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Hey, I'm just wondering what you all think about this. Do you think you can become a good pianist by learning every piece from Czerny's books? (I already have good technique and play piano properly) I personally think learning these 4 books could could expand your playing ability's a lot? I'm just looking for an opinion from more experienced people. Ty =)

OP.849
OP.299
OP.636
OP.740

Why isn't Op. 365 on the list?

The best thing if you want to become a good pianist is to get a good teacher.

Czerny exercises are extremely good for teaching you how to play Czerny exercises! If you enjoy Czerny and want to play those works well, you are on the right track!

enjoy!

Forrest

Well I'm looking for something what will expand my skills a lot (to play Chopin and Liszt etudes) do you recommend any good books?

I'm hoping in 6 years of practice I can get onto a pretty good advanced level. What would you recommend? do you think Czerny is a good road to take? Cause if it only helps to play more Czerny like you're saying then I don't think thats a good thing...

What would you guys do with 6 years of hard practice?

Czerny was a pupil and deeply devoted disciple of the mighty Beethoven. Czerny's exercises were primarily designed to provide an array of technical configurations
that would prepare the student to master the technical challenges encountered in Beethoven's compositions - sonatas, bagatelles, variations, and concerti. To that end, generations of pianists have sworn to their effectiveness.

Many of Czerny's exercises give the hands a vigorous workout with articulation directed to finger independence and strength. They will do you no harm provided you do not overdo it in any given practice session. But their value is limited.

As you address the matter, it appears you hope that Czerny's meat-grinders will deliver you to the promised land of technique, and they will indeed give you some traction, but they only get you just so far down the road. Subsequent eras of music require different uses of the hand-arm mechanism that Czerny could not address.

Chopin (who new the older Czerny) did not use the Czerny exercises with his pupils because he did not think they assisted his students in preparation for his works, and he found Czerny's output uninteresting, but he did assign Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum, Op.44 which are technically more conducive to approaching Chopin's etudes and other compositions.

Mastering Czerny's exercises will not inform you how to shape phrases, shape hand positions, or myriads of pedal technique in the music of, say, Claude Debussy. Nor will they inform you how to give the illusion of a soaring cantabile singing tone in a Liszt Consolation. Those issues go beyond digital dexterity alone.

It would be to your advantage to read several books by pianists about piano music and technique to get a broader view of the matter. Of course, if you could take lessons with a highly skilled pianist who is also a highly skilled teacher (not always a common combo), that would help guide the matter forward.

Thanks for the reply dude. So I'm guessing the most effective way will be to learn from multiple study books?

Czerny
Burgmuller
Clementi
Brahms
Hanon
Etc?

I guess I'll just learn every etude in op.849 by Czerny then see if it benefits me. If it does I'll carry on with them until I feel like it's not necessary anymore and change to a different book.

Ty

The exercises should serve the purpose of enabling the pianist to play music more securely. I do not know of any serious pianist who puts exercises on a higher level than the music itself. I would encourage a broad exploration of various period of music (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, contemporary, etc) and have exercises complimentary to that music.

Let's say you have 90 minutes to practice each day. I would not make more than 30 of those minutes dedicated to exercises. Time is precious, and as the saying goes, "Life is not a dress rehearsal."

I like Hanon. It's a controversial topic.

You do need to play music though, not just exercises. Find a song that contains the technique (or skill) you want to learn, and practice that song.

That is interesting. It really is.

Rachmaninoff wrote that at the Moscow Conservatory (as it was then) all piano students were required to work through all the Hanon exercises in all keys, major and minor - a rigorous but possible labor. I have never done that with full force - only partially. All keys, but only for the sense of key-orientation and interval relationships (that sounds so bureaucratic!) but not to build technique, per se.

Hanon is pure mechanics, unlike Clementi who has a marvelous sense of harmonic invention. Yet, those Hanon's exercises are not without value. Many are redundant (so it seems to me) so I only take a few and work them through in various keys, but my attention directs me to other matters rather quickly. I have wondered about this. Pianists like Earl Wild despised Hanon, but then there is Mr. Rachmaninoff…and I am astounded at his technique (that is a major examination in its own right).

Godowsky and Horowitz made up their own exercises to meet their own deficiencies (so they said). I am not firmly resolved about Mr. Hanon.

I've gone through both extremes. First I worked hard at Hanon, thinking, "this is how to make my fingers strong!"

Then I realized I don't need to strengthen my fingers, and that difficult technical passages can be learned by watching your fingers move, and using the shortest path to the next note. At that point, I hated Hanon, and thought it was worse than useless.

Then one day, as I was playing fast passages from a piece, I thought, "there are so many of these types of passages, if only someone had collected them together so I could learn them all quickly and get it over with!" Then it dawned on me that Hanon is exactly that. I started playing Hanon again: not trying to make my fingers stronger, but rather to learn how to move my fingers.

And it was absolutely helpful.

Then you hardly need to spend time on studying through all the Czerny exercises...? That time could be spent in learning repertoire. Or do you think you would play those exercises for your own or someone elses enjoyment?

Why not just pick specific etudes/exercises to work on things you find difficult or feel you need to improve? You could even make up your own exercises for the challenges that you face in your repertoire...

Do you have a teacher? If there's no-one to assess HOW you do it, it's likely that you would not necessarily become better by "learning" those exercises.