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I bought the Hanon 60 exercise book and have been playing some of them. They seem to really help with finger speed and other things. I mentioned this to my teacher, who groaned in reminiscing her years of playing Hanon exercises and hating it (although she does play quite well today, hmmm...). She suggested a book of scales instead (Bastien Scales/Arpeggios/chords or Royal Conservatory scales). I have been playing for 1.5 years.

What are some thoughts of Hanon vs. scales? Thanks in advance/

My teacher wants me to play/practice Scales, Arpeggios, Chords and Czerny etudes for finger exercises. She doesn't like Hanon. And she says for scales, arpeggios, chords, we don't need any books, because they all follow 'the rules', so I can put all my concentration on my fingers and not the music sheets.

No reason why you can't mix the two. The Hanon includes all the scales anyway in Book two. My recommendation is to mix it up a bit. Technical excercises can get boring fast, so find ways that make you think as well as work your fingers at the same time.

This is basically the same situation I went through when I had even less time of piano playing than you. I used to practice hanon and scales, but I found them to be ineffective in comparison to the Etudes of Chopin and Liszt. There are many technical exersizes you can work out from those pieces while still keeping it musical. Knowledge of scales is good, but unless you need them for a test in a conservatore or the like, the etudes are better in the long run. I would recommend you play scales and hanon only until you reach a level where you can work with those aforementioned etudes, this has worked well for me. Good luck!