Practising Hanon,and Czerny Exercises= A waste of time ? (2024)

Hanon is a waste of time because for 90% if the exercises the key stays the same. I think playing actual music is enough to build skill and technique. Forget Hanon.

Czerny I cannot say because I never even looked at it.

acc. to hanon ... you're supposed to transpose exercises to all keys ... i use hanon for mindless warmups. but just 1 and 3 ... the lack of imagination gets to be a bit much after a while.

I've never practised any of these (except for the mandatory Czerny in early piano lessons, which I hated). But I would not want to condemt them. Whether you benefit by these would depend on what you want to achieve, I think. If you want to be a virtuoso that can toss of double octave scales in any key with your eyes closed at any speed required without even thinking, this is surely the stuff you need to practice daily. But you learn only what you practice.... If you just want to make beautiful music, I think you can do without them - but will occasionally regret it when the piece at hand requires sheer mechanical proficiency.

Sorry folks, I am being away and study chopin sonata op58...give me sometime...2 more years and I will return for more fun with you guys.

meanwhile, as a pianist youself, if not...look into future, any classical works or exercise YOU should go thru them and understand what they designed for AT THAT PEROID OF TIME. But this does not mean you have to do it everyday or even part of your warm up exercise. As technology changes.
Some of these exercise not need to be overly practiced(some do diagree with me i know).

There are many ways of warm up.....my way -no hanon exercise or any other excirse..but rather FEEL THE KEY and play it gently....
Save your time and us eyour time wisely.

CU later my piano friends....

Juufa72 wrote:
I have practised very much Czerny-etudes when I was between 11 and 16 years old, because my first teacher favoured them. I think, it was totally a waste of time, because it has nothing to do with music. All my musical and deeper playing I developed independent from these etudes together with the real pieces of music, I was gald, when I had not to play anymore this bullsh*t.
I like Chopin-etudes, of course, which are much more than etudes and I like Brahms, 55 etudes (though I have to admit, that I haven´t done for a longer time one of this). Most of them are really music because of their structure.

johnmar78 wrote:
Hi John, nice to hear of you again.

And they don't even have to be 'challenging pieces', which to me sounds like something a little scary. Take any piece (long, short, hard, easy) that has things like legato thirds or octaves and you have something to drill on. Also trills - short simple pieces with trills are great for trying out different trill fingering.

Biggemski wrote:
Very good! I second this at hundert percent! :!:

In my youth I studied all of Hanon, some Czerny, and most of Alloys Schmitt's independence of the fingers exercises. Here are my thoughts: Czerny was a total waste of time, as there is little identifiable direct carryover into the repertoire realm. Anyone would be far better off learning some concert etudes of Moscheles or Chopin, which can then double as recital pieces, thereby building technique and repertoire simultaneously.

The "independence" exercises of Schmitt (as well as some of the I. Philipp exercises of this same genre) can be dangerous and even invite injury unless the pianist is very cautious in using them. One is better off devising one independence exercise and sticking with it. I have just one now, and if I find myself getting sloppy holding ties in a piece, for example, I use that exercise to beneficial effect.

I have some good and bad things to say about Hanon. The good things are that playing several of the five-finger exercises can be a quick fix to ragged playing. We all have an occasional day when unexplained raggedness is a problem. A few of Hanon's five-finger exercises will quickly restore evenness in playing like magic. So that's an undeniable benefit. Also, the scale and arpeggio fingerings are excellent, both for the initial learning experience and as a permanent reference. A negative: I could play Parts I, II, and most of III nonstop; however, I can see absolutely no point to it. So beyond what I mentioned as a couple of pluses, I can think of no other gains to be had in Hanon.

The last thing I want to emphasize is that one does not develop a technique from any of these exercise books. Instead it is actually gained through solving various technical problems in day-to-day practice of repertoire pieces.

David