Friday, December 07, 2007

Hanon Exercises for New Age Piano?


For those of you who don't know, the Hanon book is widely used to teach upcoming classical students finger dexterity and control.

It's actually an interesting collection of exercises and I'm sure a lot of thought went into each one.

But what if you don't want to perform onstage at Carnegie Hall? What if you just want to play the piano for your own pleasure? Is Hanon still a good idea?

It is. What I do is just 2 exercises from the book to warm my fingers up. You see, I'm more interested in making music than limbering up to play others.

The exercises I do are on the white keys and really work the fingers. Boring? Absolutely. But it does the trick when you just want to move your hands around.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:44 AM

    Which 2 of the 60 exercises do you do?

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  2. Hi Fudster,

    I actually don't know. It's been a long time since I've looked at Hanon.

    I can tell you they are very elementary exercises in the Key of C I use to get the fingers going. And after all this time, I still hate playing them ... but they do the trick.

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