Chang isn't the only one who disagrees with the majority.
http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=16273.msg181768#msg181768

Also do a search on PianoStreet's student forum for "hanon" and user name bernhard. You'll find a lot of fascinating material.

When I first began to study the piano, eons ago, my teacher put me on a regime of Hanon. I know that some regard them highly, but, I honestly did not feel they helped me at all,and they were deadly dull.
Several years later, another teacher (the one really good one I had), gave me Beethoven's C minor variations, and told me that learning all those variations, would give me much of the technique I needed, and would be great for strengthening my fingers.
We would work on one at a time, and when it was learned, moved on to the next variation. I loved them, and enjoyed playing them---difficult as some of them are. To this day, I still play through them regularly, and they are great for loosening up my fingers.

Whereas I dreaded my sessions with Hanon, I looked forward with eagerness to my next Beethoven Variation. Proving that it is important that one enjoy what one is playing--be it a beautiful piece, or a technical exercise. Gaby Tu

Bernhard's post was interesting. I knew that bit about the tendons on the 3rd and 4th finger but hadn't really thought much about it. Bernhard's exercise of fingers on the table was interesting and revealing. I hadn't realized just how different that coupled-tendon thing makes the 4th. I could lift it slightly doing as he suggested, but only slightly. Makes me wonder if the 4th is actually the weakest finger and something to be mindful about while we're elsewhere thinking about the opposite--thumb or pinky for most important. Of course no one plays with the 3rd turned under like that and the 4th has a great deal more mobility when the 3rd is not turned under. But even without turning the 3rd under, I *do* notice that my 4th is the hardest to lift and control compared to the others.

I did not like Hanon when I started 3 years ago so I did not work with it for long but I kind of like it now. I have gone through the book once doing one exercise a day and I am now going through it again with a metronome. I spend 15-20 minutes using it as a warm up. I think it helps. It not only helps me build strength in my left hand but it helps my brain understand tonal relationships. Using the metronome makes it fun as I push myself and this has helped me build velocity. I don't see myself doing Hanon forever but I like it now. I also like Czerny (599 is a good start).

HATE is not too strong of a word.

Kathleen

I agree with Monica - life is too short for Hanon. Seriously though, if I had more time I would think some technical exercises, in moderation would be of great benefit.

Given my life and time (I'm lucky to get 30 minutes on the piano every day and 1 hour is usually the tops), I don't place priority on techical exercises.

There is a very old book called "Playing Piano for Pleasure" by Charles Cook. He is (or was) an apparently accomplished amateur. His recomended ratio for seeing "vast improvement" was

1) absolute committment to 1 hour a day
2) within that hour - 10 minues technical work, 10 minutes site reading and 40 minutes actual pieces.
3) In addition to the 10 minutes of hanon, czerny, scales or whatever - make technical exercises out of the tricky parts of the pieces.

"All things in moderation." -Socrates

("I drank WHAT??" -Socrates)

That sounds like " Everyone who died ate bread; therefore bread is harmful " to me. :p

OMG - I eat bread......

I was given the Hanon to play my second year, and i was close enough to quitting, three years ago, i took another look at the much dreaded book and noticed it brought the needed strength and clarity to my playing.Yes the exercices are boring, but i don't think i would have gone too far without it, if you're looking for sthg a bit more entertaining you can try Czerny, excellenct techniques and nice melodies.Nonetheless, i still think that mechanical exercices are necessary

For those of you who haven't read the "Let's ask David Nevue a bunch of questions" thread, I asked him in that thread whether he played Hanon or scales or other exercises. His reply was that he did not, although he knew they were valuable, and he mentioned Hanon in particular as being good for building up strength.

So, if I can jump on the logical fallacy bandwagon here,

**David Nevue doesn't play scales or Hanon.

**Therefore, if I don't play scales or Hanon, I will sound as good as David Nevue.

Works for me.

Dude.... You are soooo hosed...

I love Hanon. It was invaluable for learning fingerings, key signatures, concepts of relative, natural, harmonic, and melodic minor, and scale and arpeggio technique. I also found the non-scale and arpeggio exercises useful. I used to play through the entire book daily and just about wore the book out. It gives you technique aside from pieces that helps you automatically find appropriate fingerings when reading, as well as teaching fingering principles which is useful when working out fingerings. The raw technique that it gives is helpful for anticipating elements in sight-read music, and for improvising as well. Of course anything can be done in a detrimental way, so practice wisely. Be patient and listen to your body.

Perhaps some students give up on Hanon before getting to the section on scales and arpeggios.? If that's the case, they are playing the opening exercises out of context and failing to realise the value of Hanon.

I have been happy with my work in Hanon. I spend about 20-30 minutes of my 2 hours a day working on exercises (some from the first 20 some from the other 40). My teacher tends to assign them in groups as they pertain to pieces, so right now I'm working 50 & 54 to get the coordination of the thirds down. I will tend to play 1-14, 17, and 19 daily as either a warmup or at the end of a practice session.

Do I think that if you can play the book you can play every piece out there? No. But as an extension of the pieces being worked on to learn technique, I like them. Will I play them forever? Probably not. I'll probably have them replaced by reportoire as I go along.

It's just one more learning tool to use. If you hate them, move on. For me, it's a concentrated exercise to get a point down quickly.

The bottom line is you do what works. Chang in his book has a deep aversion to Hanon and other exercised, and he's too didactic about it.

His book as some good take aways, but it's not a book on technique. It's a book primarily on how to practice. I don't agree with much of what he says about Hanon. Sure you can acquire a lot of technique through rep., but you can improve a lot through Hanon, Czerny, etc. provided you practise them the right way.

It's never what you do. It's how you do it.

I'd rather do Hanon than to sit there and run through scales and arpeggios over and over and over. If I really had my preference, I'd wake up tomorrow and magically be able to play better than Jelly-Roll Morton. Oh well...

Oh, I agree that Hanon is perfectly pleasant and even fun to practice. It's just that spending a lot of time on it once you are past the beginning stages doesn't seem worthwhile.

There is some benefit to getting the feel of moving your fingers up and down the keys at different speeds without thinking too hard about it, listening to your tone, learning some basic finger patterns, and so on. But one would be misguided in thinking that mastering these exercises will do everything that Hanon says it will do in his introduction.

Yeah.... I play around with Hanon, but I haven't really gotten into that particular taste of Kool-Aid. LOL

Hey LudwigLives, I'm also starting piano again after not playing for years.

Whether Hanon will help you or not depends on your learning style and if you play it properly (so as not to injure yourself & get the most out of the exercises). Try the exercises & find out if they help you. It's best to have a teacher show you how to do them so that you don't hurt yourself.

I find Hanon very very boring, which is kindda funny because I like doing scales & arpeggios. No matter how many ways I try to practice Hanon, my attention span always goes out the window, so the exercises are not very useful to me. My teacher teaches me technique by working through pieces I'd actually want to play in public . He makes small exercises out of the tricky parts. I use very easy beginner pieces to practice relaxation/sight reading/finger control.

I'm not opposed to doing Hanon ever again. I haven't completely given up on it.

Ah, the Hanon question again, I suppose because there is no universal answer and a lot of varying opinion....... My piano teacher won't even give me a straight up answer. He often answers my question with an antedote. Overall I think he is of the opinion that it works but it isn't essential like scale excercises.

My opinion is that I would look carefully at the excercises that you might find beneficial especially those focusing on the 4th and 5th finger. Excercises focusing on the 4th and 5th DO increase strength but the idea of going through all the Hanon exercises on a regular basis to benefit musically, I think not, perfect practice is more efficient and beneficial, me thinks.

On the other hand "First do no Harm" also from Socrates, Hanon certainly won't, if you have the time.

I've noticed a recurring notion in this thread about strengthening the fingers and I thought I'd toss in my .02 worth.

Be careful about how you think about strengthening the fingers. First off, one doesn't need brute force to play the piano. Secondly, and more importantly, remember that the muscles used to curl the fingers and move them up and down are in the forearm. If you're not aware of this you may unwittingly put pressure on your wrist when trying to strengthen your fingers.

It would be better to work at decreasing excess tension and holding-on in your hands and wrist so that you can get a greater and more effecient transfer of energy flowing into and through your wrist and fingers. You need supplety for this transfer.

Otherwise you might "cut-off" at the wrist and that can create lots of unhealthy stress.

Re, Hanon. I'm neither for nor against him. As a few have already mentioned, it's how you do the exercises.

Excellent post Bernard! It bothers me when I see folks mention "building finger strength" as well. Far too frequently, all they accomplish is an increase in tension and they have muscles fighting other muscles.

I think that if you can hold a gallon of milk with your fingers, you have all the "finger strength" you need to play the piano. Much better to focus on relaxation, proper hand position and proper use of arm weight/position, and wrist action.

My 1 cent, (because that is probably all it is worth).

You couldn't pay me to do Hannon. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and others could probably play the piano ok...and THEY didn't practice Hannon, so why should I?

Ok, that is a joke (albiet a bad one).

For me, I have so little time in life, I can't "waste" (forgive me) it on Hannon. If I want to play a sweeping arpeggio or a breath taking scale, then I practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice the part in the piece I am playing until I am happy. Scales in a Nocturne, Etude, etc. are rarely true scales as they all end or begin a little differently so why bother? Life is too short--especially for us "Adult Beginners." I want to play Fantasy Impromptu, Revolutionary Etude, Moonlight Sonata (3rd Movement) and so many others I will die before I reach the end of the list (but WHAT a way to die!) I don't want to die playing Hannon. If I did play Hannon, I just might. There is just too much cool music out there! "Strengthen" your fingers on the pieces you want to play.

David

My take on Hanon is that it's good for limbering up the fingers. It won't teach me music theory or turn me into a virtuoso (despite its title, lol) but I look at like doing jumping jacks, sit-ups and push-ups before engaging in sport . After I run through an exercise a couple of times, it gets put away and my other material gets played.

David, I agree with you!! So much music, so little time!

I agree. I limber up with Bach's prelude in C major every session. Play it a couple of times, if necessary.

I would rather spend all that time on the difficult portion of the piece I'm working than playing some abstract exercises that I MIGHT find useful in the future.

Ditto...so little time, so much music.

Kathleen

I have never done any such exercises at the piano in my life. The only thing I have done is a few minutes on my silent practice clavier on no more than about five ounces. Even then I invent my own movements according to my improvisational needs. In other words I have developed my physical technique to suit my own creative purpose. The sort of piano sounds I enjoy are light years away from all that old-fashioned stuff and its associated homogeneous patterns.

Therefore I vote against these things, for logical but rather exceptional reasons. On the other hand, they may be just the job for some people because their musical objectives are quite different to mine. So I think the answer depends on the personal rather than the general.

I have advanced so much with my current teacher in the last year, and this is without a single Hanon or Czerny exercise. In fact, she told me to put those books away.

She shows me that weakness/inability to play certain passages is overcome by technique, not muscle-building. If I find a passage where the 4th and/or 5th fingers seem "weak" to me, my teacher will show me that it's not weakness, but impromper hand/finger position. Once she shows me the proper way to strike the key, this "weakness" is no longer there.

My teacher has written her own series of Etudes - short melodic pieces meant to target certain skills. My family thinks they are just nice short piano pieces - doesn't realize they are exercises.

My previous teacher assigned me Hanon and my hands would experience pain now and then, with no improvement in my playing.

I enjoy playing Hanon exercises towards the end of a practice session. At this point, my wrists and fingers are already somewhat fatigued, and playing the exercises becomes a bit more challenging. Also, I like to pair exercises and then play them consecutively 4X.... this has really helped my endurance, especially in the left hand. In general, I enjoy playing things when I observe my self getting better at them over time, and Hanon definitely falls into this category. Sometimes an exercise or piece of music is just too hard, and progress becomes stagnant. Hanon exercises also have made me a more confident pianist, as I no longer am horrified of using my 4th and 5th fingers in passage work.