adult returner - getting mobility back

[Flame7]

I played piano to grade 6 standard about 10 years ago then stopped. Ive just taken it up again and Im working towards grade 8 in 2005.  Ive just finished a degree in music where I studied voice, so aural tests/musicianship etc arent a problem, its just technique and getting my fingers mobile again. Ive read the various threads on Hanon, which Im considering getting hold of but wondered if there are any other publications that are designed for the same thing that might be better suited. My fingers are clumbsy and playing uneven at the moment which I need to overcome.
Anyone recommend specific exercises for evening out the tone, or specific programs/books similar to Hanon that would suit?

thanks

Flame7

[super_ardua]

Bach's 2-part Inventions and WTK are really good (I like most of these pieces).

Chopin also recommended WTK

[Piazzo22]

I played piano to grade 6 standard about 10 years ago then stopped. Ive just taken it up again and Im working towards grade 8 in 2005.  Ive just finished a degree in music where I studied voice, so aural tests/musicianship etc arent a problem, its just technique and getting my fingers mobile again. Ive read the various threads on Hanon, which Im considering getting hold of but wondered if there are any other publications that are designed for the same thing that might be better suited. My fingers are clumbsy and playing uneven at the moment which I need to overcome.
Anyone recommend specific exercises for evening out the tone, or specific programs/books similar to Hanon that would suit?

thanks

Flame7

Just remember you don´t have to push once the key is down.
To play fast and even you have to lift your fingers and don´t push down. Do Hanon like that at a comfortable pace, lift your fingers and don´t push down, in only minutes your hand will ask you for speed. Always comfortable. Loose and lifting fingers.

[faulty_damper]

... its just technique and getting my fingers mobile again....  My fingers are clumbsy and playing uneven at the moment which I need to overcome.  

Perhaps the easiest way to get your fingers mobile again is to learn to play scales which will help you be familiar with them and how to finger them.  This practice improved my fingering technique when I first started lessons after a year of learning on my own.  You may need a teacher to show you the most effective way to do them, however.

Hanon pretty much requires the same technique to play as scales, though playing it this way is pretty much useless and perhaps even detrimental to developing a more effective tecnique as it reinforces an ineffective method: fingers only; hand and wrist still.  Piano playing is rarely a fingers-only instrument.  I would not recommend Hanon as a method to acquire tecnique.  

Instead of going off on Hanon, I'll let Bernhard have a fit with him.

[bernhard]

Instead of going off on Hanon, I'll let Bernhard have a fit with him.

Ahhh... The beauty of copy and paste and thread referring!

Have a look here:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1084072922;start=9
(see reply #28 in particular)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[westman]

I've had good success with Czerny's School of Velocity Op. 299.

Don't worry about reaching the suggested playing speeds, just try to play each one well, increase speed without sacrificing technique.

[kaff]

Hi Flame7

I'm in a similar position - did grade 7 about 25 years ago, and am now sitting grade 8 later this year.  I never stopped playing altogether, but only took it up seriously again late last year/early this year and was shocked at how stiff and inflexible my fingers had become.  I've just used scales and arpeggios to work up flexibility - all the majors and minors (harmonic and melodic) as well as all the ones in thirds and sixths and the various odd chromatic things in the grade 8 syllabus.  After several months of this on a mostly daily basis my fingers now feel strong and flexible.  I found that doing scales really highlighted where the tone and pressure were uneven.  I didn't time myself doing this, but it probably takes about twenty minutes a day to run through the whole lot (someone will come on in a minute to tell me that if I had them at a proper speed it would only take me 7.3 minutes.)

Good luck

Kathryn

[rlefebvr]

Just remember you don´t have to push once the key is down.
To play fast and even you have to lift your fingers and don´t push down. Do Hanon like that at a comfortable pace, lift your fingers and don´t push down, in only minutes your hand will ask you for speed. Always comfortable. Loose and lifting fingers.

What the heck does that mean.

and I say that in a positive way. I don't really understand since you have to lift your fingers to play the next note.

[Piazzo22]

What the heck does that mean.

and I say that in a positive way. I don't really understand since you have to lift your fingers to play the next note.

You don´t HAVE. It all depends on your technique. I don´t need to lift my fingers, only when playing fast. But you really should. It´s the only way to play evenly fast passages.

[janice]

I have an idea:  If you are trying to get mobility and dexterity back, focusing on speed is only one aspect of it, I feel. Coordination is a huge aspect.  Try picking up coins and putting them in a piggy bank.  I know this sounds idiotic, but you might be surprised, especially when you do it with your non-dominant hand.  If this isn't challenging enough, try it with pieces of rice. You said that you If you want to build strength, put a weight on your wrist.  Use your imagination.  Make up exercises similar to this.

Hope this helps!

[super_ardua]

Do a c major scale this way :

Press C.  Hold. Make sure the rest of your hnd is relaxed. go to next note. Hold. Relax. etc.

Now when you get the feel convey this feeling when you play.

[chopinsetude]

My teacher is a Moscow Conservatory grad and he forces Czerny on us.  Specifically the Heinrich Germer edition.  They are little studies (etudes) for upper beginning and early intermediate grades.  Fun, but tricky.  They are Czerny but arranged by Germer in a fashion that compounds your skills if you play them in order.  (thats the Germer thing)

I like Czerny.  Hanon is great but not as musical. I began with Hanon and moved to this because they are quite melodic.

have fun.  im an adult returner too - but I feel like i lost everything in my time off.