A wise man used to frequent this forum many moons ago and graced us with the following logic:
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Now for the reason why Hanon (and like exercises) should be avoided (italics are quotes from Hanon himself):
1, Hanon, basic anatomical premise is totally false:
“The central problem of piano playing is to make the fingers equal and independent”. Not only this is most definitely not the central problem of piano playing, as it is impossible to achieve it. Therefore Hanon is a waste of time in an absolute sense because you will be employing your energies trying to solve a non-existing problem by pursuing an impossible procedure. This is akin to say that the basic problem in car driving is to be able to fly, and the way to be able to fly is to practice flapping your arms vigorously. Not only the ability to fly is not related to car driving, as flapping your arms vigorously will not get you there, even if you do it one hour a day. If you want o read in more detail about the anatomical issues involved, read all of xvimbi’s posts, and these ones as well:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4145.msg38568.html#msg38568(beginner’s muscle development – anatomy of the hand forearm – true reasons for extremely slow practice)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5034.msg47829.html#msg47829(The finger strength controversy – some excellent posts by xvimbi)
But actually all one needs to do is a bit of independent thinking (I know it is hard for some of you, but try it you will be surprised at the results). For instance, the fingers have different sizes. How are you going to make this equal? The thumb opposes the other fingers. How are you going to make them equal? The hands are symmetrical. How are you going to equalise them? The fingers 3/4/5 share tendons, how are you going to make them independent? Any method that promises to make your fingers equal and independent (Hanon's basic - and clearly stated - aim) is already showing such basic ignorance of the fundamentals of anatomy that the actual exercises are likely to be useless.
2. Hanon’s instructions are wrong. He tells you to:
a.
Lift the fingers high keeping everything else immobile.Why is this wrong? Because lifting the fingers high is the wrong technique to use and leads to injury. The correct technique is to use – for instance - forearm rotation to bring the fingers up. Pressing the fingers down is never a problem and your fingers can already do it (from daily living) without any need for any further exercising. The situation is similar to the high jump. Jumping forwards is the wrong technique. Jumping backwards is the way to go. Practising the forward jump will never get you in the Olympic team, even if it was what everyone was doing before Dick Fosberry came up with the backwards jump, And if you want to read about this in greater detail, go here:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4385.msg41226.html#msg41226(technique is personal and relative to the piece – Fosberry flop – the best books on technique)
b.
Keep your hands quiet, fingers parallel to the keys.There is no piece of music that can be played in this way. In fact, as far as “technique” - that is movement patterns - is concerned, in order to play even the most elementary repertory one needs to slant the hand (amongst other things to negotiate passing of fingers). By the way, this is a huge problem with Czerny as well. Anyone who spends the first three years learning just Hanon and Czerny, in order to “save time” by “acquiring technique” in isolation, will have wasted those three years, because the “technique” they acquired will be unsuitable to most pieces, and for the pieces they can get away with such “technique”, they will sound laboured and unmusical because there are far better techniques to play them. Perhaps the best example (and also the best alternative) are the Scarlatii sonatas which require for their proper playing, arguably the largest range of movement patterns. In some sonatas you need to play with your arms parallel to the keyboard, the fingers “walking up and down the keys. Where, on Hanon will you learn to do that? Faced with a Scarlatti sonata, all a Hanon aficionado can do is throw his hands up in despair and start all over again from scratch, but now having to fight all the bad habits acquired from playing Hanon. If you want to read about real technique and how to go about getting it in greater detail, go here:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/board,4/topic,4880.3.html#msg46319(discusses how to acquire technique and what technique actually is)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2948.msg25927.html#msg25927(Czerny x Scarlatti to acquire technique – Ted gives an excellent contribution)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4082.msg37362.html#msg37362(one cannot learn technique in a vacuum. At the same time one cannot simply play pieces – comparison with tennis)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4385.msg41226.html#msg41226(technique is personal and relative to the piece – Fosberry flop – the best books on technique)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5352.msg50998.html#msg50998(Exercises x repertory – why technique cannot be isolated from music)
https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,8417.msg85259.html#msg85259(when is a piece finished – why technique and interpretation cannot be divorced)
c.
Practise hands together to save time.Well, you won’t. Instead you will be overtaxing the left hand (if that happens to be your weaker hand) and under working the right hand. The right hand never gets a chance to go tot its limits, the left hand is constantly struggling and usually gets injured in the process. Because hands together speed is always the speed of the slowest hand, what really saves time is to work with hands separate so that you give a chance to your weak hand to catch up with the strong hand. Of course this means that instead of spending one hour with Hanon every day (as he recommends), you will be spending 3 hours (one hour RH, one hour LH, one hour together). If you want to read more about the Hands separate x Hands together controversy, have a look here:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2802.msg24467.html#msg24467(When to join hands)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3039.msg26525.html#msg26525(how big are your hands, and does it matter? 7 x 20 minutes – exercise/activities to strengthen the playing apparatus – ways to deal with wide chords – the myth that Richter was self-taught – 3 stages of learning – Example: Chopin militaire Polonaise - scientific principles for testing practice methods – Example: Prelude in F#m from WTC1 – when to join hands and why HS – practice is improvement – the principle of “easy” – Example: Chopin’s ballade no. 4 – repeated groups)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4858.msg46087.html#msg46087(Paul’s report on B’s method. Feedback from Bernhard including: HS x HT – Example: Lecuona’s malaguena – 7x20 – need to adjust and adapt – repeated note-groups – importance of HS – hand memory – 7 items only in consciousness – playing in automatic pilot - )
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3085.msg27140.html#msg27140(Hands together: when and how – dropping notes)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4123.msg37829.html#msg37829(How to investigate the best movement pattern: Example Scarlatti sonata K70 – How to work out the best fingering. Example: CPE Bach Allegro in A – Slow x slow motion practice – HS x HT – practising for only 5 – 10 minutes)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3085.msg44855.html#msg44855(Hands together – dropping notes – when to learn HT and when to learn HS)
d.
One hour a day, everyday will give you virtuoso technique and keep it in shape as long as you spend one hour everyday doing it.No, it will not give you virtuoso technique. This claim is laughable. Hanon does not even start to address the virtuoso technique, and even for things as simple as rippling a scale on the keyboard Hanon will be useless, since by practising scales his way you will immediately ingrain two powerful speed walls: passing the thumb under, and a very inefficient fingering for the left hand. If you would like to read more about passing the thumb under and a proper fingering for scales that will allow you top speed, have a look here:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,7226.msg72166.html#msg72166(Thumb over is a misnomer: it consists of co-ordinating four separate movements).
https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,7887.msg79326.html#msg79326(why the lifting of the 4th finger is a non-problem)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2619.msg22756.html#msg22756(unorthodox fingering for all major and minor scales plus an explanation)
An in this thread you can see an example on how scale fingering is not universal and will have to be adapted according to the piece – therefore practising scales for hours a day is a waste of time:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,2619.msg104249.html#msg104249(Scale fingering must be modified according to the piece – Godard op. 149 no.5 – yet another example of the folly of technical exercises)
But there is something else here as well. Once you have a acquired a technique (that is a pattern of movement) you do not need to practice it again ever. Just like riding a bicycle. If, in order to keep a technique under your fingers you need to do it everyday forever, or it will escape you, then this technique is inappropriate, and you better change it, because it will always fail you at the crucial moment. Proper technique once mastered is always easy and you will always be able to do it. There is no need (as Hanon claims in no uncertain terms) to do Hanon (or any other kind of exercise) for one hour a day for the rest of your life. That Hanon thought it was necessary actually points clearly on how inappropriate his technique is.
If you want to read an interesting account on this very situation (where a hardly acquired – but inappropriate – technique, quickly slips away from one’s grasp) have a look here:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,13208.msg143740.html#msg143740(an account on how Cramer’s technique deteriorated with age)
e.
Hanon assumes (as does Cortot for that matter) that it is possible to develop technique on its own. Well it is not possible. When you play a note on the piano, you are already using a technique (a movement) and you are already producing some sort of music (the sound). Technique and musicality are inseparable – the only way I can think of, that you could possible separate them was to practise on a silent keyboard. People who say “I want to practise the technique without worrying about all the other aspects of music” are not doing it. What they are doing is concentrating consciously on the movements, and letting their unprepared unconscious mind deal as best as it can with the musical aspects. In other words, as they are concentrating on the technique, they are producing crap musicality. Keep repeating and soon that crap musicality will have been practised over and over again and you will not understand why you suck at the piano in spite of all that Hanon you have been doing.
In this particular case, Czerny is an even better example, for his studies actually are pieces of music. But the music is so inferior that I cringe at its sound.
If you want to read more about this subject, and on the proper way to acquire both proper technique and proper musicality at the same time, have a look here:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1867.msg14268.html#msg14268(Getting technique from pieces – several important tricks: hand memory, dropping notes, repeated note-groups)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4123.msg37829.html#msg37829(How to investigate the best movement pattern: Example Scarlatti sonata K70 – How to work out the best fingering. Example: CPE Bach Allegro in A – Slow x slow motion practice – HS x HT – practising for only 5 – 10 minutes)
https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php?topic=5995.msg58928#msg58928(when to work on expression - change focus every 2 minutes – comparison with plate spinning)
Finally:
Hanon is like spending one hour a day on the lake, pedalling on one of those pedal boats, on the belief that this (insane) activity will give you al the technique and prepare you for driving a car in the traffic of a large city. Do you want to go boat pedalling, by all means do. Just don’t come around bragging how much this has helped your car driving, mentioning that some famous (or not) racing car daredevil definitely recommends boat pedalling.
Here is more information on Hanon's drawbacks:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2998.msg26268.html#msg26268(Scales HT, why? – why and when to practise scales HS and HT – Pragmatical x logical way of teaching – analogy with aikido – list of piano techniques – DVORAK – realistic x sports martial arts – technique and how to acquire it by solving technical problems – Hanon and why it should be avoided - Lemmings)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4182.msg38775.html#msg38775(Hanon: pros and cons – Robert Henry’s opinion)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4887.msg47334.html#msg47334(more on Hanon)
Now, don’t get me started on the likes of Cortot (“Rational principles of piano technique”). Or Dohnanyi.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
P.S. Let me say that in spite my fundamental disagreement with lostinidlewonder post on Hanon, I truly appreciate his carefully thought out posts in most matters, which I find very helpful and enlighteining.
And the pronoun "you" used throughout is meant in a general way and does not address anyone in particular.
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Do a search for other things by this man and you will have much reading material!
The above quote by Bernhard was taken from:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,13583.msg147160.html#msg147160Best,
Josh
Topic: Hanon and frustration