Do You Hanon?

[JamPro]

Are you a Hanon advocate - or do you think piano playing is better without it?

 

I have had some teachers promote studying Hanon exercises as important for piano playing, and others tell me it is not needed for piano playing.  I am wondering if there is a group conscience here about it.

 

Pros and Cons

From the Hanon book introduction: "If the five fingers of each hand were equally developed, they would be able to execute anything written for the piano......The solution for this problem has been found in The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises.".  And: "In this volume are given the exercises necessary for the acquirement of flexibility, strength, perfect independence and equality of the fingers, as well as suppleness of the wrists....."  What pianist doesn't want that?

 

Detractors say the Hanon exercises do not address important/critical piano techniques, such as longitudinal rotation of the wrist and vertical motion of the forearm; that repetitive drills are not musical and inhibit musical playing; and that time at the piano is better spent studying actual music and not drills.

 

Myself - I do a small set of exercises similar to the first 5 Hanon exercises in all keys.  I do that for a couple of weeks and then do a couple of weeks of those Dohnanyi Essential Finger Exercises, switching off to keep from getting stale.  So I guess I am firmly in the group of those who find repetitive exercises useful.    

 

Your thoughts?

 

 

[ABECK]

I like to do them now and again to keep the fingers flexible and strong.   They are also good to warm up with.  I don't think they are critical, nor do they make me a better pianist.  But there is gratification in playing pattern based exercises well.  I find scale based exercises to be more valuable though.

[BluMunk]

I never learned Hanon exercises as a young student.

 

That said, as an adult I do keep a pdf of them on my phone/tablet, as a resource for when I have some mindless down-time at a rehearsal. Sometimes I'll practice some scales, or maybe a Hanon exercise- just something to sort of make my fingers do something other than the material at hand for a while.

I also think there is some value in practicing exercises (scales, Hanon, or whatever) out of context from material you're working on. Favoring them over real rep is probably detrimental to one's musical development in the long run, but we spend a lot of time in practice (well, those who spend meaningful time practicing) focused on small technical bits of larger works. There's no reason why Hanon is inherently bad or wrong (which seems to be a popular, attention-grabbing position to take. Being contrarian translates into eyes/engagement/revenue).

[PianoMan51]

Only if you play them in all keys.

[nadroj]

I go through seasons of doing Hanon exercises. Currently I’m finding that playing transcribed licks I’ve copped from others in every key do the same if not more for my technique, and they’re actually musically useful too. 

 

I’ll probably find myself going back to Hanon in time, but for now Charlie Parker’s lightning diminished licks are doing what Hanon would for me, plus more. 

[Outkaster]

I started doing them in 2016. I was 48 years old.  I can do the first 20 in three keys.  I did the stock key of C and then G and finally the key of F.  I know people are against doing them but it helped my soloing.

[Docbop]

I did some of the Hanon when I started learning to wiggling my fingers in a pianistic way.   I couldn't believe the grief some on a classical focus websites gave me because I said I was doing them in 12 keys.   Since then I put away Hanon and have done Phillips exercises that some teacher say to watch out for they can issues with small hands.   Then the Beringer that Herbie Hancock does still to this day, I want to get back to that one.     My current teacher has a set of what he calls "Jazz Hanon" that are five finger patterns you do up and a mirror image down.   They start adding triplets and other rhythms so I like those they seem very practical to me.   

 

So my Hanon collects dust these days, I find my teacher series of Jazz Hanon's and working on music like Parker tunes and improv patterns give my fingers the workout they need.   I think your focus and watch and listening to yourself is more important than what book of exercises you use. 

[MAJUSCULE]

I use a few as part of my warm-up. I don’t look at it as serious technique practice but rather just a way to get my fingers moving. Easy stuff to either mindlessly run through or throw a variation in and make yourself think a little.

[timwat]

In my humble opinion, all designed, deliberate practice in any domain of effort (music, athletics, chess, accounting, painting, etc.) is effective to the degree that it builds repetitive familiarity in a useful skill that I'm not currently good at (this may be independent dexterity of the 4th and 5th fingers of my LH).

 

If I recall, Hanon (and many Bach pieces) were often designed to strengthen certain areas of finger dexterity that are naturally weak. And, in Hanon's case, dexterity that one playing music of his day would typically encounter in the repertoire. So he designed a regimen that would improve the ability to play the repertoire of the time with greater skill, speed, accuracy.

 

There is of course always a backlash against the traditional way of doing things. And those who are not invested in classical repertoire sometimes say they don't need exercises to build dexterity in areas they're not going to need to play <insert genre of choice>.

 

But the great value of education of any sort is vested in the fact we cannot predict the future. If we knew exactly what every moment of our future life entailed, we'd only have to train ourselves to be excellent at the challenges we already know we'll face, and bob's your uncle.

 

The fact that I can never know exactly what I'll encounter in the future suggests preparation for all sorts of opportunities. Not to mention greater dexterity builds a vocabulary and greater facility to "say" something I want to say.

 

I earned my Master's late in life. When contemplating whether it was going to be worth it by the time I graduated, I asked an older gentleman I greatly respected his opinion. He replied, "Well, Lord willing, you're going to make it to XX age. Would you rather be XX years old with a Master's degree, or XX years old without one?"

 

To the degree I use Hanon as a mindless warm up, one hopes it helps me get suitably warmed up.

 

But to the degree I use Hanon to build up independence and dexterity in the weaker areas of my playing (as Hanon intended), I believe it's useful for every area of my playing now and in the future. 

[mate stubb]

Much prefer WTC to Hanon.

[Irena]

I'd echo others'  lukewarm responses, but I occasionally hit 1-20 in a key other than C, and usually in some sort of rhythmic variation. Sometimes I'll start on a different scale degree to give it a modal character; that obviously doesn't change the finger mechanics of the exercise, but thinking of it as C Dorian rather than Bb Major helps my brain and ears and makes the time spent seem more productive. I often run it as well over the ascending melodic minor scale, again starting on different scale degrees--e.g., MM7 to marinate in the altered / Super locrian mode. I've tried it on half-whole/whole-half diminished scales as well, but that's sheer misery.

[Shamanzarek]

I have tried Hanon with Piano students for years. I was never been to get any of them to do more than the first three exercises before they got bored with it. I had one student that already had the Czerny book and she liked doing those exercises.

 

When I was in college my teacher had me use the Hanon Piano book and the Organ book which added bass pedal exercises. I didn't do much with either book. Playing Bach was enough exercise for me and wasn't boring.

[stillearning]

50 minutes ago, timwat said:

…To the degree I use Hanon as a mindless warm up, one hopes it helps me get suitably warmed up.

 

But to the degree I use Hanon to build up independence and dexterity in the weaker areas of my playing (as Hanon intended), I believe it's useful for every area of my playing now and in the future. 

My feelings exactly. I find them valuable.

[johnchop]

Pfft. Amateurs.
 

Twice a day, every day: Boston’s “Foreplay”, all keys, different modes, mirrored, hands crossed, no mayo, extra cheese.

[ElmerJFudd]

Hanon and stuff like that are exercises.  More so than the boatload of etudes that have been written for the piano, they are really purely for dexterity, finger strength, being able to fire with equal force regardless which finger.   That sort of thing. It’s the athleticism of playing that’s the focus as opposed to like - Chopin’s Etude book for example which build your hands and your technique but are also beautiful music.  
 

Are you better off without?  I guess it depends on how athletic a player you want to be.  Exercising is a really direct path to building muscle.  Athletes can play their game just working on the skills they’ll use most often.  But they also tend to hit the gym, ya? Does it have to be Hanon? No, but it’s as good as any.  

[ElmerJFudd]

1 hour ago, Shamanzarek said:

I have tried Hanon with Piano students for years. I was never been to get any of them to do more than the first three exercises before they got bored with it. I had one student that already had the Czerny book and she liked doing those exercises.

 

When I was in college my teacher had me use the Hanon Piano book and the Organ book which added bass pedal exercises. I didn't do much with either book. Playing Bach was enough exercise for me and wasn't boring.

I did a lot of Czerny School of Velocity around 17-18ish.  It was an easy sell to me from my teacher because I wanted speed.  I agree, most young kids don’t have the patience to beat up their hands on exercises.  Others do whatever you tell them. 

[allan_evett]

I play through numbers 1-20, 2-3x a week; helps a lot with flexibility. Occasionally I'll do numbers 21-31.  For strenthening and added flex I cover the major and minor scales and arps in Hanon Book 2, at least once weekly.  For my main gig now it all helps a lot. The church liturgy and various addt'l songs involve a lot of score reading, and the director likes me to stick reasonably close to the written accompaniment. Though I've found that right before stage gigs running 1-20 of Hanon is super-helpful.

[RABid]

My piano teacher never mentioned Hanon. She did not have much luck getting me to practice scales, which is something I wish I had done when I was older and trying to do keyboard runs in solos. I tried Hanon for a while maybe 20 years ago. Very boring to me. I'd rather use my time with Bach and Beethoven. 

[marino]

I did the first 20, and a few other numbers, as a kid. A bit later, the Beringer book seemed to be en vogue among jazz players, so I worked on that for a while. But still some time later, I realized that good old Hanon can take you to a good level of finger independence and confidence with the keys - *if* you don't expect what it can't do. So I have kept the first 20 as a starting point for a series of variations, and for the more advanced types of technique like extensions, rotations, or thumb passages I use exercises that I have gathered or modified from Cortot, Brahms, and others.

A few examples of Hanon variants:

- In all keys and in a variety of scales - major. harmonic and melodic minor, "major harmonic", hungarian, etc.

- Holding the first note of every bar (when it's the lowest note), and playing the other notes staccato

- Rhythmic accents, for example accenting three-note or five-note groups

and several others.

 

EDIT: I'd also like to add that saying that Bach is "better" than Hanon sounds pointless to me. I know... Bach is music, Hanon is workout. I find that the fact that it's so "neutral" with respect to the music is an advantage: It allows you to concentrate on the purely physical aspects of playing.

[obxa]

This is right on time.   Haven't done them  in a while but recently had an hyper-extension accident with my left hand (ironically catching my falling piano bench out of the car......). 

 

Went to a hand specialist last week, who said nothing is broken; but going to take a couple of months to fully heal and actually said along  with PT,  repetitive motion would be beneficial. 

I've got all books in PDF form.   I like to do them in variations (thirds, other keys.). Also with a drum machine, also the Jazz Hannon book.  I really love this guy's suggestions. (Hanon at 8:54), and have been following for a fresh take last couple of days. 

 

 

I also love Bach's Anna Magdalena notebook, but sometimes prefer the  "wax on wax off" mindless aspect of Hanon.    When touring constantly they were the only thing I could do to keep up my playing without falling into the same set list every night syndrome  

 

 Funny story: many years ago, came back from a week's vacation with my wife where we rented a beach house.   I bragged to my professor/mentor  how I did Hanon and other stuff for 4-5 hours a day while she went without me.     He promptly said "You're an absolute idiot to leave a pretty girl at the beach... there's a time & place for everything".   Lesson learned!

[xKnuckles]

I do occasionally put my Hands on Hanon (in varying keys). I never do more than about 4 of the exercises in a single day. What I like best about them is that they are so mentally unchallenging that I can do them whilst listening to the radio....

[mcgoo]

Reading what some of you do reminds me how much I suck. Uggh. I do tend to run thru 2 or 3 of them at sound check with the sound off. Even that little helps loosen me up a little and handle tricky parts better. 

[Ed A.]

Do I Hanon? Like 40 something years ago, absolutely not now.

[Bobbo Fett]

I like doing 1 or 2 at maybe 60-65 bpm, as a 5 finger warm up. Haven't done any more than that in years....

[ksoper]

16 hours ago, MAJUSCULE said:

I use a few as part of my warm-up. I don’t look at it as serious technique practice but rather just a way to get my fingers moving. Easy stuff to either mindlessly run through or throw a variation in and make yourself think a little.

Pretty much where I was with it. You had about 90 min to get the stage sounding right and run through a tune of two. I took 5 minutes for Hanon.

[Legatoboy]

Probably better off playing some Bach, defiantly a more varied workout for your ears and chops... but I found a few Hannon I really liked, like no. 20 and a few others that I felt addresses some weaknesses in my chops! I stopped doing them though regularly ...

 

You can make up your own exercises based on improving your personal areas that need help also...my old teacher suggested that... and he had quite a few for me he developed.... teaching wise you can make them up for each student based on each's needs if you teach... always caution if any exercise is  hard on the hands like 'finger separation' exercises.... which probably helped me more than Hannon...but they must be done slowly and easily... you can get hurt and not 12 scales in a day.... 3-4 tops. I do 1 and 2 finger holds..there are more types. 

 

just some perspective on this!   

[lsj]

a long while ago, daily, now on a rare occasion, just a couple of pages.

[re Pete]

I'd be warry of some of the directions written in the book. Keyboard actions were lighter back then I believe. 

Repeats not needed.

But they work well to warm up especially in winter were I'm at. 

Transpose some you like in all keys makes it less mindless.

The tendency to get tight is the battle with no rests. But in the Steinway vid, he does give good advise to help avoid that. 

[Al Quinn]

I played Hanson a little bit a lot of years ago but not at all this century. For me, it doesn’t seem like time we’ll spent. If I have a technical struggle I create my own exercise or etude to overcome it. I learned this approach from my classical teacher many years ago and I like it. It’s efficient, effective, and when done correctly includes good musical content.

[Docbop]

2 hours ago, Al Quinn said:

I played Hanson a little bit a lot of years ago but not at all this century. For me, it doesn’t seem like time we’ll spent. If I have a technical struggle I create my own exercise or etude to overcome it. I learned this approach from my classical teacher many years ago and I like it. It’s efficient, effective, and when done correctly includes good musical content.

 

Sound like what they taught us in music school..... Play music to learn music that if you have technique problem find a song that requires that technique and learn and practice it.   The you play and think differently when you play music versus exercises.