My teacher has me doing hanon exercise 1 and 6 in c major, g major and f major.

I went to the book yesterday and saw where hanon's exerices have no key signatures although she has me doing them with key signatures.

My frustration at this point is this. I don't see where I'm benefitting from doing them with key signatures, I suck today as badly as I did when I started doing them with key signatures 8 months ago. I feel like I'm wasting my time, it gets no better and just plain irritates me.

Any ideas on this?

Strange. She must believe that you have mastered the exercises as written, and increased the difficulty.

Is there somewhere that depicts the fingering in the other keys? My hanon book is just in C.

No Larry, not that I could see when I looked at the book last night. I also have the hanon book and I didn't see anything in another key.

I think she just thought it would be brilliant to have me do them in other keys, but as I stated I see no improvement and it's pretty awkward especially doing them in reverse motion. grrrrr

Hanon in all keys. Yikes. Loly, this is the kind of exercise that would be extremely beneficial for the people over in the pianist corner who want to be professional musicians. For an Adult Beginner who wants to enjoy playing the piano.... maybe it's not so critical.

I think you need to think carefully about (a) how much you like your current teacher and want to continue with her; (b) what your own personal goals for piano are; and (c) whether you're willing to go to the mat on this issue, up to and including terminating lessons, because I agree with you that the whole duet issue was very strange and awkward. I suspect she will not simply say "okay" cheerfully if you tell her you don't want to be doing Hanon in all keys.

The bottom line is that you are the employer and the content and direction of your piano lessons are ultimately up to you.

All of the Hanon exercises are in C (except for #39 and the other scale exercises). And where the exercises in C can be used for speed and finger agility, the exercises in other keys are not. They are exercises in getting used to the key signatures.

You should have the exercises firmly down in C before moving on to the other keys. Your teacher probably feels you do. I'm working on the first 20 in D and F# major at the moment. It is one thing to say to yourself C and F are sharp in D major. Play exercises 1-20 in D major, and your ear and fingers KNOW you are playing D major.

It is a different kind of work than a straight scale. There are many people who would advocate just playing pieces in D major to get used to the key signature. I do that also.

For your sanity, ask your teacher what they are trying to accomplish by having you do this. Don't assume or take for granted or just plain grow frustrated. Just ask the question. You might be surprised.

I agree Monica, I'm wanting to play for me and others when I'm good enough to and these exercises are just way out of my league.


Can't get finger agility when you're doing them with key signatures and hence my frustration. The only one I'm good at is the c major one.

I did buy a book by robert pace called "finger builders" a while back and it has black key exercises mixed in with white keys that are fun and doable.

I think I'll email her today and let her know how I feel and let her know I'm doing the Robert Pace. Hopefully all will turn out well.

I was doing all the major and minor scales alternating each day. Good for warm ups, but I cut back because I'd rather concentrate on the actual songs.

mark were you doing scales in major and minor or the hanon exercises in major and minor?

I do the scales just fine no problem there.

Just e-mail the teacher, and ask what's the idea behind the particular exercises. Nobody's a mind reader.

I sent her an email.

Just the regular scales...I was doing them fine, but was spending too much time on them

My teacher also has me learning Hannon, but only in C, as written in the book. I feel if I have to do it in different keys, it would be difficult as the fingering may have to change.

My Hanon Urtext edition has fingerings and it also recommends proceding with these chromatically through all major keys. I just tried #1 in D major, it's awkward when the thumb has to play a black key, but it's doable.
I agree with J_McClellan, afterwards you know your signatures.

Well I got my answer not sure what it meant

You didn't really expect her to say "oh, what the heck, it was a silly idea, go ahead and drop them" did you?

Now you just need to decide how far you want to push the issue.

I do see some educational benefit in transposing the Hanon. Is is worth the time and grief? Well, obviously I answered that question for myself since I don't do them. But only you can arrive at your own answer.

J_Mclellan gave the kind of answer you wish your teacher had given.

The problem with your teacher's answer seems (to me) to be

1) s(he) doesn't think it is important to have a reasoned discussion of these things with you, hence the comment about "Overall I have had much success with my students using this approach." This is another way of saying "don't ask why, just do it." If you are a thinking learner as opposed to a follower learner this will be a very frustrating process!

2) s(he) doesn't have a real answer to your question based in theory or reading or research, S(he) just does what s(he) has always done because, dagnabit s(he) has always done it this way.

Either way, this sounds like bad news.


On the other hand, you may find Mc_Clellan's desrciption of the uses of these exercises sufficient for now. I hope these exercises are not taking up too much of your lesson and practice time. I'm a fan of careful use of Hanon, especially when you are building finger control, but they are easily overused.

monica you crack me up. ha hahah

Piano dad I couldn't have said it better. I was thinking the exact same thing.

Well Doucmented? Hmmmm....will have to check the scholarly papers on this.

And another thing.......what else would you do,if you are practicing 60 exercises? I am not sure, but I think my Hanon suggests to do each exercise in order and 4 times perfectly.....WOW!!!!
Here is another opinon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_Whiteside

Hi!
Im a one year beginner whos taking classical lessons but want to eventually become a rock keyboardist. I wonder if you can tell me if its good for me to start with Hanon to make my technicque better? or is it too early?

Thanks

Sorry, double post

Hi pian00b,

As you can see from this thread, Hanon is very controversial. Above all, do not play Hanon to the point of any discomfort or pain. Also, pay attention to your playing while you are doing Hanon exercises.

There is also a Rock version of Hanon available. Here's the link for it on Sheet Music Plus:
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/pages.html...&k=&r=wwws-err5

Sometimes, I'm glad I don't have a teacher. I just play the song, and if I need to learn new technique or endurance, I do it then.

I'm going to have to side with PianoDad on this one.

And with DragonPianoPlayer that Hanon is controversial. I was glad I read all of the discussions on the pros and cons of using it. I find it useful, but it is not an end all of technique practice. My teacher uses it as a starting point of technique, later using exercises to reinforce or patterns of pieces that I'm going through.

I am also one of those students that wants to hear where we are going with these exercises. I won't blindly spend 16 hours a week plugging away at exercises or pieces without knowing why. What is the goal? Why this piece? I wouldn't want to hear it is accepted practice. I want to hear, "I want you to be able to play 'X' and to get there we need the following technique and pieces mastered so you can get there without learning everything from scratch."

Now, if I can only get my teacher to stop giving me lessons and exercises all written in Russian.

I am on the side of those who detest Hanon. Ugh. My very first piano teacher, eons ago, put me on nothing but Hanon. No pieces, Just Hanon and scales. Scales were fun, Hanon was stultifying.

Needless to say, I was bored stiff. My fingers got a lot of exercise. My mind shut down when I was doing them. After several months of this I timidly began to question the teacher as to why only Hanon, and nothing else.

Her reply was that mastery of Hanon would make me an excellent pianist. She said that after a year of Hanon, I could have a piece. That did it. Just the thought of 9 more months of nothing but Hanon was just too dreadful to contemplate. I dropped my lessons, and did not touch the piano for years.

Praise be, my current, wonderful teacher has never mentioned Hanon, to my great relief, and I love and look forward to my lessons. Gaby Tu

a while ago i bought the hanon books, regular and blues and was really excited to begin them, i was so gung ho hanon was going to help me to get where i need to be, but then i sat down and started playing them(boy was i excited till i realized page after page after page it was boring and irritated my ears. since then they have been sitting in my bench only to be moved out of the way to get to some music i do like

on the other hand if my teacher says i want you to play hanon because it will help you with this piece i probably would because i respect her and it ALWAYS turns out that she is right. if she assigns things to me and i dont understand why i will just ask why and accept her reason.

Funburger, Consider yourself lucky that so far your teacher has not recommended Hanon. They are so boring that I would imagine that many students would be turned off from learning to play the piano if they had to devote a big chunk of their practice time to those awful 5 finger exercises.

Might be essential for someone planning on a career in music, but for many of us, they may be entirely unnecessary.

I enjoy scales, and these, when played with different touches,and dynamics strenthen the fingers and are fun to do. Also, a knowledge of them in all keys, major and the different minors, really comes in handy when sight reading.

For technique I like Czerny (don't laugh), the Clementi "Gradus ad Parnassum," Burgmuller (Sp?) Heller, and a number of others which are delightful to play. Some of them are so charming and interesting they make learning the technical aspects a joy, rather than a drudgery. Just my 2 cents worth. Gaby Tu

loly,

I think you are right, perhaps time to find a new teacher. You have to be comfortable that you are taking private lessons directed at your goals, not cookie cutter lessons that your teacher uses for all students.

I changed teachers recently, and am thrilled with my new teacher and progressing much more quickly. Seems like it is time for you to move on.

I'd be curious to hear the average number of teachers we adults go through before finding a fit.

A

The benefit comes from thinking a bit differently about using your thumbs on black keys, some of the different spacings you'll need to deal with, hand position, etc. My teacher also suggested the same thing, but did not make it imperative to do so.. just another thing to try.

I'm still very much a beginner at piano, but I actually do like the Hanon book. I warm up with the first 5 in sequence, fairly slow, anytime I practice. I think the entire book is valuable, helps with dexterity in other areas of playing, but the trick is not to focus long amounts of time on any of it.

I tend to look at guitar practice from the same point of view however (scale practice helps overall playing of songs, etc)

Oh, and hello to the forum.. you seem like a refreshingly friendly bunch

Welcome to the forum, atropos!

If you click on the "important topics" thread at the top of the page, you'll find a couple of threads where we introduce ourselves etc.

p.s. "refreshingly friendly"... I like that. Much better than "weird and bizarre."