is that most of the exercises are only for the right hand. The left hand just goes oom-pah-pah or similar. He does have some for the left hand, but in those the right hand doesn't have much to do.

I love Hanon precisely because it makes my left hand work exactly as hard as the right. That ought to be good for enlivening the corpus callosum...

[thierry13]

I can't imagine doing all 60 exercises in one day or all of them in an hour.  Does anybody know if Hanon was a phenomenal pianist?  I don't I recall reading about him in Shoenberg's "Greatest Pianists" book.

Going trough the volume in one hour is possible for many people, much more people than those who actually enter the category of "Greatest pianists". Even an advanced amateur could play Hanon in an hour. Doesn't make them a great pianist. Technique is not the only factor to decide whether one is a great pianists or not.

[slobone]

Takes me about half an hour to do 1-30, and that's not going particularly fast. In the second half, though, you have the complete scales and arpeggios. But if you only do them once each, it shouldn't take that long.

People shouldn't have the impression that Hanon is some kind of Bible for technique. The number of different technical problems he addresses is actually very limited. I mostly use him just as a warmup to get my fingers going in the morning.

I'd be interested to know if anybody's ever written a Hanon volume 2, that would cover things like jumps in the left hand, hands crossing over, "rolling" of chords, pedalling, etc. I imagine there's some good stuff in Czerny somewhere...