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Topic: Has anyone here actually COMPLETED all 3 of Hanon's exercise volumes?  (Read 6302 times)

Offline cuberdrift

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Hey all,

I wonder what is it like to actually finish learning and practicing all three volumes of Hanon's (in)famous exercises "The Virtuoso Pianist"? I really want to find out if it is indeed what it claims. I am aware many people find the idea of tediously practicing repetitive exercises to be kind of lame but that is why I wonder what it really does to a pianist when he actually decides to go on and force himself to finish the whole thing.

Thanks much!
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Offline dedolence

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I guess I haven't "finished" it in the sense of doing every exercise at maximum velocity, but I've played through every exercise several (sometimes countless!) times and can do about half of them at full speed. It has noticeably, significantly improved my technique. Certain phrases and leaps in the pieces I'm learning that used to feel awkward or impossible now feel fluid and natural. I am largely self-taught and without a teacher I didn't know how to improve, so I picked up the book and set to work. Am glad I did!

I recently befriended a professional pianist and traded him a lesson for some service I do for work (I'm a mechanic by trade). He agreed that I had the ability to hit the notes, but his biggest criticism was that I hadn't dove deeply into the music; essentially I was playing notes on an instrument but wasn't playing music, per se. I credit the Hanon exercises with helping me hit the notes, but it won't make you a virtuoso. It did nothing to help me discover the emotional blueprint of the music I was working on, and that is more important than anything. So now I'm putting the exercises aside and closely re-reading the pieces I've learned to discover how to emote them, rather than merely reproducing their sounds.

Also, I enjoy the repetitive practice of it. I don't always have the mental energy to play proper music so the exercises give me something to do to stay in shape.

Offline maxim3

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I don't know if anyone "here" (that is, in these forums) has done every single Hanon exercise, but try this:

In the Youtube search field, enter "Hanon x" replacing x with the number of any Hanon exercise from 1 to 60, and look through the impressive results. For example, "Alan Chan" has a video where he plays every single Hanon exercise in 1 hour 38 minutes.

If you're interested in trying to teach yourself all the basic scales, arpeggios, chords and so on, see my recent post "ULTIMATE MONSTER PRACTICE ROUTINE FOR THOSE WITHOUT A TEACHER"

Offline j_tour

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I was kind of hoping to hear that someone had done all these "rudimentaries," like a drummer might say, in all the keys.

This is OT for the thread, but related:  has anyone actually done the Bach Inventions by transposing (by ear) each piece?

That seems possible, and probably something someone has done on Youtube.

But the same for the Sinfonie?  I don't know.  It would be an interesting exercise, but for me it would take a long time.

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Offline maxim3

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Thanks to MusicXML, you can download all of Bach's 2-part inventions and transpose each and any one of them to any key you want, with the proper software.

Just google MusicXML if you haven't heard of it before. According to Wikipedia, "As of February 2019, MusicXML is supported to varying degrees by over 240 notation programs."

Offline bzzzzzt

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Yes. It’s not worth it.
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Offline Bob

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I thought about it, but it seemed too finger oriented.  There's the wrist, etc., and other aspects of piano playing besides running single notes.  If it was only Baroque and Classical (broadly lumped into "more notey like that") than maybe, but it's not.  I haven't thought about it for a long time though.  I ended up making my own exercises for areas, some far more boring than Hanon.
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Offline aclaussen

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Czerny and Hanon was big/popular as studies until Chopin composed his Etudes which pretty much revolutionized the concept of a piano study. Who would bother with boring finger exercises anymore? Everything you could possibly learn in Hanon you will work and way way way more working on Chopin's etudes.

Also the concept of what a virtuoso on the piano has changed dramatically since Czerny's time. Pieces have gotten a lot more difficult. So the title "The Virtuoso Pianist" became inappropriate after Chopin came along. Mozart doesn't have very many virtuosic passages when you compare to liszt, chopin, rachmaninoff, ect.

You might think it's "going back to basics" like an athlete that goes back to very fundamental things but it don't think it really translates over to piano playing, scales and arpeggios would be those fundamentals to technique not Hanon.
Alexander Ngo Claussen
my music on spotify: https://spoti.fi/2r2OhaY
playing liszt:https://bit.ly/2QAzKhR

my book-https://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Etudes-Complete-Exercises-Improvisation/dp/1949950913

Offline cuberdrift

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Czerny and Hanon was big/popular as studies until Chopin composed his Etudes which pretty much revolutionized the concept of a piano study. Who would bother with boring finger exercises anymore? Everything you could possibly learn in Hanon you will work and way way way more working on Chopin's etudes.

Also the concept of what a virtuoso on the piano has changed dramatically since Czerny's time. Pieces have gotten a lot more difficult. So the title "The Virtuoso Pianist" became inappropriate after Chopin came along. Mozart doesn't have very many virtuosic passages when you compare to liszt, chopin, rachmaninoff, ect.

You might think it's "going back to basics" like an athlete that goes back to very fundamental things but it don't think it really translates over to piano playing, scales and arpeggios would be those fundamentals to technique not Hanon.

Well Hanon was actualy written after Chopin's death I believe.

Plus I think even Chopin himself was not against the idea of exercises. For instance he is known to have made students study Clementi's Gradus ad parnassum, one of the earliest exercise books for piano.

I think Chopin etudes are a bit of a struggle for newcomers to the piano, which is why we have things like tehnical exercises. They're only boring imo if you don't play them with any musical thought.

Offline aclaussen

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Well Hanon was actualy written after Chopin's death I believe.

Plus I think even Chopin himself was not against the idea of exercises. For instance he is known to have made students study Clementi's Gradus ad parnassum, one of the earliest exercise books for piano.

I think Chopin etudes are a bit of a struggle for newcomers to the piano, which is why we have things like tehnical exercises. They're only boring imo if you don't play them with any musical thought.

Ah ok I had assumed Czerny and Hanon were around the same time because my edition when had lumped them together into one edition, thanks for the info.

My first teacher actually did make me do these exercises, around 1 per week. I didn't complete all the exercises but probably got to around #20. Did they help? Probably a bit. But I don't think they are going to make anyone a virtuoso. Do they have their place? Probably. But you have 500 posts on here, I haven't heard or seen your playing but I thought based on the way the question was worded that the OP (you) had enough experience where maybe there would be better places to spend your time.

For my students I wouldn't want to bore them with these. Kids these days got school and all these activities, and I'm already having them learn scales and arpeggios and basic theory ect along with repertoire. I think adding Hanon exercises to the mix is going to bore the average American student into quitting (ie if I was teaching a child in a strict Chinese family in China where there is a lot more devotion to music education, I might throw in the Hanon exercises) . They could have their place in improving technique and finger dexterity but for the typical student I think they have enough on their plate with time better spent elsewhere.

I don't really think these exercises could be considered "rudimentaries" like j_tour is calling them because there are phenomenal pianists who have never touched these particular exercises while I imagine a serious drummer however would need to have good grasp over drum rudiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_rudiment

Alexander Ngo Claussen
my music on spotify: https://spoti.fi/2r2OhaY
playing liszt:https://bit.ly/2QAzKhR

my book-https://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Etudes-Complete-Exercises-Improvisation/dp/1949950913

Offline cuberdrift

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My first teacher actually did make me do these exercises, around 1 per week. I didn't complete all the exercises but probably got to around #20. Did they help? Probably a bit. But I don't think they are going to make anyone a virtuoso. Do they have their place? Probably. But you have 500 posts on here, I haven't heard or seen your playing but I thought based on the way the question was worded that the OP (you) had enough experience where maybe there would be better places to spend your time.

I'm a conservatory student and yes I rarely upload recordings because I don't really have confidence in my playing (yet). I suspect myself as having some mild sort of OCD but that might not really be why I'm kind of obsessed with technical exercises.

Anyway exercises are something of a personal craving for me and I probably wouldn't  waste any time forcing an uninterested student to plow through them (I hardly ever taught anyone ever though lol). Personally I am strongly against forcing people especially young children to play such a structured instrument as the piano. There are other ways to cherish one's youth and it doesn't have to be classical piano.

I think it is at least as important for beginners to learn music theory, composition, and improvisation and I consider the divorcement of these elements in conventional training a crime against art. Music involves human creativity, it's not something you force someone to do for impractical reasons like boosting the parents' ego. (Sorry if I sound harsh I'm just expressing myself)

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For my students I wouldn't want to bore them with these. Kids these days got school and all these activities, and I'm already having them learn scales and arpeggios and basic theory ect along with repertoire. I think adding Hanon exercises to the mix is going to bore the average American student into quitting (ie if I was teaching a child in a strict Chinese family in China where there is a lot more devotion to music education, I might throw in the Hanon exercises) . They could have their place in improving technique and finger dexterity but for the typical student I think they have enough on their plate with time better spent elsewhere.

Hanon studies are probably not the best out there, it's just that I like doing and experimenting with them. They probably help but that's only because I have the motivation and diligence to do them provided I have the time to do so.

It's all about the student I think. What the student wants/expects etc. I think there are other ways of improving technique, like for instance composing your own etudes for your students to play (!) lol. Remember that this id what Czerny did, he probably didn't like the idea of Hanon-style exercises so tried to spice it up by making simple pieces out of such kinds of exercises. Probably the people of the time find them more interesting in their day as they were quite used to listening to that style of music as opposed to us contemporary folk.

Quote
I don't really think these exercises could be considered "rudimentaries" like j_tour is calling them because there are phenomenal pianists who have never touched these particular exercises while I imagine a serious drummer however would need to have good grasp over drum rudiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_rudiment

They are not strictly necessary but anyway if applied properly they should help. It all depends on the circumstances I believe.

For me I like to have an advanced technique already so learning repertoire isn't such a difficult and time consuming task due to lack of technique (but only if I like the exercises).
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