It seems highly likely to me that the time spent selfteaching Hanon is probably better put towards watching reality TV.
Even I, no Hanon fan, would not go quite that far!
Think about it though, even the worst TV show isn't going to ingrain bad technique. Practicing wrong can be worse than not practicing at all.
Also, the resultant dulling of all one's aesthetic senses would make any good technique pointless.
Dulling by what? Hanon? Reality TV? Or - heaven help us all - both?(!)...Best,Alistair
Reality TV, however, seems to have that as it's whole raison d'etre. Were Marx around today, it would be this he chose as his opiate.
I'm am sure this topic has been discussed before but I wanted to throw it out there of who is pro-hanon and who is anti-hanon and why?Personally I discarded hanon for a couple of years, where before I was playing hanon exercises as warm-ups. I am not sure why but I have gone back to them but I have started going through the exercises slowly, HS as part of my practice routine. I know they don't have a great deal of musical value, I believe if approached in the right way can build endurance and finger strength.Cheers
You got a thing with weak-ass sauce awesom_o?
I have found it possible, in fact easy, to do exercises diligently but not benefit from them, because I was doing them wrong. It seems to me that Hanon might indeed be valuable if you had a teacher very attuned to mechanics who ensured you were doing them correctly and using them to perfect correct motion.It seems highly likely to me that the time spent selfteaching Hanon is probably better put towards watching reality TV.
Great post but now you have possibly started a new reality TV Show. "The Hanon Hour" . In 60 minutes a top piano performer will play thru the entire book. I am almost certain anybody from Piano Street could do it . I'll watch
The advantages of Hanon over other forms of exercise are1) it's a great workout for the left hand2) you don't have to focus on phrasing, dynamics, articulation, etc. Just play the notes.3) they're easy to learn, so you don't have to spend half your time learning the piece. That's my objection to Czerny etc.Of course if you feel any pain in your hands, shoulders etc, stop immediately and do something else.
I am a true believer in Hanon and Czerny exercises.
disclaimer : I am not Anti-Hanon, I have spent quite a few hours with it myself. It is not useless IMHO, but, your statement #2 is where the argument starts against Hanon. Why spend time on any excersizes if articulation and dynamics is not part of it.