What is your favorite book of finger exercises?

[stevenpn]

My favorite book of finger exercises is currently Alloys Schmitt's Preparatory Exercises, op. 16 (readily available online as a free pdf), but I would like to hear what you all like as finger-drills go.  It's always good to change routines around occasionally, and in any case, every book has its pros and cons.  I like the focused, efficient approach of Schmitt.  It has much of the same material as Hanon initially, but then raises the stakes with challenging combinations of held and moving notes.  I'd love to hear your picks for the best finger-drill books out there.

Thanks!

[precipitato]

i know my answer may be crazy...
Liszt's transcendental etudes, 3 concert etudes, zwei konzertuden, 6 paganini etudes

[stevenpn]

Not crazy at all.  Thanks for responding.  Admittedly, I was thinking of the sorts of drills you might find in Liszt's 12 volumes technical exercises, or in Hanon, Schmitt, Philipp, etc., but one could certainly fashion drills out of concert études, in any case.

Thanks again.

[49410enrique]

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[scott13]

For me, I alternate between Liszt's technical exercises, Dohnanyi's and Brahms.

Each week i swap to a different book, that way i find i never end up blindly banging through the exercises.

Preludes and Fugues + Chopin Etudes always form part of my practice time devoted to pieces as well, and these help hugely for developing and improving technique.

Whatever exercises you use always make music out of them. Even page 1 of Liszt's exercises, they have differing dynamics, articulation, attack and rhythm. So do follow all these little directions and soon your mind transfers this to musical phrases you play.

[hbofinger]

This thread made me pull out my old Hanon again, which I have not touched in 20 years....

(Just got a new  grand after not having played on a serious instrument for about five years)

[jesc]

This is kind of ironic. I remember quite a while when one member would pop up in a thread and always suggest hanon to "very" advanced players (probably trolling since he sometimes baits with, "hanon" might be too hard for you). Kinda annoyed me one time.

But I would have to say that Hanon is my favorite since it's the easiest testbed for me to experiment different approaches (that is, when I have a lot of time). Otherwise, I come up with my own exercises that directly address a specific passage I'm working on.

[pianoplayjl]

As for me, I only have Hanon exercises, so it would have to be Hanon.

[alexhutton]

something ive been looking into is using the hanon but 1) changing the key 2) converting the scale to harmonic minor 3) changing the meter ie making it 5/4  or 7/8
this may seem odd to some but we jazzers use these exersices too !
Alex