What should be my "technique-building" routine?

[cuberdrift]

Well to start off, I think I'm somewhere between Grade 7/8 - currently learning pieces like Liszt's "Etude in 12 exercises".

I used to first go through the entire first section of Hanon's "The Virtuoso Pianist", played all the scales and arpeggios, and some other "customized" warmups including the harsh "Tausig exercise" (a finger exercise suggested by a guy named Bachscholar on youtube), and all of this took very long, at times reaching 2 hours. Eventually I got bored with it, but anyways I moved on to Part II of the Hanon book, not touching the first section anymore to save time.

After finishing that 2nd part of the book, I checked out the third one, but then realized that it didn't really contain what I was looking for (I didn't think I needed the 'repeated notes', 'legato thirds' etc.) although I still do one exercise - the "Trill" exercise, since it focuses on all five fingers. And since my teacher recommended "Phillip's exercises for the Independence of the Fingers", which seems to be tougher, I ultimately dropped Hanon (except for the "Trills"), although I still do one major scale, its relative minor (both melodic & harmonic) and the arpeggios with it, as well as the brutal "Tausig exercise".

This reduced my warmup time to about an hour or less.

However, I'm quite nervous about this. It seems to me that my dexterity/finger strength might have diminished due to playing less warmups. Should I notice this, or is my path now just right, or should I change something in it?

I now play most of these exercises in 'dotted-note' rhythms, something similar in sound to Swing Jazz - someone (pardon me for failing to remember your name) in another thread suggested that this would help build finger independence. Is this a more effective way to play warmups?

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your useful and generous advice.  

[j_menz]

What are you warming up for - what are you actually playing?

[cuberdrift]

What are you warming up for - what are you actually playing?
[/quote

I'm currently taking up two of Liszt's "Etude in 12 exercises" and Mozart's k281 in Bb major.

[j_menz]

If it were me, I rebalance towards more repertoire rather than increasing the exercises.

[ajspiano]

Consider the technical implications of your repertoire, look for exercises or small etudes that focus on the technical problems you find in the repertoire.

Have a musical objective when you tackle both the repertoire and the relevant exercise. Its not about the notes or the speed at which you can play them. They have a context. You're not looking to play notes so much as play notes with a clean articulation, accelerando and crescendo (for example).

[faulty_damper]

You can't build technique by doing exercises regardless of who recommends them.  You can achieve better results with real repertoire if you simply figured out the simplest and most effective movement combinations to achieve the desired musical sound.  The very fact that you say that your, "dexterity/finger strength might have diminished due to playing less warmups," strongly indicates over-reliance of the fingers alone and not the whole playing apparatus.

[pover]

Consider the technical implications of your repertoire, look for exercises or small etudes that focus on the technical problems you find in the repertoire.

I agree. You can find lots of opportunities to fine-tune any skills you feel are lacking within the pieces you are learning. That way, you kill 2 birds with one stone: you are learning new repertoire, and you are improving your technique.

Take, for instance, most Mozart sonatas. You will find all kinds of scales and arpeggio like figurations in them. So by playing them, you are automatically practicing your scales and arpeggios, as well as learning GREAT music. And I assure you with most pieces you learn, you will often stumble upon a difficult section which contains a technique you probably never faced before, and by encountering it in the piece, you are not only learning how to play that particular technical challenge, but also how to incorporate it to the piece in order for it to make musical sense. Think about this.

[bronnestam]

I think mental warm-up is the most essential. This means that I start to think of today's practice quite a long while in beforehand. I hum the pieces in my head, I play them mentally, I plan what to work with today and THEN I go to the piano, tagged and eager to start. And on my way to the piano I do some simple hand-warmups like stretching and rubbing my hands etcetera. Ready to go!

If I'm in my most ambitious mode I have notes in my journal about what to work with, and after the practice I make new notes for tomorrow's practice, containing both reflections of how it worked today, and then conclusions on what to do tomorrow.

To me, this pre- and post-work makes the actual practice sooo much more effective.

But sometimes I just sit down and play for fun, of course.

[flashyfingers]

To add on to some of the good points already stated, and to add new points:

Stretch your arms and hands AND back (by stretching your upper leg muscles, which pull on your back.) Stretch before and after practice.

After stretching, warm up. These can be organized by key signatures, relative and tonic minor. Intervals such as thirds, diminished 5ths, 6ths, octaves, and chromatic scale.
For these, I start on A flat, unison or octave apart, and play contrary motion. This is practically the only time I practice with a metronome. But essentially, your basics are very important. (Scales, arpeggios, basic theory such as patterns and roman numerals of each key. This helps create scales and arpeggios and misc. for a hearty warm-up.)

The warm up should be when you warm up for proper piano playing, which includes relaxing your shoulders and arms, your fingers, especially your pinkie and your thumb. My biggest challenge is sitting up straight, and so I must work on that every day.

Pick a piece that you have already worked on in the past, and know you can play it at any time, it feels good under your fingers and you enjoy playing it. Play that piece, focusing on playing slowly, each note is even and you are pressing each key all the way down, focusing on strong, even touch, full control of dynamics. If you make a mistake, make sure you slow down enough to where you can play through it, and even avoid it.

I believe that etudes are great technique solidifiers if you already understand how to build technique. Etudes are great show off pieces, and great pieces to display your pianistic capabilities. But so many things can go wrong if you have not been properly warming up your technique. And these things will go wrong no matter what you play, no matter where and when. SO

I go with Bach, sight read a few preludes and fugues. If this is difficult, work on getting better at it-there are 48 of them, for this reason! You fill find that you may memorize some of this music you work through. This is great news. You will learn both proper technique and touch and second-nature memorization, if you read through each piece slowly, work out difficult bars and apply them to memory right away. Thus by playing each note very slowly and with proper touch, you also internalize proper pianistic touch. Do not ever play fast until you feel the adrenaline carry you through the piece. This is where playing fast will become second-nature, and proper+strong touch is the key to entering that realm smoothly. THEN you can challenge your technique by attempting to learn an etude, problem-solve any deficiencies by repeating all of the above steps at the appropriate level of technical difficulty. You see? Each day builds on top of another. But every day you avoid proper TREATMENT of pianistic deficiency, you may be hurting yourself. It is very common sense, I hear you.

FINALLY, just be patient. No sense killing yourself. You know you could half-assed learn any piece any concerto. But you would be missing the point and robbing yourself of the skills to be acquired, the skills that (in the future) allow for diligent accomplishment of fully learning and internalizing a piece, and playing it with flawless technique. ONE DAY AT A TIME.

Take a day off, once in a while (don't be lazy, either.)

[flashyfingers]

May I also add, that when practicing scales, or any warm-up or repertoire, when you practice passages both hands together, you should first practice hands together JUST LOOKING AT YOUR RIGHT HAND, then practice JUST LOOKING AT YOUR LEFT HAND.

[xdjuicebox]

Be really careful when you play things like Hanon, you have the potential of becoming really mindless. I would personally avoid Hanon altogether. Play scales, definitely, for musical purposes and evenness/tone.

For technique building, I would play the etudes directly, and focus on finding little small motions that are perfect for everything you want - a healthy, comfortable, NATURAL motion that is ergonomic that produces deep tone at proper speed with proper control. Or whatever tone you want. This is a very deep subject, but I recommend you learn the technique by playing etudes directly - after all, that's why they were written, to avoid mindless repetitive exercises.