What is it?
Should I be practicing it?
If so, how much/often?

Thanks!

Hi enfrancais,
the "Hanons" are a collection of 60 finger exercises written/compiled by Charles Louis Hanon in the 19th century.
The English title, I think, is "The Virtuoso Pianist".

They are meant to improve dexterity, accuracy, speed etc., by repeating one formula going upwards and downwards the keyboard. The second section of the compilation focuses on scales, trills, parallel thirds, sixths, octaves etc.

People seem to either love Hanon and dote on these exercises or to hate them - those will probably tell you that these repetitions are boring, mindless and dangerous to your health.
Best is: see for yourself and don't overdo it.

How much/often depends on your liking, how developed your skills are etc. My teacher had me start on the first two exercises and work on them daily. When I had brought them to reasonable speed, I was assigned more. Now I pick five to six different ones every day and play through them which is a good warm-up for me.

When I resumed lessons this past winter, 18 years after last taking a piano class, my teacher immediately put me on a steady diet of Hanon. They are two handed exercises designed to train and strengthen certain finger combinations and build speed.

My teacher skips around volume one quite a bit, and she adds variations, like splitting the rhythms to speed up parts of the thematic fingerings. She pushes me to play them as close to speed as possible (108 bpm is the target speed-but I rarely ever get as far as 90.)

She recommends I spend no more than 10 minutes a day on them. But, that was four weeks ago.

I think they're a big help, and I have noticed a change in coordination already, just in the past 5 or so weeks, though I've only been through about 6 of the 20 in in volume one. Of course, I've been working on other material too.

Hanon is stressed in my piano studio too.

I think I'll call it "Hands On!" instead of Hanon because Hanon doesn't get nearly enough respect as far as I'm concerned, and I hate to see his huge work of technical study minimized.

"Hands On! conveys the idea that one needs to take action with Hanon. It also conveys that something could be improved as an outcome to doing Hanon.

It's only the addition of a "d" and "s". And, it could make all the difference.

Hanon is cheap at 10 times the price!

Do Hanon faithfully and then contribute to PWF with your rating, you are either satisfied or not. I really think people who haven't tried it should not add their 2 cents to discussing it because it's really a personal opinion as to whether one improves or gains from it. How people can make a comment about Hanon without their own experience is beyond me. It happens in Hanon topics all the time.

I'm glad that Hanon is spoken well of here so far!

Betty

I have used Hanon, personally, but I do not use it with my students very often. I only use it when there is something that applies directly to what they're learning in a piece and they need extra practice on a certain technique. Since I teach many beginners, this book really isn't applicable. Also, it depends on the student. I had one student who loved doing scales and technical exercises, so I gave them to her weekly. I have other students who do not care at all for technical exercises, and so I address technique within the repertoire itself. There are those that appear to like technical things and when they are able to read Hanon and play beyond elementary literature I consider it, and then there are those who I know would never do them so it's not worth banging my head against the wall.

the last 2 posts summarize it real well I think.

A good teacher will know which technical exercises will help you achieve your own personal goals, and will understand the value of doing these exercises, so that you can get the most of them.

It's like the other thread on scales. If you just do a technical exercise for the heck of it, but don't do it well, or don't know why you're doing it, you probably won't get much out of it.

I like Jazz. Jazz requires freedom and technique, so I do modified Hanon, in all keys. It is a great tool. Don't go too fast, do it right. Again, a teacher will help you find out what speed is challenging, and what speed is counter-productive.

Bon courage!

Thank you for this suggestion. I just ordered the book. I am starting to think this forum is for advanced beginners as it seems I have a lot to catch up on.

All the best