czerny, Hanon, both or neither?

[dss62467]

I'm in sort of a slow practice period.  My teacher tried giving me a couple things that I just didn't gain interest in playing, so I'm working on a Mozart piano/violin duet with him right now and it's pretty easy.   Should I use this down time to do the exercises that I have neglected?  My teacher hasn't ever assigned them to me, and when I'm learning something challenging, I spend so much time practicing the piece that I don't take the time for the exercises.

Is it worth the time to do these?  And if so, is either better than the other for developing your skill?  Though I've never been "graded", I play pieces that are classified at about 6 or 7. 

[stevebob]

I don't think that Hanon has much in common at all with Czerny—apples and oranges, really—and, in any case, they're hardly your only options in the area of technical exercises.  Keep in mind, too, that there's much diversity among Czerny's assorted volumes of exercises. 

What's your teacher's attitude toward such exercises?  They're chosen for numerous reasons and serve various purposes, so someone familiar with your background, abilities and goals would be the best judge of whether they would benefit you (and which particular ones would be likeliest to do so).

[pianisten1989]

Woah! This will start a war once again...

I personaly like Hanon and Czerny, and feel that I have reached a higher technical level since I started with them. But you really need help from your teacher, since Hanon can ruin your fingers if you do them wrong. Czerny is not as dangerous, so just play them slowly and carefully, so everything is even.

[peterjmathis]

Yeah, you should probably ask your teacher. Even if they haven't actually assigned anything, they'd probably be happy to help you figure out the best exercises for your abilities.

[dss62467]

Thanks - I do prefer Czerny as the exercises are definitely more interesting.   I'll check with my instructor

[arumih]

If you do a quick search on the forum you'll find the never ending debate about the merits of both, and technical exercises on the whole. I think I'm in the same position as you- being 'ungraded' but playing pieces around grade 6 or 7. I did Hanon 1-10, and Czerny op 299 no 1 and 3. I had issues with Hanon and my hands developing tension and it becoming painful, to which my teacher back then told just practice slowly, but to be honest I didn't like Hanon that much.

Czerny seems a lot better and I think somewhere on this forum Bernhard or someone else mentioned that some of the his etudes were devised in teaching Liszt and were based on technical difficulties within Beethoven sonatas. Upon listening to a lot more of Op 299 I can see the relation. They're a step in the right musical direction compared to Hanon, but still the etudes I listened to in 299 didn't seem like fully developed musical ideas. Anyway, the two etudes I did seemed to help with my weakness in playing scales and sequences of broken chords. I'm currently looking at a few other etudes in Op 299 to learn.

I'm kinda hi-jacking your thread but these are questions I've been dying to ask lol (currently I'm teacherless...sigh...). What's up with the metronome speeds given in Op 299?! They seem impossible! The fastest I've heard them play is about quarter note=160, but they're notated at half note=108! Also, is there any technical merit to playing the etudes slowly and working your way up to a decent speed, or are some of the etudes technically in the same class as Chopin's? ie grade 8 and beyond, thus not making much sense for someone at my level to attempt?

[dss62467]

Thanks - I have the Opus 299 as well.  I'm just going through them rather slowly right now to make sure I get the fingering right and will gradually increase the speed.  As far as using the metronome, I rarely use mine.   I find it distracting, and worse.... my cat considers it his toy

[gyzzzmo]

Czerny for general technique improvement, Hanon only for very specific technical problems.