I been taking piano lessons for little over a year now. My teacher had me start on hanon. When I’m practicing I find I zone out while doing the exercises and it just becomes muscle memory.
I'm self taught and I always assumed hanon was meant to to be practiced in all twelve keys, I've memorized a few of the pieces and if I practice them sometimes by doing the handful I remember in all twelve keys. I dunno it's super helpful but I had never paid attention to proper fingerings before Hanon so it helped me be conscious of evenness and not distorting my hands too much But I find just learning pieces is way more fun and challenging and makes me feel more confident when I really nail a hard couple bars.
These exercises should never be done without the guidance of a good teacher. The pedagogy is obsolete. These exercises do nothing developing hand independence and such patterns do not appear in real music. Time can be better spent than practicing Hanon. The claims of Hanon making someone a virtuosos pianist is without foundation.
It's helpful if you do most or all 60 of them. If you can do all 60 at the upper limit of tempi as indicated, you have the skills to play just about anything in the piano repertoire. If you just do the first few in the book, there is no point trying to practice Hanon. No need to add, improvise what's already in the book. These mindless (a term some like to use) exercises are to isolate certain technical skill that you can focus on one at a time.
I run a warm-up routine every day where I take a new key as starting point. I play the first 20 Hanon exercises with f.ex E as a starting point. Then I play the scales and arpeggios with E as starting point. The next day I take F as the starting point and so on.. I find the use of Hanon exercises good for getting used to the different keys. Sometimes I vary it by playing the Hanon exercises in the minor keys.
Hanon is magic. Even thogh i am not good technically but i feel my fingers like rock stone, especially my pinky fingers so hard that i can pierce the wall 😊
Some good points and suggestions. At the onset, I will say that there can be *some* benefit from the applicable use of a few "Hanon" exercises where prescribed. That being said, the benefits to be had do not nearly begin to require playing hours of the same repetitive/redundant exercises which purpose seems to be only to exhaust every possible variation that can be played with five fingers. "Strengthening" and mobility (micro-adjustments of the fingers for intervals of the minor 2nd, major 2nd, minor 3rd, and major 3rd -- which are the primary stretches encountered in diatonic playing and are the focus of the "Hanon" exercises) can be better accomplished (i.e. more thoroughly, and in less time) with a few applicable Hanon exercises and others such as a few of the Plaidy triplets played with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers in all keys. 5:05 "There's 59 more just like this one" ummm .. wrong! This is a commonly held misconception -- apparently most people never go beyond the first 20 exercises. Only the first 20 exercises are the commonly-known "Hanon" exercises. 21 - 30 are "transcendent" which combine 4-note patterns into 8-note patterns; 32 - 37 involve thumb crossings; 38 is a scale prep; 39 is simply all the major and harmonic and melodic minor scales in parallel octaves; 40 is chromatic scales - parallel octaves, minor 3rds, minor and major 6ths; contrary beginning on the octave, minor, and major 3rd 41 is triad arpeggios -- all major and minor 42 is full diminished 7th arpeggios 43 is dominant 7th arpeggios (major dominant 7ths beginning on white notes, and C major major 7th) 44 repeated notes groups of 3 45 repeated notes groups of 2 46 trills 47 repeated notes groups of 4 48 wrist exercises - double 3rds and 6ths 49 stretches of a 6th between figers 1 -4 and 2 - 5 50 legato double 3rds, scales in 3rds 51 octaves (double - in each hand) 52 common scales in double 3rds 53 scales in double octaves - major and harmonic minor 54 trills in double 3rds 55 "threefold" trills in 1st inversion triads - double 4ths (RH) with single trill in bass (LH) 56 scales in broken octaves - major and harmonic minor 57 broken arpeggios in double octaves - major and minor triads 58 double octaves held while playing inner notes of triads 59 trills in double 6ths 60 tremolo So -- I suppose that, technically speaking, whenever one is playing scales, arpeggios, double 3rds, 6ths, octaves, trills, etc., one can be said to be playing "Hanon" (LOL) Hanon indicates, in the concluding remarks, that " ... An hour is required to play the book through" (more LOL ...) 6:02 yes - play in other keys 7:20 - independance - also: - one hand staccato the other hand legato, switch hands - one hand forte the other hand piano, switch hands - one hand crescendo the other hand decrescendo, switch hands - different rhythms (in different hands) - as grace notes between the two hands (LH leading, then RH leading) - play two-against-three (and maybe three-against-four?) - play one exercise in one hand and another exercise in the other hand (i.e. #1 in one hand and #5 in the other etc.); - play in other keys in 10ths and 6ths (try number 1 in F# harmonic minor in 6ths ... )
You can also play the ascending and descending versions of each Hanon exercise against each other. When your hands meet in the middle, you just reverse the process. Training both hands to play exactly the same thing in parallel all the time might not be a good idea. It might train you to have both hands work together but ultimately the two hands are going to be playing different things, and often in opposite directions, almost all the time.
I've always found the Bach 2 and 3 part inventions, as well as a plethora of other works, like Scarlatti sonatas, to be far more beneficial. The mindless part of Hanon should not be underestimated, as well as its potential for repetitive caused injury.
Ryan Slatko I love playing through the set of small preludes as warmup. Bach is wonderful and very approachable for developing technique and musicality.
@@RyanSlatkoMusic Repetitive stress injury is caused by bad fingering and bad use of arm weight. You can do that with anything if you use bad fingerings and arm weight.
I actually really like the idea of just taking Hanon and doing all the keys. Doing independence with tempo. In that aspect, Hanon really just needs an asterisk *do this in all keys and vary tempos. Then i think it's an excellent way to learn. For the beginner, the dexterity is just up to repetition so sometimes you just need that. Good video and critique
I'm not a very good piano player, have never taken formal lessons, and just play around for my own benefit, but I use the first few Hanon exercises, as you suggest, for a warm up. Have never gotten beyond around number 6, but that's good enough for my skill level, to get the fingers loose. I don't ever expect to get any better as a player than I am now. What I do for a variation, and to try to get some left hand independence, is instead of playing both left & right hand notes at the same time, I play each hand on alternating beats, following the metronome. So I'll play the left hand note on the first beat, the right hand note on the second beat, the left hand note on the third, and so on. It actually ends up sounding a little like boogie-woogie, but that's about as fancy as I can get at my skill level. I also play banjo and ukulele, and play these same exercises on them, again as a warm up before diving into my daily practice. I find it works very well. So I don't follow this book expecting to become a virtuoso, but I think it does some good as an exercise. Incidentally, I was given my piano (a 100 year old Sohmer) by a neighbor who was moving and didn't want to take it along (it's a very big upright) and said if I was willing to move it myself, I could have it, and a very old copy of the Hanon book was in the piano bench, which is how I started on this. That was over 20 years ago.
As a new pianist, it is interesting to see a real critique of Hanon. Others state, "Use Hanon because I said so". Or "Use Hanon because I've been using it with my students." (Your students don't have the guts to say you are a terrible teacher :D ) You get the same thing doing spider walks and arpeggiation on guitar. They are mindless and not fun to do when you get into the zone. To an extent, it develops some muscle memory, but I find this stuff to be better warm up routines. Thank you for this video!
I disagree with couple of things: - this is mindless if you choose to not pay attention of what you are doing, so it's up to you and not Hanon fault - "both hand play same keys" well its wrong, some exercices right at the beginning use different fingers. It shows that you didn't spend so much time going through this book - When I started piano despicte the fact that I was working out. I could not play more than 5min without having my muscles sour. Hanon help me imcreased my endurance so saying we all have the strength to play piano right off the bat is wrong again.
- Hanon is not inherently mindless, but it's extremely repetitive and uninteresting to play, so it houses the potential to FACILITATE mindless practice. - Different fingers does not equal different keys. - How can you be sure that your perceived "increased endurance" was from muscular development and not from having more experience and being more relaxed at the piano?
Putting Hanon’s exercices on trial 150 years after they were published, is simply ignoring that 3 generations of great pianists - from William Kempff, Clara Haskil, Rudolf Serkin and Martha Argerich, to Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Murray Perrahia and even Yundi Li - were most probably all raised to these exercises, at times when no RUclips was there to question their author. So yes, they’re great to warm up, but not only. And yes, they’re boring; but learning to read ABC has got to be so boring before one can read Faulkner, Shakespear or the Bible. To finish on the pros side, the idea of taking Hanons on different keys is great. It may definitely bring an added value to the original. For this, thanks.
thanks for your honesty and for the great advice you give, it helps me a lot, I want to develop but I don't know what to practice exercises with but I think I will use czerny and perform feetas you say apart from exercising I will also learn good music.
Don't knock a 120 year old book especially with proper English! you can see the English language written in it Hannon is doing something right if it's been in circulation since 1900. Btw flat and sharps at the end
Do you not think that repetition is like a mantra , clearing the mind so your fingers are just connected to the instrument without thought . Strengthening physically and mentally your command of an instrument. What's wrong with that ? By the way I'm not a spiritualist just a guy trying to learn piano .
Hanon is not a mantra I would want to repeat to myself! As I stated it can be helpful as a warmup if done the right way, but it won’t do much in the way of BUILDING technique. The muscles already have what they need to play piano, so that argument doesn’t really hold up. Exercises can be cool, but you have to be careful with them otherwise they could subconsciously inform your musicality. In the case of Hanon it could inadvertently create bad musical habits, playing mechanically without emotion.
There's nothing inherently mindless about Hanon, I just feel the way it's laid out, the way the exercises work, the instructions they give you in the book all facilitate mindless practice. It's possible (while not necessary) to play Hanon correctly without being musically engaged in any way, and that's where the practice gets robotic, mechanical, maybe even mindless.
@@Hajjmusic_ I just think there's a danger in practicing Hanon or other repetitive exercises too much, where you become musically disengaged (because you're playing something so mechanical and repetitive) and then you're practicing in a musically-disengaged way, and then you can unintentionally take that disconnected mindset onto the bandstand. Exercises can be helpful, but you have to balance them out with playing actual music, or just find a more musical, mentally-engaging way to approach those exercises.
@@Hajjmusic_ No problem! I'm not necessarily saying "Don't practice Hanon," it's just if you're going to do it, do it for a reason. Hanon claims to be the end-all of piano technique, claiming that if you practice these exercises you'll become a virtuoso. That's just not true! Like I mentioned in the video, you can do things like play them in different keys or rhythms, to make brain games out of the exercises, instead of it being this boring monotonous drill. That being said, I think scales and arpeggios are great for developing technique, or if you want something a little more musical, check out Bach's Two-Part Inventions or some easy Czerny Etudes. This will depend on where you are, of course. I am currently offering Skype lessons if you are interested!
Couple of comments if you don’t mind - we didn’t really need to hear you read the whole of the introduction or play loads of examples. Analysis on the benefits is what people will be here for.
@@RyanSlatkoMusic On the contrary, I think you were quite right to read out the preface and play the examples. Some of the people watching this video could be strangers to Hanon - maybe they started piano without a teacher - so that showing what Hanon actually wrote and thought he was doing is a good idea & will help them decide whether they want to buy or download his book or not.
Anything done without concentration, intelligence, variety and musicality is time-wasted,and a great detriment to the enthusiasm necessary for succeeding at the piano( or on any other instrument or voice.) , The “ magic” in Hanon, Czerny, et al , is in variety and imagination applied. ( rhythmic variants, touch, dynamics…Rotary movements, both sideways and up and down in both wrists and forearm is important and a generally light arm, as well as loose fingers (except for firm fingertips) must be maintained. In short-a good teacher and constant vigilance and intelligent enthusiasm will provide a safe journey through Hanon, Czerny OR for that matter any ETUDE-type work! Moderation is the key to lasting progress. I am sure you will agree.Teachers must be trained learning how to teach and how help students develop potential! Most “pedagogy” courses are more about what “method books” to use, rather than showing the student how to really teach, IMHO!
I built so much finger strength from using this book. I played for half a decade. Great book. Not relaxing while I played was the bane of my existence. It was what kept me from getting better. I still have trouble with being stiff, but not as much.
@@chester6343 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA I WAS TRYING IT in D major and many times I reached the Frist finger on black notes, it's so annoying so i kept doing on C major, I'm practicing on chopin révolutionnay étude and I'm having troubles with the left hand, so i though maybe it can help me to be fluend
See Gold and Fitzdale's "Hanon Revisited" and by all means transpose some of the Hanon into other keys. NEVER more than 20 minutes a day. Then get on with music.
Hanon is amazing. You’ll immediate discover finger-muscles you didn’t know were there. The later Hanon exercises, when we’ll played, are quite beautiful. If I ever get Alzheimer’s, I expect Hanon will be among the last things I can recall - having played them innumerable times.
You can’t really take any RUclips comments seriously...anyone who wants to play the piano should at least play these scales...I think 20-30minutes 3-4 days a week is good enough...what it simply does is to make all your fingers play...but if you just play your favorite musics your 4&5th finger are hardly use....most of us just play for self-fulfillment anyways
I thought so. Its brain food but it gets to be old news fast! Once THE SPEED KICKS IN THEN WHAT ? My mind turns towards incorperating the exersizes into chord progressions as melodies. I love my piano brain. lol.. Great video !
I agree with your assessment of Hannon. The transposition of his exercises was fairly common practice in the Russian School. As far as being mindless I agree they can be. It takes focus to play these exercises meaningfully as well as developing technique using them. In many ways I have not used them as Hannon intended. Part 2 starting with the scales and after are the most useful and I feel Part 3 is to me the most dangerous. I am a huge fan of J.Gats book ‘The Technique of Piano Playing.’ The idea of developing ones own exercises is a great one and I tend to focus on categories of examples in Gat’s book to expand technique to the fullest range possible. Thank you for your views on Hannon. Pianists need to understand that Hannon is a starting place that should be soon left. And perhaps not even that. Devoting time understanding J. Gat’s book has paid off for me far more than any Hannon exercises could possibly bring.
This has been refreshing to hear. I have just placed an order for Antologia Didattica Cat. B Vol. 2 F. Rossomandi to focus on hand independence.....and all thanks to you. I might progress faster if I could ever learn to practice and play slower.
Another fascinating take on Hanon - not at all contradicting this video - is Heart of the Keys ruclips.net/video/CDMDPxLzbxs/видео.html ; RUclips sent me here from there. Plus she is impossibly beautiful...
Your fingers have small muscles but they also contain collagen and bone which will grow after repeated use. Making the fingers and hand heavier and broader. But this takes years and probably is most noticeable in kids that are growing.
Perhaps Hanon expects devoted pianists to make some of these critiques and expand on the exercises in this way after using the 60 exercises as an entry point 👀😂
Hi , I don’t play the entire book but I do 1 through 7 . It brought me into some cool mindless improvs. I can’t help to Go into some Mirrior Hannon zones ... Usually two octaves a part would... sounds amazing . When I accomplish some technical exercises the Challenge of learning the exercise is over... then it’s a tool that I break up . Stick them in some cool chord progression traids . Two handed Rhythms /Broken Hannon . It’s helped me . The best thing I found being a new student is don’t take them very serious but incorporate them daily. It’s fun After you accomplish them.
There are no muscles in the fingers. I have interviewed five hand surgeons and they state you can't build finger strength. Hanon states the exercises will make the 4th and 5th fingers as strong as the others. Really?! You use different techniques in playing the piano, e.g., shifting, thrusting, rotating, etc. I have been teaching for 50 years and my students play Chopin Etudes and other difficult pieces. Never played Hanon.
3 года назад
Hanon can be great. Just ignore the Elitists. They manage to make everything as boring as the music they play.
Really? I totally disagree. Both hands and fingers were not born with the right strength to hit the keys with extreme precision. Anyway, I don't understand why a simple exercise book should be undermine publicly. What about those young learners who dedicate time to execute those exercises?. Don't they deserve to know they are improving?
Precision and strength are not the same thing. And I think everybody deserves to know that while you might master an exercise, it doesn't guarantee you improvement in any skills beyond the scope of the exercise. There's nothing wrong with exercises, I just think if that's what you're looking for, you can do a lot better than Hanon, even at a beginner level.
A good teacher would have rapped you across your knuckles smartly with a heavy ruler. Hanon is essential. Brahms exercises much tougher. Alas, nowadays musical conservatories crank out cookie cutter pianists who are boring automatons.
Nice point of view on Hanon and BTW, most people only do the first exercise and quit after that. People often mistake Hanon just for dexterity exercises when actually these exercises can help in developing good sight reading and fingerings. Most of the exercises after No.5 somehow appear Bach's works in fragments. Every word that you have spoken is absolutely true and I too thought the same but I still believe that Hanon is essential in discovering keyboard anthology and technique and for sight reading and basic fingerings. His many last exercises are one of the best for trills, octaves and scales etc. It's like the kindergarten course. Czerny, I. Phillip and Brahms are better for developing advanced techniques and one should always play etudes and real music for developing excellent musical skills.
Hanon does in no way develop sight reading skills. Sight reading refers to music that we have not seen previously and playing it as accurately as possible.
@@carnivalcruiserbill How did you learn to drive a car? You just sat in one and drove off ? How did you learn English, perhaps just brought Shakespeare and started reading? Sight reading requires training and learning in reading notes on staffs and ledger lines and their performance on musical instruments. Then, the brain learns it like any other script of a language and keeps getting better with practice. Single line musical notation is difficult to read even for advanced players at high speeds irrespective of the knowledge of scales or music theory. Blocked notes or chords are easier to read as they form a group and are easier to identify. Hanon exercises build sight reading skills of reading different clefs with same and different notes in horizontal manners which one needs to play maximum Western classical or any music apart from hymns. Bach becomes so easy to play if the student has practiced the beginning exercises of Hanon. Hanon scales and trills further strengthen both muscle memory and sight reading. Lastly, I know what sight reading is as I am an organist and a pianist who has played music of all sorts for more than 2 decades. 🙂
I been taking piano lessons for little over a year now. My teacher had me start on hanon. When I’m practicing I find I zone out while doing the exercises and it just becomes muscle memory.
I'm self taught and I always assumed hanon was meant to to be practiced in all twelve keys, I've memorized a few of the pieces and if I practice them sometimes by doing the handful I remember in all twelve keys. I dunno it's super helpful but I had never paid attention to proper fingerings before Hanon so it helped me be conscious of evenness and not distorting my hands too much
But I find just learning pieces is way more fun and challenging and makes me feel more confident when I really nail a hard couple bars.
These exercises should never be done without the guidance of a good teacher. The pedagogy is obsolete. These exercises do nothing developing hand independence and such patterns do not appear in real music. Time can be better spent than practicing Hanon. The claims of Hanon making someone a virtuosos pianist is without foundation.
It's helpful if you do most or all 60 of them. If you can do all 60 at the upper limit of tempi as indicated, you have the skills to play just about anything in the piano repertoire. If you just do the first few in the book, there is no point trying to practice Hanon. No need to add, improvise what's already in the book. These mindless (a term some like to use) exercises are to isolate certain technical skill that you can focus on one at a time.
I run a warm-up routine every day where I take a new key as starting point. I play the first 20 Hanon exercises with f.ex E as a starting point. Then I play the scales and arpeggios with E as starting point. The next day I take F as the starting point and so on..
I find the use of Hanon exercises good for getting used to the different keys. Sometimes I vary it by playing the Hanon exercises in the minor keys.
Hanon is magic. Even thogh i am not good technically but i feel my fingers like rock stone, especially my pinky fingers so hard that i can pierce the wall 😊
Some good points and suggestions. At the onset, I will say that there can be *some* benefit from the applicable use of a few "Hanon" exercises where prescribed. That being said, the benefits to be had do not nearly begin to require playing hours of the same repetitive/redundant exercises which purpose seems to be only to exhaust every possible variation that can be played with five fingers. "Strengthening" and mobility (micro-adjustments of the fingers for intervals of the minor 2nd, major 2nd, minor 3rd, and major 3rd -- which are the primary stretches encountered in diatonic playing and are the focus of the "Hanon" exercises) can be better accomplished (i.e. more thoroughly, and in less time) with a few applicable Hanon exercises and others such as a few of the Plaidy triplets played with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers in all keys.
5:05 "There's 59 more just like this one" ummm .. wrong!
This is a commonly held misconception -- apparently most people never go beyond the first 20 exercises.
Only the first 20 exercises are the commonly-known "Hanon" exercises.
21 - 30 are "transcendent" which combine 4-note patterns into 8-note patterns;
32 - 37 involve thumb crossings;
38 is a scale prep;
39 is simply all the major and harmonic and melodic minor scales in parallel octaves;
40 is chromatic scales - parallel octaves, minor 3rds, minor and major 6ths; contrary beginning on the octave, minor, and major 3rd
41 is triad arpeggios -- all major and minor
42 is full diminished 7th arpeggios
43 is dominant 7th arpeggios (major dominant 7ths beginning on white notes, and C major major 7th)
44 repeated notes groups of 3
45 repeated notes groups of 2
46 trills
47 repeated notes groups of 4
48 wrist exercises - double 3rds and 6ths
49 stretches of a 6th between figers 1 -4 and 2 - 5
50 legato double 3rds, scales in 3rds
51 octaves (double - in each hand)
52 common scales in double 3rds
53 scales in double octaves - major and harmonic minor
54 trills in double 3rds
55 "threefold" trills in 1st inversion triads - double 4ths (RH) with single trill in bass (LH)
56 scales in broken octaves - major and harmonic minor
57 broken arpeggios in double octaves - major and minor triads
58 double octaves held while playing inner notes of triads
59 trills in double 6ths
60 tremolo
So -- I suppose that, technically speaking, whenever one is playing scales, arpeggios, double 3rds, 6ths, octaves, trills, etc., one can be said to be playing "Hanon" (LOL)
Hanon indicates, in the concluding remarks, that " ... An hour is required to play the book through"
(more LOL ...)
6:02 yes - play in other keys
7:20 - independance - also:
- one hand staccato the other hand legato, switch hands
- one hand forte the other hand piano, switch hands
- one hand crescendo the other hand decrescendo, switch hands
- different rhythms (in different hands)
- as grace notes between the two hands (LH leading, then RH leading)
- play two-against-three (and maybe three-against-four?)
- play one exercise in one hand and another exercise in the other hand (i.e. #1 in one hand and #5 in the other etc.);
- play in other keys in 10ths and 6ths (try number 1 in F# harmonic minor in 6ths ... )
You can also play the ascending and descending versions of each Hanon exercise against each other. When your hands meet in the middle, you just reverse the process. Training both hands to play exactly the same thing in parallel all the time might not be a good idea. It might train you to have both hands work together but ultimately the two hands are going to be playing different things, and often in opposite directions, almost all the time.
I've always found the Bach 2 and 3 part inventions, as well as a plethora of other works, like Scarlatti sonatas, to be far more beneficial. The mindless part of Hanon should not be underestimated, as well as its potential for repetitive caused injury.
100% agree. Repetitive Strain Injury is no joke. And I love the 2 part inventions, they're a go-to warm up for me!
Ryan Slatko I love playing through the set of small preludes as warmup. Bach is wonderful and very approachable for developing technique and musicality.
How do you rate Czerny?
@@RyanSlatkoMusic Repetitive stress injury is caused by bad fingering and bad use of arm weight. You can do that with anything if you use bad fingerings and arm weight.
Rubbish!
I actually really like the idea of just taking Hanon and doing all the keys. Doing independence with tempo. In that aspect, Hanon really just needs an asterisk *do this in all keys and vary tempos. Then i think it's an excellent way to learn.
For the beginner, the dexterity is just up to repetition so sometimes you just need that.
Good video and critique
I would recommend the edition by Peters. There are plenty interesting variations for each exercise.
Cool! Will definitely check it out!
I'm not a very good piano player, have never taken formal lessons, and just play around for my own benefit, but I use the first few Hanon exercises, as you suggest, for a warm up. Have never gotten beyond around number 6, but that's good enough for my skill level, to get the fingers loose. I don't ever expect to get any better as a player than I am now. What I do for a variation, and to try to get some left hand independence, is instead of playing both left & right hand notes at the same time, I play each hand on alternating beats, following the metronome. So I'll play the left hand note on the first beat, the right hand note on the second beat, the left hand note on the third, and so on. It actually ends up sounding a little like boogie-woogie, but that's about as fancy as I can get at my skill level. I also play banjo and ukulele, and play these same exercises on them, again as a warm up before diving into my daily practice. I find it works very well. So I don't follow this book expecting to become a virtuoso, but I think it does some good as an exercise. Incidentally, I was given my piano (a 100 year old Sohmer) by a neighbor who was moving and didn't want to take it along (it's a very big upright) and said if I was willing to move it myself, I could have it, and a very old copy of the Hanon book was in the piano bench, which is how I started on this. That was over 20 years ago.
Great story , a bit similar to mine .
As a new pianist, it is interesting to see a real critique of Hanon. Others state, "Use Hanon because I said so". Or "Use Hanon because I've been using it with my students." (Your students don't have the guts to say you are a terrible teacher :D )
You get the same thing doing spider walks and arpeggiation on guitar. They are mindless and not fun to do when you get into the zone. To an extent, it develops some muscle memory, but I find this stuff to be better warm up routines.
Thank you for this video!
I disagree with couple of things:
- this is mindless if you choose to not pay attention of what you are doing, so it's up to you and not Hanon fault
- "both hand play same keys" well its wrong, some exercices right at the beginning use different fingers. It shows that you didn't spend so much time going through this book
- When I started piano despicte the fact that I was working out. I could not play more than 5min without having my muscles sour. Hanon help me imcreased my endurance so saying we all have the strength to play piano right off the bat is wrong again.
- Hanon is not inherently mindless, but it's extremely repetitive and uninteresting to play, so it houses the potential to FACILITATE mindless practice.
- Different fingers does not equal different keys.
- How can you be sure that your perceived "increased endurance" was from muscular development and not from having more experience and being more relaxed at the piano?
I agree. It's not mindless for sure. My teacher had be use that book for years. They are not always the same keys either.
The section on scales and arpeggios is useful at least
What about Czerny exercises?
Putting Hanon’s exercices on trial 150 years after they were published, is simply ignoring that 3 generations of great pianists - from William Kempff, Clara Haskil, Rudolf Serkin and Martha Argerich, to Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Murray Perrahia and even Yundi Li - were most probably all raised to these exercises, at times when no RUclips was there to question their author.
So yes, they’re great to warm up, but not only. And yes, they’re boring; but learning to read ABC has got to be so boring before one can read Faulkner, Shakespear or the Bible.
To finish on the pros side, the idea of taking Hanons on different keys is great. It may definitely bring an added value to the original. For this, thanks.
thanks for your honesty and for the great advice you give, it helps me a lot, I want to develop but I don't know what to practice exercises with but I think I will use czerny and perform feetas you say apart from exercising I will also learn good music.
Don't knock a 120 year old book especially with proper English! you can see the English language written in it Hannon is doing something right if it's been in circulation since 1900. Btw flat and sharps at the end
Hanon is very good in the beginning stages and even after but I wouldn't recommend it as an every-day exercise once the medium grades are passed.
Do you not think that repetition is like a mantra , clearing the mind so your fingers are just connected to the instrument without thought . Strengthening physically and mentally your command of an instrument. What's wrong with that ? By the way I'm not a spiritualist just a guy trying to learn piano .
Hanon is not a mantra I would want to repeat to myself! As I stated it can be helpful as a warmup if done the right way, but it won’t do much in the way of BUILDING technique. The muscles already have what they need to play piano, so that argument doesn’t really hold up. Exercises can be cool, but you have to be careful with them otherwise they could subconsciously inform your musicality. In the case of Hanon it could inadvertently create bad musical habits, playing mechanically without emotion.
So what would you say is mindless about it?
There's nothing inherently mindless about Hanon, I just feel the way it's laid out, the way the exercises work, the instructions they give you in the book all facilitate mindless practice. It's possible (while not necessary) to play Hanon correctly without being musically engaged in any way, and that's where the practice gets robotic, mechanical, maybe even mindless.
Ryan Slatko Oh I see. So what do you mean when you say mindless? Like meaningless or unhelpful?
@@Hajjmusic_ I just think there's a danger in practicing Hanon or other repetitive exercises too much, where you become musically disengaged (because you're playing something so mechanical and repetitive) and then you're practicing in a musically-disengaged way, and then you can unintentionally take that disconnected mindset onto the bandstand. Exercises can be helpful, but you have to balance them out with playing actual music, or just find a more musical, mentally-engaging way to approach those exercises.
Ryan Slatko I see so what would you recommend instead? Sorry for asking so many questions!
@@Hajjmusic_ No problem! I'm not necessarily saying "Don't practice Hanon," it's just if you're going to do it, do it for a reason. Hanon claims to be the end-all of piano technique, claiming that if you practice these exercises you'll become a virtuoso. That's just not true! Like I mentioned in the video, you can do things like play them in different keys or rhythms, to make brain games out of the exercises, instead of it being this boring monotonous drill. That being said, I think scales and arpeggios are great for developing technique, or if you want something a little more musical, check out Bach's Two-Part Inventions or some easy Czerny Etudes. This will depend on where you are, of course. I am currently offering Skype lessons if you are interested!
Couple of comments if you don’t mind - we didn’t really need to hear you read the whole of the introduction or play loads of examples. Analysis on the benefits is what people will be here for.
TehWinnerz Agreed.
@@RyanSlatkoMusic On the contrary, I think you were quite right to read out the preface and play the examples. Some of the people watching this video could be strangers to Hanon - maybe they started piano without a teacher - so that showing what Hanon actually wrote and thought he was doing is a good idea & will help them decide whether they want to buy or download his book or not.
I’m glad he read it! I wasn’t gonna read it!!🤣 Thanks!
Hmm, I thought some parts need to be played without knowing it
Anything done without concentration, intelligence, variety and musicality is time-wasted,and a great detriment to the enthusiasm necessary for succeeding at the piano( or on any other instrument or voice.) , The “ magic” in Hanon, Czerny, et al , is in variety and imagination applied. ( rhythmic variants, touch, dynamics…Rotary movements, both sideways and up and down in both wrists and forearm is important and a generally light arm, as well as
loose fingers (except for firm fingertips) must be maintained.
In short-a good teacher and constant vigilance and intelligent enthusiasm will provide a safe journey through Hanon, Czerny OR for that matter any ETUDE-type work!
Moderation is the key to lasting progress. I am sure you will agree.Teachers must be trained learning how to teach and how help students develop potential! Most “pedagogy” courses are more about what “method books” to use, rather than showing the student how to really teach, IMHO!
I built so much finger strength from using this book. I played for half a decade. Great book. Not relaxing while I played was the bane of my existence. It was what kept me from getting better. I still have trouble with being stiff, but not as much.
but it's written as a remark, that it's better for advanced players to play in different keys, hanon WROTE THAT
Ugh, the fingering will change dramatically, it's bad enough in C lol
@@chester6343 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA I WAS TRYING IT in D major and many times I reached the Frist finger on black notes, it's so annoying so i kept doing on C major, I'm practicing on chopin révolutionnay étude and I'm having troubles with the left hand, so i though maybe it can help me to be fluend
Your background is Hanon. But it is so musical!
Hope we leave a legacy ...150 years from now . Someone’s talking about our music ...that would be awesome.
See Gold and Fitzdale's "Hanon Revisited" and by all means transpose some of the Hanon into other keys. NEVER more than 20 minutes a day. Then get on with music.
i am from chhattisgarh(india) sir i love hannon music
Thanks for bring me motivation with it boring methody. Now i discover plasure in it
😍
Question: Is Hamon useful?
Answer: Yes
Start your day with the affirmation, "Mediocrity on this instrument is no longer acceptable"
thanks for sharing
Thank you for watching!
Hanon is amazing. You’ll immediate discover finger-muscles you didn’t know were there. The later Hanon exercises, when we’ll played, are quite beautiful. If I ever get Alzheimer’s, I expect Hanon will be among the last things I can recall - having played them innumerable times.
You can’t really take any RUclips comments seriously...anyone who wants to play the piano should at least play these scales...I think 20-30minutes 3-4 days a week is good enough...what it simply does is to make all your fingers play...but if you just play your favorite musics your 4&5th finger are hardly use....most of us just play for self-fulfillment anyways
Why was it necessary to put eye-rolls and snide comments on the preface?
I thought so. Its brain food but it gets to be old news fast! Once THE SPEED KICKS IN THEN WHAT ? My mind turns towards incorperating the exersizes into chord progressions as melodies. I love my piano brain. lol.. Great video !
Yes brainfood it is. I try to use Hanon inside Canon in D. You play the whole book?
I like the mozart reference in the book , lol
Played for a less than an month. Was about to order this book - now I won't. Thanks!
8:31 what is rep
I agree with your assessment of Hannon. The transposition of his exercises was fairly common practice in the Russian School. As far as being mindless I agree they can be. It takes focus to play these exercises meaningfully as well as developing technique using them. In many ways I have not used them as Hannon intended. Part 2 starting with the scales and after are the most useful and I feel Part 3 is to me the most dangerous. I am a huge fan of J.Gats book ‘The Technique of Piano Playing.’ The idea of developing ones own exercises is a great one and I tend to focus on categories of examples in Gat’s book to expand technique to the fullest range possible. Thank you for your views on Hannon. Pianists need to understand that Hannon is a starting place that should be soon left. And perhaps not even that. Devoting time understanding J. Gat’s book has paid off for me far more than any Hannon exercises could possibly bring.
This has been refreshing to hear. I have just placed an order for Antologia Didattica Cat. B Vol. 2 F. Rossomandi to focus on hand independence.....and all thanks to you. I might progress faster if I could ever learn to practice and play slower.
Another fascinating take on Hanon - not at all contradicting this video - is Heart of the Keys ruclips.net/video/CDMDPxLzbxs/видео.html ; RUclips sent me here from there. Plus she is impossibly beautiful...
No only is she beautiful, but so very, very skilled, patient, and able to convey sorta difficult things in a very simple fashion. :)
Yeah, she's so beautyful and talented. And with a good communicative mood.
4:25 Actually that's exactly how it works. When you use muscles, they grow. Pretty complex huh?
So is learning piano nothing more than building muscles? Are all bodybuilders virtuosos?
@@RyanSlatkoMusic if they’ve mastered the form and technique of their art, then yes.
I mean your fingers don't even have muscles to begin with
@@chrisy367 oh man you nailed it lol
Your fingers have small muscles but they also contain collagen and bone which will grow after repeated use. Making the fingers and hand heavier and broader. But this takes years and probably is most noticeable in kids that are growing.
it’s true! I know…
"Bro, do you even Hanon?"
Tchaikovsky: No, I cannon
Hanlon for President.
Perhaps Hanon expects devoted pianists to make some of these critiques and expand on the exercises in this way after using the 60 exercises as an entry point 👀😂
hanon is very good.
I was doing the same exercises before knowing it was hanon. When you are smart you do not need mentors I guess.
My I suggest you keep your left elbow out a little from your body and move your wrists in a circular motion.
Very informative, I never thought about Hanon like that.
I tend to stick HANON into music.
Hi , I don’t play the entire book but I do 1 through 7 . It brought me into some cool mindless improvs. I can’t help to Go into some Mirrior Hannon zones ... Usually two octaves a part would... sounds amazing . When I accomplish some technical exercises the Challenge of learning the exercise is over... then it’s a tool that I break up . Stick them in some cool chord progression traids . Two handed Rhythms /Broken Hannon . It’s helped me . The best thing I found being a new student is don’t take them very serious but incorporate them daily. It’s fun After you accomplish them.
So 19th Century. So French. So 19th Century French.
There are no muscles in the fingers. I have interviewed five hand surgeons and they state you can't build finger strength. Hanon states the exercises will make the 4th and 5th fingers as strong as the others. Really?! You use different techniques in playing the piano, e.g., shifting, thrusting, rotating, etc. I have been teaching for 50 years and my students play Chopin Etudes and other difficult pieces. Never played Hanon.
Hanon can be great. Just ignore the Elitists. They manage to make everything as boring as the music they play.
Really? I totally disagree. Both hands and fingers were not born with the right strength to hit the keys with extreme precision. Anyway, I don't understand why a simple exercise book should be undermine publicly. What about those young learners who dedicate time to execute those exercises?. Don't they deserve to know they are improving?
Precision and strength are not the same thing. And I think everybody deserves to know that while you might master an exercise, it doesn't guarantee you improvement in any skills beyond the scope of the exercise. There's nothing wrong with exercises, I just think if that's what you're looking for, you can do a lot better than Hanon, even at a beginner level.
Just one comment: Your fingers don't have muscles!
A good teacher would have rapped you across your knuckles smartly with a heavy ruler. Hanon is essential. Brahms exercises much tougher. Alas, nowadays musical conservatories crank out cookie cutter pianists who are boring automatons.
A good teacher doesn't need violence to teach piano. 🙃
@@RyanSlatkoMusic Ha! I assumed my comment was so outrageous that any reader would recognize that it was a joke.
Nice point of view on Hanon and BTW, most people only do the first exercise and quit after that. People often mistake Hanon just for dexterity exercises when actually these exercises can help in developing good sight reading and fingerings. Most of the exercises after No.5 somehow appear Bach's works in fragments. Every word that you have spoken is absolutely true and I too thought the same but I still believe that Hanon is essential in discovering keyboard anthology and technique and for sight reading and basic fingerings. His many last exercises are one of the best for trills, octaves and scales etc. It's like the kindergarten course. Czerny, I. Phillip and Brahms are better for developing advanced techniques and one should always play etudes and real music for developing excellent musical skills.
Hanon does in no way develop sight reading skills. Sight reading refers to music that we have not seen previously and playing it as accurately as possible.
@@carnivalcruiserbill How did you learn to drive a car? You just sat in one and drove off ? How did you learn English, perhaps just brought Shakespeare and started reading? Sight reading requires training and learning in reading notes on staffs and ledger lines and their performance on musical instruments. Then, the brain learns it like any other script of a language and keeps getting better with practice. Single line musical notation is difficult to read even for advanced players at high speeds irrespective of the knowledge of scales or music theory. Blocked notes or chords are easier to read as they form a group and are easier to identify. Hanon exercises build sight reading skills of reading different clefs with same and different notes in horizontal manners which one needs to play maximum Western classical or any music apart from hymns. Bach becomes so easy to play if the student has practiced the beginning exercises of Hanon. Hanon scales and trills further strengthen both muscle memory and sight reading. Lastly, I know what sight reading is as I am an organist and a pianist who has played music of all sorts for more than 2 decades. 🙂