Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Hanon v. Czerny

Does anyone have a strong opinion (good or bad) about either, or a preference of one over another?

Czerny is definitely more enjoyable.

I like them both. A couple of Czerny's I've been working on the past week or so are fun to play, but Hanon 21 sounds really, really pretty - I go back & play it all the time.

I have enjoyed them both. Why are you asking? Are you looking for material?

My teacher switched me over from Hanon to Czerny for now. I have a lot of issues with tension in my hands and have to go very slowly, so he was concerned that the longer exercises in Hanon would get too tedious. I feel like I am benefitting from the shorter, more musical exercises in Czerny, and I have complete faith that my teacher is doing what's best for me. When I mentioned this to some friends of mine that also play piano, they felt that Hanon was the far better option and my teacher was doing me a disservice by switching. I'm not concerned with their opinion (like I said, I trust my teacher), but am just curious as to what the community here thinks.

Like you mention, the teacher knows best.

I am working on Hanon and Czerny. Hanon can be a little tedious but my 4 and 5 fingers have definitely improved. With Hanon, my teacher has me working slow and relaxed, no speed and no tension. I am only doing selections of Czerny - from a technique book. But these have been fun and musical. As an added exercise, I switch hands (treble clef with left hand, bass clef with right) and that has been helpful for sight reading and hand independence. You can't go wrong with Czerny.

I see little overlap (well, only in the same way that any one piece of music is going to overlap with something else in some way.)

I work on technique and Czerny studies each week. We've done a lot of different technique - including Hanon, scales, arpeggios, special exercises, whatever. But Czerny, we've stuck with that through Op.139, Op.849 and now Op.299. Definitely not every piece in each book and definitely not up to the rather extreme metronome markings!

I worked with Hanon for a while -- and will return someday -- but I had an Alfred book called Junior Hanon which does fewer octaves and contains the studies that would be of benefit to the less experienced student.

Depends on personal preference and teacher preference.
Why not try both?