Czerny vs. Hanon: The Great Controversy 

I tend to side with you, because as with life, in learning the piano it is not the destination but the czerny that counts..

No exercise can make you play robotically. An exercise is an exercise, just as playing scales does not make you play like a robot either. When you approach a performance piece you approach that piece on its own terms, interpreting it as an artist. If one plays that piece like a robot then it's the pianist's problem as an artist, not the exercises. It's like an athlete may do crunches, pushups, curls etc. But when it's game time they don't actually do any of those moves, but their bodies are ready for a full (and intense) performance. The bottom line is to play whatever addresses the things you need to improve. If Czerny gives you what you need and is simply more enjoyable, great. If a Hanon exercise helps certain weak fingers, precision or movements you've been having trouble with, do it. As the strength and dexterity become second nature, you're freer to focus on the artistry of your performance pieces.

I don't see the question here. You wanna be a better pianist? Then practice BOTH!

I think it's better to be a robot for some minutes rather than not being able to do a trill correctly or having inequality between right and left hand

Well, I don't know why but I love playing Hanon exercises, and it's helping me a lot to improve my piano techniques

I use Hanon for warming up, and use Czerny for sight reading practice.

The guy that introduced me to Hanon was an incredible player, Bach master, and he swore by them. He was stunning player, we were in the music shop. He was playing fabulous Bach fugues. He ran to the shelves and got a copy of Hanon and said this is the secret. I'll take his word.

Both are important. A general guide for a lesson of about an hour: Play Hanon first for about 10 minutes. Then Czerny for about 15 minutes. The rest of the hour, take up Bach, or Mozart, or Beethoven. Then end up with Chopin or Lizst. By the way, I don't agree with Lizst about reading a book (or watching video on your phone) while practicing Hanon. Lizst could get away with that because he was a great talent. But it would kill the spirit for the rest of us.

Coming back to piano after many years, I actually find warming up for about 15-20 minutes consistently with Hanon exercises to be a great way to get my finger strength and dexterity back again. I can really feel (physically) the improvement. They may be mechanical but, after all, there is a physical aspect to playing piano so playing Hanon is analogous to, say, a competitive sprinter doing boring and repetitive squats, lunges, crunches and weight training to improve his/her performance rather than trying to improve by simply running more. The exercises can actually be quite interesting and challenging if you play them as intended (transposing them to all keys, playing them in different rhythms etc). Having said that, I like Czerny studies too (School of Velocity etc). They don't necessarily build uniform finger flexibility and strength like the Hanon exercises but many of the Czerny studies have passages which closely mimic runs and chord progressions found in many classical pieces so they are directly applicable to actual repertoire. Long-winded way of saying that, in my opinion, Hanon and Czerny are complimentary rather than in competition :-)

I haven't played in a long time, but I was quite advanced. So now I got a new copy of hanon to get back into it. I'm not learning piano, I'm catching up on 10 years of simply playing for my singing students. I just want my dexterity back, so hanon an hour a day is fast tracking that. I'm quick study learning some grade 5 pieces (a week to master a song), to get back up and redo grade 7 and 8. Hanon is helping my hands a lot!

Hanon is relaxing because his exercises are so mechanical that you don't have to concentrate too much. Hanon helps in developing the weak hand; which is the left for most, or the right hand for you lefties. I agree that Czerny writes music, and Hanon writes exercises. I started playing piano when in college, and my teacher would suggest that you mutter, or scream the words "I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!" while doing boring exercises. Laughable but it might work for some people. Practice Czerny AND Hanon. Both help.

Fun fact: Liszt was a student of Czerny.

Hanon AND Czerny. Really now. They both strengthen your fingers and you learn a little theory as well. Either can be played beautifully. I find Hanon meditative, actually! I liked your information about Lizst and Chopin! Good to hear some discussion on this!

I originally thought that this was a tough question but the more I ponder it, I really don’t think it is. This post is a little long … but I have given this a lot of thought … I haven’t figured it out yet but discussing it in this forum helps. I took piano lessons as a young boy and quit … life happened and 40 or so years went by … and now I have decided that I am GOING to learn to play the piano … one way or another. To do that as quickly and effectively as possible will require the intelligent application of the “tools” at hand. Hanon: The Hanon exercises are tools. But like any tool, they have an intended purpose. As near as I can figure, the purpose of this tool is to build finger strength, coordination and finger speed. So when I sit down to bang out my 10 or 15 minutes of Hanon exercises, that is what I focus my attention on. If I played them with the hopes of developing my musicality, I would be bored out of my skull … Or if I wanted to develop my capacity for complex rhythm, I would be frustrated and unsuccessful. When I play Hanon, I get excited because I know that those muscles in my hands that have been neglected for decades are getting a workout (just like squats at the gym). I also know that my brain is learning how to coordinate my digits better …. THAT is why Hanon doesn’t bore me and THAT is why I believe that it is a good use of my time at this early stage of my journey Scales: I am COMPLETELY overwhelmed by the number of scales there are, the way they relate to each other and how it all fits together. Hanon has not helped me in this regard. The best resource that I have found is “Scales Bootcamp” by Philip Johnson (who is surprisingly responsive to his email BTW). I am convinced that understanding scales and mastering them both mentally and physically will accelerate by journey … at least for me. Chords, Cadences and Arpeggios: I haven’t figured this out yet … I’m not even close … but at this point it makes me want to cry. Stay tuned. Czerny: Like Allysia has explained, these exercises are a little more musical. I look at these exercises as if they were an application of the Hanon and Johnson tools. They are like small, easily accessible lab exercises that let me apply what I have learned from Johnson (and Allysia) and apply the physical skills that I get from Hanon. Czerny (for me) is like a bridge between technique and learning to play actual pieces. I am only a few months into my journey … maybe I will think differently next year … but for now, this is my story and I’m sticking with it

Hanon is very easy to learn, his peaces are good for the beginning of the practice, he is good for the ones who can't read notes that well.

I think it's a question of how much time you spend doing the exercises. I agree with Hanon that if you master the technics completely you'll never be shorthanded when playing a new piece, but I would never spend more than 15-20 min a day doing his exercises. So, if you start the practice with Hanon, like 10 to 20 minutes, you'll have a good warm up AND you'll be developing the technics. After that, go play some real music ;-)

I had a teacher who taught Hanon. While these exercises have a clear purpose, I think they need to be given in small doses. When I was studying, Czerny studies were commonly used and were part of studies for examination material at the Royal Conservatory of Music.Whether Hanon or Czerny work depends on how they are taught and how students practice them. Now I see more pieces being used as studies. I like the studies of Heller as they are very musical. Some Czerny studies are musical and some not. I also like Moszkowski etudes. It is important to have many types of studies and teachers need to choose wisely. A study needs to focus on a certain problem. I think that anything that is a study should be played musically, Hanon and Czerny included. Scales, chords, and arpeggios provide students not only with a technical foundation but also a musical foundation. Hanon exercises don't replace scales, chords, and arpeggios. Whatever technical exercises a teacher uses, a strong technique enables a student to play much more repertoire.

Great video as always. I like both czerny and hanon. I use them as a warm-up along with minor and major scales I'm working on. As an older hobbyist who has had some life events, work, family losses etc, I found that when practice becomes hard, time is tight, life is making demands, sometimes a session of just doing scales and exercises can be a calming thing. You feel like although it's tough to learn a new work at the moment, but you can still work on technic.

I love hanon, i really like doing the drills

I'm totally in the "do some for the physical dexterity and strength" camp. I'm in my 60s, a pro singer, but never played piano. My goal is simply to be able to accompany myself and others when singing, so my focus is on learning chord patterns and such, as opposed to sight reading Bach. But right away, I noticed unevenness in finger strength, and such... my hands just wouldn't do what I wanted them to do in certain spots. I could have continued playing songs, and trust that eventually I'd build strength, but instead I put 1/2 my time each day into Czerny. And bingo! Literally one week later I went back to those tough songs, and they were so easy I couldn't remember which were the problem spots. As far as "becoming a robot" goes..... Give me a break. No exercise, no matter how mechanical, is going to make you a robot unless you LET it make you a robot. Put some thought and attention into it and you won't be practicing (sorry for the pun) tuning out. Practicing breathing and articulation exercises don't teach me to be a mechanical singer, they train my body to be able to make the music that my heart wants to make. Seems to me, I should expect the same result from basic piano drills.

I always thought of Hanon studies as being more like literal exercise, of the kind that you would do at a gym. It stretches your fingers and builds up the muscles of your hands, and you don't have to think about the music theory aspect of it because, like you say, Hanon studies aren't really musical studies.

If you are a beginner at learning the piano, I believe you can benefit both from Hanon and Czerny. Hanon is particularly great in developing finger strength and speed. But it is important to be focused and concentrated when doing Hanon, and not read a book while doing it. Czerny is important because the student can develop musicality while exercising the fingers. So I believe both Hanon and Czerny are important to the development of a piano student.

I agree with you! I have hated technique exercises! Now I feel validated and more accepting of my feelings.

I have been playing piano for 9 months when I started doing some unusual exercises I felt my fingers suddenly increased in dexterity it has made me pursue the topic

I squat to get strong legs and butt and it makes me run faster. It's impossible to develop those muscles in the same way by running. I don't see how musicality should suffer from technical drills. It should make you relaxed and at ease with more freedom to express yourself. Talking from future experience :)

Old dog here trying to learn new tricks. You have convinced me to look into Czerny. Thanks.

I remember Czerny from childhood but gave up on piano at an early age. Much later, as an adult I wanted to learn again. The teacher set Hanon excercises which I hardly ever did. Now I try to learn piece by piece and sometimes just let go with improvised jazzy blues. Listening to you made me reconsier Czerny.

Ive been playing Hanon for quite awhile now(little over half a year). I always try to play them with as much attention as possible, such as emphasizing the pic up note in each measure to strengthen the 5th finger). Interestingly, I have never found them tedious in anyway. Infact I find them fun to play. The 60 exercises are divided into three sections(which progress in difficulty). Once you've attained the ability to play the third section, true Virtuosity really begins to shine through. Ive noticed a significant increase in my technical ability over a very short time(I run through them daily) as well as an ability to internalize proper tempo. I would highly recommend to any aspiring pianist to atleast learn the first 20 exercises in the book. Things begin to get pretty interesting after exercise 40 though. Hanon starts playing a little fast and loose if you catch my drift XD

I studied piano for about six year’s as a child. I was raised on Hanon. Then my teacher started using Czerny. I found them harder and after hearing your explanation I now underrating why. I still have both books and completed all the Hanon exercises back then. I will relearn Czerny in a better light. Your explanation was helpful. Thank you.

I've learnt this the hard way that discipline is truly the only key to success. And here I'm of the opinion that Hannon induces that discipline factor in the piano learning. But let's be practical, discipline is most definitely boring, so I'd limit these exercises to maybe 15 minutes a day, or whatever is comfortable relative to each individual, but never NEVER oppose it totally.

As an old beginner, I love Czerny. I had a piano teacher once, about 40 years ago, for a few months: she gave me Czerny's 22 Easy Pieces, Op 777. We managed 14 together. Now, I'm VERY SLOWLY (glacial pace) working my way through (irony of ironies) The Young Pianist, Op. 823: and I still think Czerny is so clever. He invites you to think about what your fingers are doing & to feel the musicality in his "exercises", imo. For me, I tried Hanon - drudgery - & I don't feel inclined. Not enough time left.

For having done both czerny and Hanon, i totally agree with you! My teacher made me stop with Hanon and prefered using Schmitt. But schmitt or Hanon are very very similar. Just as you, i prefer czerny. It is really so that there are always nice melodies/songs hidding the techniques to be learned. Very good review!

Czerny left a lot of beatiful studies. Cute and charming like in opus 599!

There is nothing stopping anyone from trying to play some Hannon with some musicality. You can had some crescendos, diminuendos, rubato, or whatever your creative side wants to the drills. I believe using the drills of Hannon, Czerny, and Burgmuller can be very beneficial and none would be detrimental. These are technique books and of course this on part of learning how to play piano.

I've had the opportunity to practice both Czerny and Hanon from different piano instructors who emphasized various things from technique, to creativity from sight reading to imrpov.I would describe Hannon exercises to be more of repetitive notes done in increasing difficulty with the purpose to be good at a specific piano technique such as crossing over or trills. Czerny exercises are more like song like in nature in that you could actually put words to the notes to make a song.Overall, I'd equate Hannon exercises as military drills preparing you for battle and Czerny exercises more like staging a fight scene in a movie.I am honestly pro Hannon and pro Czerny but ANTI C, F, G all those major and minor scales. I would rather lather myself in bacon grease and swim with the sharks than do another major scale.well, then I suppose Sharks have scales too.....

Czerny's pieces are often very beautiful, but so difficult! Thanks for posting this vid!

The only Hannon exercise I use is number one as a warm up. However, what I do is play it in a different key each time including the harmonic minors. If we just use the relative aeolian minors it wouldn't sound any different than the major. I also like to harmonize the hannon number one in thirds, fourths, and 6ths. However that's as much Hannon as I use and teach, otherwise it's Czerny all the way. I agree with you 100% in that Czerny was a genius in being able to disguise an exercise in the form of a beautiful song. Thank you so much for your video, it was a lovely affirmation of what I've always thought. Your students are very fortunate to have you as a teacher!

I'm a guitarists started teaching myself piano, And I LOVE playing drills! if I have time I can go for hours. Since I started playing Czerny's Practical finger-exercises playing simple songs have become much easier. I can clearly see the technical benefits of the drills. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

"Hanon and Czerny were, like, two dudes from back in the day who wrote a whole bunch a figure exercises" I simply love the way you Americans talk😊 and I was hooked from then on!!!🤗 I discovered Czerny when I was about 14 when a couple of yellowed ancient music books arrived in our house, my parents didn't have any money but they paid for a few piano lessons and I always thought how modern Czerny sounded, you know, like some modern minimalist piano music repeats passages? But I never even heard of Hanon until now, let alone a controversy between him and Czerny...Awesome! Thanks for the video, I'm subscribing to your channel!

Growing up I was taught with Czerny, Bartok (Mikrokosmos) and Bach as the basics, and for me, it worked great. Developing technique as well as being exposed to structures and forms in music, expanding the imagination with different scales and modes, and how to "voice" phrases, polyphony, etc.

Balance is important. Why not practicing both. No rush to finish either of them in a short time. I am an adult new learner and no one (parents) pushing me to pass RCM exams every month. my teacher asked me to include Hanon is my weekly practices while I am doing 4 easy songs every week. He said I should finish Hanon in the key of C to build finger strength and then move to other keys. I actually found it pretty easy to practice 4-5 pieces every week. It's absolutely great for warm-up and I did not find it boring. I am sort of lucky because my electric piano (Yamaha CSP-170) is already loaded with Hanon, Beyer, Czerny, and Burgmuller books and I can change the key in the applications. The bottom line is to enjoy the journey. Not everyone needs and can be a pro piano player.

I truly enjoy playing Hannon. Czderny is beyond my capacity. However, I love to listen to Czerny. And, thank you for bringing up the conversation. I find it interesting.

It makes sense that excercises should be used to practice something that you would actually do playing music. If I understand it correctly, this is what Czerny's excercises aim at. So that is what I am going for (got the Opus 599).

I love playing technical drills, from both czerny and hanon. I even prefer "robotic" or unmusical pieces when I strictly work on technique so I can focus only on technique :D

You are correct, Czerny writes etudes, while Hannon simply writes exercises. That said, one or the other might be more useful depending on a students ability to read quickly and/or memorize. Teaching is individual. I do share your preference for Czerny. I don't think there's any debate, however, as to whether etudes, in general, are useful. They are extremely useful. Especially easy etudes, like Czerny's. There is debate about Hanon, however, since his exercises are mind-numbing, boring, and not satisfying to play. There are other ways to slay the same beast. As to reading while playing, haven't we all done it at some point?

I think it's better to decide based on the person. Like she says, she can't sit there and do that. In my case it realllyy helps me with speed and I love these technical exercises and it's something I can actually get excited about playing. Regardless just do what you guys feel like, most of us are playing for fun.

I find Hanon useful for when I am fed up with the piano , and I am stuck in a rut. That's when I get out Hanon, and engage in some mindless exercises. I find a couple of days of this resets my brain and I can continue with learning pieces, etc.

I took lessons from sixth through ninth grade. I really got frustrated by Czerny exercises and eventually stopped taking lessons. Later, in my early 40's, I discovered Hanon and actually enjoyed the exercises. Charles Cooke's book on playing piano for pleasure recommends 10 minutes of Hanon, followed by 10 minutes of sight reading, followed by 40 minutes of whatever piece you're working on. I really like his approach, though I haven't done it consistently. That's the story of my life, lol.

I like Hanon for warming up. I have three of them memorized and that's enough to get the fingers moving. They are also useful if I want to work on a specific finger technique like balancing right-left hands or legato. I know the notes so I can focus on the technique in question, something that is harder to do if I'm also trying to read notes at the same time.

I am late, but I wanted to add my two cents here. My first contact with the Hanon was as a child. I was not playing the piano yet, but it was at home. The preface frightened me. It's so French (i am French and trust me it was still this kind of mentality) that it participated to discourage me to actually take the piano and I internalized that I would simply never play great pieces. I have been working on the Hanon with my current teacher for a few months now. It helped me INSANELY. When we first started with exercice 1 (which I worked on decades ago when I started the piano), I thought it was really easy and we would get through this one fast. Big mistake. I was messy, lacked control, and could not play evenly. Yes, the Hanon exercices are robotic, but it's the exact purpose of them: allow you to improve control and clarity. I have been playing the first part of Liszt 'Un Sospiro' for years now, because the beginning is easy (I can't do the rest), and I love this piece. There's a before an after Hanon. Where it was messy, I now play the arpeggios with insanely improved clarity. And I am not playing in a robotic way. Actually, I always hated that kind of playing, and I have the problem of people that do not care enough about rhythm. I really think that the Hanon is awesome, when you play it with the right mindset and with the right teacher, who will focus on finger control, clarity, and evenness. On the contrary, working my technique with the music, which I did for years, never helped me to actually improve my technique. It was always a start from the beginning. And the play was messy anyway (videos recorded on my channel 10 years ago proves it). While this is what I initially wanted, I then asked numerous teachers to make me practice exercices (not necessarily the Hanon, I do not care), and they would not, it made me lost years. It may be not for everyone. Different people have different natural abilities and different aera of struggle. If someone comes to the piano perfectly metronomic maybe the Hanon is not good for them, but I still think that with the right practice it can help liberate the fingers. To me the question should not even exist: If we want to improve our technique to meet our specific goals (anyone can have different goals and it's perfectly fine if they just want to have fun with the piano) we should play the Hanon, we should play the Liszt exercices, we should play Czerny, and we should play Brahms exercices. I think the Hanon should be re-edited, keeping the exercices the exact same but removing the freaking toxic preface and rewriting the exercices comments to stop scaring students. Those are practices from another age, but the exercices themselves are perfect and perfectly live with all the others.

You really need both but you can choose to concentrate on one more than the other depending on what you are trying to achieve. It's like people don't just do one physical exercise they switch it up. One day it might be weightlifting, the other day is swimming then running, etc. But I do think Hanon is better if you are a beginner to start with as it is easier and helps you build your finger muscles faster.

I'm the type of person whose quite happy to play the same scale for 20 minutes because I get joy from noting my improvement as time passes. For that reason I really like these kinds of targeted exercises. :) That said when it comes to playing pieces musicality must come first. If anything the exercises just give me confidence to tackle a piece the way I feel it should be played.

Since A lot of people have got into this controversy, I want to contribute my 5 cents after having been playing piano for 20 years. My short answer to those anti-Hanon and anti-Czerny is, yes, you can obtain fingering techniques from playing repertoire alone. However, my long answer is, it is about efficiency rather than compulsory. If you do not have any fingering techniques and say try to immediately practice Chopin's etude op 10, no 2, you will get stuck for a very very very long time. Developing good and solid fingering techniques first will help you conquer difficult pieces a lot faster. I think finding the right balance between how much time you should spend on exercises and how much time you should spend on repertoire is important. And it's different from person to person. Also, I found some of Czerny's etudes can be played with a lot of fun.

I have not yet trued Czerny. I inherited Hanon with my piano. I was beyond impressed with how much easier it was to play and have proper form after learning just the first two exercises. My bad habits seemed to 1) be immediately clear to me 2) just sort of float away. Also being an early pianist I LIKE that the exercises are mindless, when everything else takes so much mental effort. It's nice to just iron out the physical part before moving into a piece and save mental effort for that.

I think you are a great teacher! Thank you for your videos. They help me a lot!

I've been playing a year and a1/2. I'm a adult and work at a University and take lessons at the Conservatory. I've played two Czerny exudes and play the first Hanon exercise. I've also played a Heller etude in C (Alfred's level 6). The Heller etude took me a couple of months to play, memorize and perform. My latest teacher told me just stay with Hanon first exercise and speed it up and I will get a few years of benefit from it.

I side with Chopin on this one. There are so many beautiful pieces in the world that I'd rather spend my time learning and addressing the technical issues as they come rather than submitting myself to the mind-numbing drudgery that are Hanon exercises. I recently discovered your channel, and I've been enjoying it greatly. I just want to thank you for producing such quality videos.

I didn't learn about Czerny until I was in college! With that said, I worked from Hanon, only the 10 exercises (I never did get them fast, I would get tense at higher tempi markings😯😬!!). I worked pretty diligently in the key of C major, until an organ tunner encouraged me to go back to no. 1 and TRANSPOSE it (and all the others) in all 24 keys! I did just that. This is one sure way to stimulate those brain cells!! I never did this with Hanon, but in college, we did A. Cortot finger drills with rhythms. My professor said, I should be doing finger drills, five finger exercises, whatever they are called, every day, . . . I have HORRIBLE finger technique!!😔 The ONE good thing about Hanon: it's very easy to memorize!! You could add swells to the Hanson too, I did < > going up, and > < going down

my former teacher, a professional jazz pianist, norbert kael, plays a ton of czerny and told me, here is the way, and i showed him hanon, and he loves it... he told me "i'll go through hanon in two hours for a nice warm"... so it really depends on what you want... if you want power, speed, evenness, practice

I haven't tried both yet, but so far I've enjoyed playing Hanon. I like the straightforward approach to the drills because - no matter the instrument - my technical skills and keeping a steady beat are ALWAYS where I'm lacking. Hanon helps me work on both of those things in a very methodical way, which I think works best for me.

Yeah it seems like I tried Hanon once upon a time ..... It seems like i do recall being bored. I dunno, I'm intrigued about trying it again; simply because I've done circle of fifths which is perhaps not quite as rote. But i had breakthroughs doing them. In addition, i need to strengthen my outer fingers. And lastly the Russians do Hanon ( it's a requirement ). But I'm by no means dogmatic about my approach. I only need to be proficient enough to do gospel/jazz/r&b/neo_soul. That's where my interests lie

I haven't used either yet, that's why I was watching your video to see if they were worth doing. So far I have found that when I've had a busy day and just want to switch off and not do anything complicated, tedious drill is quite meditative and at least gets me playing something. Other days I need something to really get my teeth into. I was wanting to see if it was worth getting both books.I think I will. Thanks.

I’m re-engaging with piano after 20 years. I was self taught so my technique is pretty terrible. I’ve been doing hanon exercises and I love them. I just kind of go into a zen meditative state and it really calms me down while improving my technique.

I‘m approaching 60 and only startet playing piano about 3 years ago. When I started on the first Hanon exercise I my fingers would just give out before I ever played twice through it. I simply did not have the muscle strength. Hanon is like finger push-ups and has helped very much with endurance. I find it plenty demanding to play evenly and progressively faster. Czerny is much more difficult .

I started learning piano on my own, finding scores and trying to play them. It was good, but I came to a point where I couldn't really go further, so I went to a teacher (a really great teacher) and he gave me the hanon exercises. I must say I improved quite a lot. I kinda started palying more consciously since now I knew what my fingers were actually doing. For me it wasn't boring, cause as i was doing them, I was relating them with the pieces I had already learnt and couldn't play properly before. I believe hanon exercises are a good way to be introduced to technique, and I'm not familiar with czerny but I'll go look for it and check it out. Thanks for your video, I'm suscribing now

My early piano 🎹 lesson experiences were with Czerny .... I didn’t even know about Hanon until later on in life ... The exercises & drills I learned from my early piano teacher has even helped me to play jazz better (even though I am quite a bit years out of practice .) but those early years of exercises ‘residues’ still are beneficial this very day . I personally would go back to where I starred from , and go and go and pick up some more Czerny .... But also , these days , I’d just try everything out there as well ..... Because life is so short ... and at my age now ... I just wanna ‘JAM’ with a Vengeance before I ‘check out’ of here . Use them all .... and just JAM ! All are beneficial.... Use ‘em all . ... I say BE ALL WE CAN BE .... WHILE WE CAN ...... LIFE IS SO SHORT ..... And even shorter when the years have gone by . Just JAM ... Live .... and be Merry ..... REJOICE IN ONE’’S LABOR(S) ....For there is no labor or works in the grave ... Whatever they hand finds to do ... whether Czerny or Hanon or whoever else ..... Just JAM OUT ! ✊🏽🤗🙏🏽👍🏽 A little bit here ... a little bit there ... some times in life it’s nice to read a little bit of many books than to have just complete just one book , and that’s all you know . A well read individual to me is one who is well rounded . Some times a Jack of Many Trades will find a job easier than a Master of just one trade . But my personal motto is it certainly can’t hurt a Master Of One Trade to also be a Jack Of Many Trades as well 🤗 Learning to okay guitar later own actually helped me to explore more things on piano & keyboards 🎹. Many folks have known me to be a guitar player .... but piano 🎹 was my primary instrument, and still is a dear instrument to me, though I’ve neglected her quite a bit due to my devotions to guitars .... But I’ve been making up for the year’s of neglect here and there ... Now there are some folks who don’t know yet that I also play guitars 🤗 .... lol 🤗

What I like about Hanon, is that the exercises are extremely simple to memorize and transpose to other keys. With Czerny, if you don't like the piece and learn it just for the technique, it's harder

Beginning/returning player here. I do scales and chords to "learn" them and listen to how the sounds come together (does that make sense?). I also do them to work on finger strength and coordination. I'm 50 and my fingers don't work the way they did when I was learning as a child ;) I did get the "Hanon for the Developing Pianist" and just looking at exercises makes me yawn a little. I just got Czeny's "First Instruction for Piano-Playing" and already it looks like fun. I'm looking forward to getting into it. I have to say that I use a "A Dozen A Day" book for warming up too . It's cute and fun.

After playing piano for 7 years, i'm planning to come back to Hannon and Czerny to learn them extensively until the specified speed. After 7 years, I do find gaps in my technique that IMO will not be resolved playing only pieces.

Finger exercises are a savior for me. My fingers get so stiff. 76 years old here. They aren't pretty, but dexterity really suffers if I don't do 'em. .

Just discovered this video. I love the way you present! Thanks a lot for your amazing explanation

I'm pro-Chopin, which is to say I've found that there are bits of the Chopin etudes that can be used as exercises surprisingly early in a pianists development -- LONG before they'd consider preparing one of them for performance. It has all the benefit of Hanon that might exist, plus you're doing some of the leg work for a really great piece of music to tackle later on.

My mother had Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist, and I used them during practice. I have played some Czerny pieces, which were nice. Personally, I don't have anything against piano drills, although I do understand the criticism against robotic playing. I will have to purchase some Czerny exercises and see what I make of them.

One thing is learning, other is practicing, other is interpreting, which represent different forms or stages of playing. I heard many people talk against Hanon, simply because they don't understand how to benefit from it: it is a didactical method of practicing, and if taken seriously, can transform a mediocre player into a very skilled one. I was 30 when a private teacher introduced me to Hanon and taught me how to practise the exercises there. After 3 months practicing the first third of the method I became a much different, better player. But, as I said, most people I talked to about Hanon did not see any point in practicing it but because they didn't understand the power of those exercises. I respected their opinions about Hanon but couldn't help feeling bad that they wouldn't even consider giving it (and themselves) a new chance.

Personally I am an advocate of both Czerny and Hanon. Before I play any keyboard pieces, I practice a few Hanon exercises for stretching and strengthening my finger, for trilling, and for finger extensions. Practicing Hanon makes playing the keyboard pieces easier.

I love Hanon! I find doing his exorcises very relaxing. They're a really great way for me to de-stress when I've been struggling with a piece.

I think if you play Hanon as a quick exercise or warm up, then it will be good. But I highly doubt it when people say these exercises could cover all the basic techniques of piano playing. Do they know how vast is the whole piano repertoire? I still remember a period of time when I was so obsessed (and struggled) in playing Hanon exercises, but couldn't even learn JS Bach's inventions properly when my teacher assigned me them! But when I finally decided to drill on the inventions and sinfonias many years later, I found that I could actually play the Hanon's even better than in the past.

Nice presentation..

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much for the video. Czerny sounds much better to me too. I am learning from srap and on my own and you guys help us a lot wirh your videos. 😊 Thanks a lot for your explanation.

Nice video. I agree with your analysis though I did both Hanon and Czerny in my teens. Might I add that the ultimate is to eventually create your studies and exercises based on music you're playing and writing. This can be segments of actual music. It's way more fun and productive.

I haven't played Czerny's exercises to much of an extent. I always played Hanon, and while I hated it, I appreciated the skills it gave me a lot. But on the book it says to play all 60 exercises every day once you've mastered them... yeah, no. To counter the unmusicality of Hanon, I limited it to 2 or 3 exercises a day, then warmed up with a few scales and one or two etudes. I loved the etudes! But I'd like to give Czerny a try!

I think it's not a black or white situation. You can start with Hanon to gain some dexterity and then apply it gracefully on Czerny exercises.

I can relate to Lizt so much lol. I practice guitar while watching youtube, and I would never be where I am today in my playing if I didn't (might have ADHD or something)

Both. They tickle different parts of brains, at least for me as a newbie.

Learn both. 👍

I was a Hanon guy but you swayed me. Still like doing exercises to stay limber so I'm going to go find some Czerny today.

same. I love Czerny, but Hanon bores me to tears. And also, Czerny's piano pieces outside of exercises are nothing to be sneezed at! They're, at times, more difficult than Liszt but with the classical sound of Beethoven.

I figure it's like learning a new song. You need to read the music to catch all of the little nuances that might slip past your ears while you're learning, but once you've learned the music, you still need to make it musical. Do Hanon for technique, do Czerny for musicality.

Important note there... 🤣 I was hoping this would be your conclusion. Czerny really is quite musical. In my time as a ballet pianist, some Czerny exercises actually made it to the ballet exam repertoire.. And those studies really DID pay great dividends in other pieces. Whereas I am yet to encounter a Hanon exercise that actually was worth anything outside of saying you've played the Hanon 60.

I find Hanon makes for a great warm-up. The book only suggests 15-20 minutes of practice. Just use the method as a warm-up, and of course practice etudes and pieces as well. I'm not sure why anyone would treat Hanon as anything other than a method for warming up to facilitate technique.

I have Czerny, never play it. Probably I should. I do use Hannon, but I play the exercizes in different keys. Otherwise, you just get good playing in C major. You can also do different phrasing like playing the first half of the phrase legatto and the second half stacatto.

I learned to play piano "by ear" and someone recommended Hanon. For someone who was not a great reader Hanon is good because I just wanted to get a little faster and although I love classical music, I'm really don't want to spend my time learning to play it. Classical players mostly have a very hard time improvising, because they have to memorize note for note. I'm not clogging my brain with music I don't want to play. So if you're studying classical music where the music has to be read and memorized and becomes increasing difficult, then Czerny is good. But if you just want smoothness and speed without the commitment of learning a piece (Czerny) Hanon is great. I was later told to play them at a 10th instead of an octave, and it sound a lot more like music. I enjoy Hanon, though I have the whole book, I stopped at #20, because I'm not going to be Glenn Gould or Art Tatum. More like Bill Evans. Brains over brawn. Basically, It's easier to have success with Hanon because it's simpler. They are just exercises to build muscle memory. I use them to warm up, and usually just the first few and I feel much more coordiated, especially with my piano whose touch is "substantial" Sometimes I just don't have time to even look at the piano for a couple days and because the touch is heavier, (but smooth and even) I feel it. Which ever you choose, or both, the most important thing is daily routine. I have been starting and stopping for decades, and I always make the most progress when I'm able to play day after day. Once I miss a day, it turns into another day then, a few, them back to playing. It's like starting from not quite the beginning, but not getting to much further than I got the day before or the month before, but that still beats not playing at all.

I use Hanon for about 10mins, then scales for 10mins to warm up. Then some Czerny. Then play some music pieces. Then I cool down with scales.

I like both. Hanon is great for developing finger strength and dexterity. I also love Czerny, his exercises are so musical and fun to play while strengthening finger skills. I disagree that playing Hanon will make you play robotically. That's more of an issue with feeling the music piece, rather than an exercise.

The goal is accuracy, flexibility, control, coordination, reliability. Establishing and reinforcing a strong, diverse technical foundation. Both Hanon and Czerny have merits, and must be known. I love Czerny, and am forever amazed at the quantity of music he wrote - a lot of lovely, innovating etudes! If you can play anything that Czerny wrote, you can play 95% of piano repertoire. I believe you missed the whole point of Liszt’s approach: if you automate processes (acquiring reliable, subconscious habits), you can actively focus on non-technical issues, be it ideas from a book, or phrasing, articulation, meaning of life/music… One of my teachers forced me to carry a simple conversation while playing scales, arpeggios, chord sequences, and Hanon - as a kid, I thought he was nuts. I’m grateful he did!

I practice BOTH, to get better results, I'll play Liszt's technical studies afterwards and I do musical and as hard as possible "improvisations" to keep the musical playing. See me in a few years and if I didn't give up or go crazy until then, you'll probably find a great artist!

imo: hanon good for creating a solid foundation which you can then add musicality on top of. I have 0 issues doing hanon exercises and they have helped me with regulating fast finger movement to a rythm.

I've mastered more than 30 exercises of hanon. I hope I can be better in The end of this year.

I think I am against both. Both Mozart and Beethoven had become great piano players before Czerny and Hanon existed. They used to play the Well Tempered Clavier. We should thank J.S. Bach for such a great antiquity.

Take it from someone who learned all 24 Chopin etudes and never went through Czerny and only fooled with Hanon for a few weeks a long time ago. Result : It took enormous willpower and perseverance (3 years) to learn all 24 Chopin etudes but the result was not very good and it became perfectly clear to me that i was missing technique fundamentals and guess what i am doing now ? I stopped all Chopin and bought books by Czerny and am going through this now practicing Czerny. Something that i should have done 20 years ago. To my surprise Czerny was far form easy after Chopin etudes which confirmed that i am lacking a solid foundation. So from my experience, you cannot skip those tedious difficult exercises and drills, not only that but you have to do them well even if it sounds boring. Learning the piano by only playing repertoire is a pitfall that i experienced. it does not work even with a massive willpower like mine. It's Yuja Wang that convinced me of this, she is a Czerny etudes product at age 11 and it's not a coincidence her technique is stupendous. Also i now completely discredit Chopin etudes as a mean to develop a solid piano technique. I believe Chopin hid his bases, we know very little about his childhood piano learning year, but i wouldn't be surprised he was disciplined by his mother on Czerny etudes of something similar (which were popular at that time). This was even before his first music teacher which was a violinist. The problem with good or famous pianists as they get older they forget all about how they acquired their foundation and claim they hate drills and mechanic practicing when in fact that is exactly how they were taught and to what they owe their solid technique. Chopin would have been such a hypocrite.