Hi, this is a question on behave of my daughter.... She's had lessons for a year and half, recently her teacher introduced her to Hanon starting with exercise no. 1 in all major keys she knows - C, D, E, F, G, C#, F#, Bb. My daughter complains how difficult this assignment is. Of course, it is trivial in the key of C Major. G and D major are manageable. But she finds other keys very difficult because it requires the frequent use of fingers 1 and 5 on black keys and playing white keys in the gaps. As a result it is impossible to keep up with the recommended metronome for the exercise. Any advise on how to overcome this?

Slow it down and gradually work towards the recommended metronome speed. With Hanon the key (imho) is to play it as slowly as you need in order to perform the exercises with ease whilst staying relaxed. In fact, I think that goes for learning most things with the Piano

Disclaimer: I'm not a teacher.

I am really curious about this. There are so many wonderful etudes about, what, if anything, do teachers find beneficial in slaving over Hanon?

I am also curious about the "she's had lessons for 1 1/2 years" comment. Is she really ready for Hanon?

Two things to try - when dealing with black keys, encourage her to play with a higher wrist and move towards the fallboard so that her fingers are playing very near or even between the black keys.

And to John - some students like the systematic exploration that Hanon offers. For students whose learning style prefers this approach, I find it works very well. That being said, Hanon is definitely not a "one-size-fits-all" regimen. I also only use the first part (#1-20).

The other thing I like about Hanon is that it provides a lot of "teachable moments." I don't actually have students buy the book. I write down the beginning of the pattern and have them figure out how the rest goes. It's a great exercise in understanding patterns, intervals and contour.

I've dabbled with Hanon a few times over the years, but I only ever stick to his original book which focuses all the dexterity exercises in the key of C. I did see an edition once (Peter's, I think?) which had each one transposed to all keys, and it chilled me to the bone. Why on earth would anyone want to do that? Hanon himself obviously didn't deem it to be necessary.

I have also met exceptionally able pianists who don't believe in practising exercises at all, and insist that any technical challenge can be met by practising it in the musical context to which it belongs.

On another note, I would be wary of overdoing this kind of exercise with such a novice student - playing this kind of thing in the 'black' keys requires considerably more finger strength than it does in C major, and there may be a risk of inducing RSI if a a student is not adequately prepared for it.

I often use Hanon #1 at the second lesson, to start building finger independence, and to begin the ability to move about the keyboard.

New students are still in the honeymoon period, and if I can get them to work on their technique from the start, they have a much better chance of succeeding.

The first or second lesson is much too early for most students to study etudes, which I do use later on.

But for Hanon, only in C!, and only for, as Kreisler explained, those who take to it. Those who do almost always quickly gain a beautiful hand position, and no more flying fingers.

I agree about using C only...however, if you want to do more than one key, #1 and #21 are really the best candidates. The others quickly become finger twisters.

Thanks for the comments. I'll ask her to go slow and not worry about doing every key. There are too many. It may be sufficient to do only D and F# major. I suppose it gets to be the same after a while like A# and F# Majors are more or less the same in terms of the intent of the exercise.

As for John's comment - I just do what the teacher prescribes. I don't try to second guess what is appropriate for my daughter's at 1.5 years of lessons because we switch to this new teacher recently, and he keeps telling me the previous teacher had severely held her back. From the no technical work of the previous teacher, now this teacher has given her a huge amount of technical stuff to do consuming 50% or more of her practice time. However, he managed to move her from Preparatory level in Celebration Series Perspectives to Level 2 in a few months, and taught her a few easier pieces from Level 3 of Celebration, all of which she performed well, so I have to just believe the teacher knows what he's doing.

Still, playing in all different keys seems a bit much.... thus the question.

Ok, that makes sense, since she's playing only no. 1. The children's teacher is big on asking them to play in several different key. When my daughter finish an Etude in C, he would ask her to play it again in A or D, etc.

I must admit that while I only have my students play Hanon in C, I spent a fair amount of time in undergrad doing Hanon in C, Db, and B.

OK, why? Just torturing yourself?

I have never bothered to do them in other keys. It just seemed like the payoff wasn't worth the effort, given all the other exercises one can do that actually prepare you for real passages in music.

I'm also curious about hanon, aren't there 3 separate books?

My teacher has me doing the same, Ex. #1 in all known keys.

Its not too bad. If you try to play the other keys at the same tempo you can play C in then yes it would be very hard. but I dont push myself like that I play the other keys slow enough to get the right notes with the right technique.

I mean THAT is what the exercise is trying to teach. Speed in my opinion is secondary, while important. Speed shouldnt be the first focus.

I like Hannon because of its mindless repeatativeness makes it easy to focus more on techniques versus melodies and complex musicalities.

I find Hanon useful to teach students rudimentary gestures (wrist circles, rotation, etc), but that being said, I only do it in C and I don't use the whole of any exercise and I don't use every exercise. And, like Kreisler, I don't have them buy the book. I merely demonstrate the exercise or I write out a measure of it. I usually have them do it HS as well.

Yeah, I think you could get them that way, but for $7 you can get everything in one volume.

It's good to know at least our teacher is not the only one in the world asking for it in keys other than written. I'm not telling the kids this is non-standard. If they can deal with it, why not. I'm not undermining their teacher. I find I have no desire to play it in anything other than C myself.

Actually, no one should be using speed if they haven't been able to first accurately get past metronome marking mm=44 (extremely slow) with hands together.

Left hands usually have difficulty in keeping up with the right hand so play according to what the left hand is able to do well.

You want time to notice whether your hand shape and finger action is appropropriate to the demands of the exercise or piece. Joints that cave in and fingers that fly all over the place are not part of skillful control while playing. Starting slowly allows you to think before touching the key and to check back on the results before moving on to the next note.

What a thought! There might be a required technique to Hanon or to any other exercise. There might be prerequisites to have studied something else first before this one. What is the exercises purpose? How do you evaluate whether you have achieved it's purpose? How do your improve upon getting good results?

Exercises are done for shaping the hands, strengthening, fluency and finally, when asked for in the tempo markings of the composers of such technique, velocity.

No one is expected to play fast just to be playing fast. And playing fast does not gain you control through thinking and planning. Avoiding injury to one's self is a huge part of why a pianist at any level would want to proceed with a thinking and observing mind to control any physical action on the piano keyboard.

To the OP about his daughter, look for needless tension in the shoulders, arms, wrists and hands when playing piano. Tension is the root of all evil when it comes to physical problems and it relates to harsh and strident playing. Tension held in the hands by doing an exercise like Hanon 1 in all keys is going to hurt bigtime. Touch her body and check for tension in these areas and look at her shoulders. If they are elevated up around her ears you need stop this exercise and speak with the teacher. Slow it way down, remove the tention, and she will be able to keep a steady beat with the exercise without pounding.

Hanon is available online for free. If someone is interested I'll check my computer for links and post later.

I only use selected Hanon at different levels for my students and I see Hanon as very helpful for certain things. One objective not often thought about is the trained expansion of the hand to a 6th and creating a strong frame of the one and five fingers of each hand. Another thing is the supervision of playing to the LH's capacity to set the tempo. Learning to play in unison with parallel motion is a good thing too. I think it's absolutely necessary before we try to teach interactive hand coordination. Having both hands equal in strength and agility is a good thing. Hanon is one who produces that.

Thanks Betty for the clarification and thoughts.... much appreciated. I'll watch my daughter carefully when she practices and apply what suggest.

I think the reason my teacher gave me when I asked was that it was to build upon the principles of diatonics.