How to Practice Hanon - the Secret to Fast, Accurate Fingers 

I'm very glad this is working out for you! I'll try to keep posting these tutorials, as well as performance videos and tips.

Same here

graeme stocker A. You are listening to yourself. B. You are training athletically, which makes sense insofar as music-making is a physical activity. But do not be overwhelmed by brand-name advertising. You could get similar results from another method, or just by practicing scales and arpeggios in a way which challenges your abilities. However I can see the advantage of sticking to what you know, if practice opportunities are limited. Hanon completely bypasses polyphonic playing. I don't know whether you believe or go to church, but old-fashioned SATB hymns, played first of all without pedal, are excellent training in this regard-------------also for developing skills in transposition and arrangement. Some of the texts are worth reading too, rich with Biblical allusions. Bach's chorale settings are a step up in difficulty.

@@jesusislordsavior6343 what are some alternative methods to building speed and dexterity on the fingers, other than Hanon, that you would recommend?

@@J.R.Swish1 Great question with many possible answers, since there are so many different skills of physical coordination required with regard to so many different musical effects. Therefore access to a variety of repertoire is important, according to the individual player's level of development. It is hard to learn technique per se without practical musical application. It would be like having a great set of tools and no job to do. Anyhow, we discover our best when trying to make something sound special, be it 'real music' or an abstract exercise. To begin, there are basic patterns which every musician ought to know. As keyboard players, we might call them the fundamentals of keyboard geography. They tie up neatly in a bundle with our basci music theory: -two-, three-, four- , and five- note sequences patterns in all keys (see Liszt's exercises, set down in his later years, and not to be confused with his concert etudes) -scales, not just diatonic major and minor or chromatic scales, but modal scales as well (including whole-tone and pentatonic, you name it) -triads, four-note chords, seventh chords both solid and broken (including not just V7 and dim7 but also m7, half-dim7, maj7, etc.) -arpeggios on all the chords just listed, starting in root position and inversions -octaves and double notes of various kinds, staccato and legato, solid and broken, with alternative fingerings (e.g. there are 10 ways to finger a third and 3 common ways to finger a 6th, namely 14, 25, and 13). Indeed, learning alternative fingerings is one of the best ways I know to develop dexterity. Off the top of my head, I can think of 12 ways to play C major scale besides the usual one, all of which I have taught at some time. Why so? Before Bach, passing the thumb under was not systematized, whereas from Liszt onward the 4th and 5th were used more often to maximize velocity. With two hands playing together, one has to decide where the thumbs will coincide, which increases the range of possibilities. As far as 'normal' C major fingering is concerned, one may practice that 'legato' in any key, even G sharp minor harmonic! One feels 'brain fog' at first, but it clears up with repetition. Also useful for developing dexterity: -repeated notes with changing fingers (21, 31, 41, 51, 32, 42, 43, 53, 54, 321, 432, 543, 4321, 5432, and more). best practiced over a scale or short arpeggio in both at once -short trills with a specific number of notes (white-white, black-black, white-black, black-white, half-steps and whole steps, right and left hands solo); this is excellent preparation for playing Baroque pieces -held-note exercises, for finger independence (Dohnanyi's book of exercises, which is definitely worth checking out, starts with this kind) -substituting unequal rhythmic patterns (e.g. dotted, reverse dotted) for even notes, which forces one to think THROUGH quicker notes in order to arrive at longer ones. After all, the secret of SPEED is the ability to think FORWARD in large groups of notes, rather than one at a time. The more notes one can include in one impulse, the faster one could theoretically play. But we should also bear in the mind the state of the muscles when we play, that rigidity is the ENEMY of speed. On the other hand, a flaccid mechanism doesn't permit the transmission of enough energy to get the job done. It's a matter of athletic common sense. We need body awareness even as we listen to the sounds we produce. Lastly, I'd mention that there is another less 'flashy' kind of dexterity which we all need for expressive polyphonic playing------------which includes the technique of stretches and silent finger substitution. Playing hymns and chorales (e.g. Bach chorales) without the sustaining pedal is ideal for this purpose. I hope that some of these suggestions may be useful. Happy Easter! Christ is risen indeed.

I really want to learn but I don't have a piano. Can you guys assist me in buying one?🎹🎹🎹🎹...... Please guys assist me in buying it🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Buy a cheaper electrical keyboard to start with :D

Yamaha psr e363 is a good keyboard to start with.

@@devided4299 I just want to be specific about what I'm buying

Hey Kaitlyn, check the Roland FP30X it's a awesome piano that you may find useful for many many years, sounds very very good. You may find a cheaper one also, the Kawai ES110, which is also a very good sounding piano for starters. Check those on youtube!

Lol same

HAHA you fell for it fool! Thundah cross sprittu attacku!!

Hamon needs to be used in conjunction with hanon for optimal practice, like ripples through the piano. Flow like water sting like that one cola bottlecap in part 2 ep 1.

Mmmmm....hamon.

Every time we read that Hamon... We are allowed to say "curse you Dio Brando" and "Curse you Jojo". When frustrated.

Glad it helped!

Hi Kyle, That is an interesting way of practicing Hanon. Thank you for sharing. Coincidentally, I just finished editing and am about to release a tutorial on voicing. If you can play Hanon one hand loud and the other soft, you probably don't need this video. But I thought the timing of your comment was very interesting.

You are very welcome

Thank you for sharing your feedback. I'm glad you found this video useful! Hanon and Czerny are what I consider muscle training in piano. They are less musical and not as much fun to play compared to regular repertoire, but they really help you build basic technique that will be useful for anything you do on the piano. It's like athletes building strong body so they can play their specialty sports well. These are excellent choice if you had limited time to practice, and have patience to spend it on basics. Please let me know if you have any question, or request for future video topic. I'll be happy to assist you as much as I can.

Yay! I'm glad it worked for you, too! Thanks for sharing the result. This makes my day!

Damn, your commentary is so inspiring to me ! Makes me want to relearn properly with Hanon, Czerny, and try some Chopin Études.

I'm sorry things didn't work out as well as it should have. There is no set way to teach/learn music, so each teacher has their own way of teaching. So it's very important to choose the right teacher for you. It's not a matter of being a good or bad teacher. It's just that the teacher who is a good fit for one person does not necessarily a good match for another person. I hope my videos can provide new insights and perspectives into music.

Your teacher probably wanted to impress your parents. Parents are the reason teachers take shortcuts...they just want to hear their kids play within the shortest possible time n boast about it

I was trained classical and wish I had more teaching such as yours since I am a producer and prefer improvising and composing music. Learning popular songs and internalizing key progressions is great. If you were to listen to Bill Evans interview, he says that's how he found jazz (although classically trained) it was playing popular songs over and over until he started started reharming and improvising. Some of the most talented musicians are gospel musicians which have a large influence on modern music, they've learned more like you have, playing hymns and worship music as well as improvising. So I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

No time like the present!

Ooooooh I am so sorry!!!!!

M Tidbit, I am 67 and I had my first performance of Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto at 14. I had 10 years as a concert pianist. I had to give it up when I was told I was playing wrong notes in the Saint-Saens 1st concerto. There was something going wrong in my brain that was giving my fingers false signals and I had to retire from performing. I wanted to throw myself off a bridge, it was like taking the legs off a runner. Instead, I decided to give the gift of music to others so I spent the rest of my life teaching and I am still learning. You never stop learning. But you can get better even at your age. The secret is practice, practice, and even more practice. You have to get muscle memory and that's the only way you can achieve it. Anyway, even if you can't give the time, it's still fun. I only play for my wife these days unless someone asks me to play then I might consider it. But NEVER give up no matter how bad you think you are, you can only improve and when you play for others people will love you for it.

@@pianoboylaker6560 what a sad but inspiring story...thank you. I tell myself my goal is to play Carnegie Hall when I am 120... silly of course but it oddly keeps me motivated to practice.. I say to myself.. “I won’t get to Carnegie Hall if I don’t practice..LOL... but it keeps me motivated. I am fortunate enough to be retired and Covid certainly kept me home so, that’s how it all pretty much started. I spent a lifetime envious of those that could play and I am thrilled now at the building blocks of piano when I make progress! Though I love music, perhaps unlike many, I am not focused only on playing music.. I enjoy the exercises and feel that the better I get at sight reading, fingering etc.. the more reward I will have when I do practice a piece of music as I will have a stronger foundation. For now, as friends become vaccinated, I am looking forward to a holiday party where I can play Christmas carols for them. it’s a goal..and may very well be a building block to my premier at Carnegie Hall.. LOL. Thank you for your inspiring words..😉

Bronson Bragg Had I read only the first sentence I would have been a little concerned. But the modality is an excellent practice suggestion, especially if you don't cheat by using white keys only. Sharp 4 plus flat 7 is cool (Lydian and Mixolydian mixed). Speaking of discipline freaks, did you ever hear about Adolph Henselt, who reputedly used to read the Bible while playing Bach's WTC on a dummy keyboard? Quite apart from the loss of impact when Bach's notes are not heard, the Word of God is not heard either when there is too much distraction. Bach himself would have acknowledged that the Bible is infinitely greater than WTC.

These are torturous for teachers too :) It's much easier if we can teach fun pieces all the time, but that won't develop lasting skills. So I work on and tell my students to do these first thing everyday so they are out of the way!

I'm glad to hear it worked for you, and thank you for sharing your result! I appreciate if you can like my other videos and share them with your friends, too. It'll help this channel tremendously. I'll keep sharing my piano tips and other interesting stories with everyone.

Thank you!

Not sure if you are being serious or sarcastic, because you can actually learn to be musical and releasing tension through Hanon :) Unfortunately, not many people realize that and not many teachers know how to teach that way.

​@@AkiraIkegamiChannel Yes, dear Maestro Akira. Frankly, I am not a fan of the book and was just trying to convey the idea in a fun way, to stir up a bit the comment section. Personally, I believe one can, and should, achieve dexterity by playing actual music. A lot of pieces have tons of technical passages which can be practised profitably. IMHO actual music is just too vast, and life too short, to use the piano to do pure gymnastics with it ❤️. I know the opinions on the Hanon can be very different, and of course, anyone must be free to enjoy his piano any way he likes. If one wished could also do decline inverted rows with the piano 😂

@@W-HealthPianoExercises I actually used to think like that too. Had a teacher for 2 years and when she asked me to do those exercises I thought it was terribly boring and pointless. Last week I decided to step up and learn an intermediate piece, Clair de Lune by Debussy... and I kept feeling frustrated because my fingers didn't obey when I wanted to do some transitions. Especially the 4th and 5th fingers, very very stubborn. Researched about finger independence, strength and agility and here I am, back to this Hanon book! It's making all the difference. Now I get why my teacher asked me to play those "boring" exercises.

There is always something to learn. Piano journey never ends. And it's more like I have fast and independent fingers to tackle pretty much any piece. But I still have to learn each piece just like anybody else.

Hanon is never a fun part of your training. That's why I tell my students to start the day with it and be done with it before moving onto more enjoyable part of your practice session :)

Welcome! You came to the right place! I've been posting these tutorial videos to help students in various levels, as well as teachers share my tips. You may find my "First Piano Lesson" series. Check them out!

Welcome aboard!

Tendinitis

And yes try to relax your forearms

@@kapjoteh Thank you for the clarification! I googled the word but I had doubts, and now I see I was right to have them :P

I'll be releasing scale tips, too, hopefully soon...

Check out my thoughts on that: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MKXMElUeOY8.html

Glad it's working for you!

Glad it was helpful!

Not making progress is a sign of needing a different way to practice. I hope these videos help.

Learning music production and can't read sheet music. Is like writing a book without knowing the alphabet

@@LucaBonato not really

Got a digital piano (Casio Privia 770) last Monday, never touched a piano in my life. The real and probably only reason why I bought is: Chopin. And maybe because that specific piece... Learning it right now and, man, it's a pain but I'm making little progress everyday, I can't be happier. And yeah, those 35 tuplets scare me, but also the change to 5/4 and 3/4 time signatures.... I'm proud of myself anyway, even tho I obviously still sound very bad. I'm 24 year old now, I'm sad I didn't start years ago, but at least it's not too late!

@@FockeWulfFW200 It's never too late! Just be patient and practice every part slowly. That Nocturne is not particularly a beginners piece so don't be discouraged if it takes you several months to make it sound more or less decent. Oh and about those tuplets, don't try to force your hand to play ir super fast from the get-go or you can injure yourself and that's definitely something you want to avoid a pianist. Also i would highly recommend you to find a good teacher if you can afford it.

Playing completely by ear is impressive! I hope my videos help you with the aspects of piano you didn't know.

Thank you!

Your father taught you well :)

I have done an adaptation of this book for guitar. I should post a video regarding this. Cheers!

@@JTW_Music that’s good to know, I would encourage you to do it if you have the time because I’m sure it would help others too

If you can play evenly and accurately at 108, that's already great and you can handle a lot of pieces. But you can always aim higher so that you can play more advanced music with ease. It's normal for people to start over Hanon exercises with faster tempo. You'll be surprised how fast your fingers can move.

It's never too late to start learning music, especially these days when you have whole a lot of life ahead of you! I hope you enjoy music making, and this and my other videos will be able to help you along the way.

I'm in a process of setting up online lessons so that I can provide occasional advice or one-on-one consultation. Stay tuned!

I tell my students to use this as a warm up and practice one exercise at a time. You can move onto the next exercise when you met your goal tempo.

The Hanon I have is missing the first piece though, but I can get a full one. I'll also work on the tempo as I've never played it that fast before.

My Scottish piano teacher used to whack my 5 year old fingers with a ruler if I made a mistake playing scales. I have a vivid memory of sitting at the piano with tears streaming down my face.

the best is to use same fingering for black keys. I even let my students use minor keys for Hanon. so they learn difficult keys also very fast.

Glad It Worked For You, too.

Daniel Florencio The explanation is simple. You are a human being, not a robot. Or like me, you lack the necessary masochism to stick with the programme. I use it in small doses with the very few students who can tolerate it, and I would insist on transposition. Who in the past 500 years has played on white keys only? Whoever sings or plays an instrument has to attend to quality of sound and rhythm. Hanon teaches one nothing about these. Rhythm is more than the ticking of a metronome. People who believe in Hanon as the foundation of keyboard playing remind me of the type who think that money makes the world go 'round. If God made us in His image, we should not degrade ourselves aesthetically, any more than we should degrade ourselves morally.

@@jesusislordsavior6343 wow, you are correct, I realize that now.

@@jesusislordsavior6343 You cant learn everything at once. You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. There is nothing wrong with Hanon excercises.

@@junjungatbos3548 No, there is nothing 'wrong' with them, but they are exceptionally MONOTOMOUS. This can be a deterrent against practice for a lot of people. Other very good sets are neglected by comparison. An experienced teacher will know how to invent exercises based on common patterns. I don't think of them as appropriate for beginners in most cases. If one takes all 60 into account, and not just the first 20, they offer challenges even for quite advanced players. I wish you a Happy Easter.

Amen!

Playing Hanon first thing everyday is just my preference. If you have any other order that works for you, that'll be totally fine, as long as you cover everything at the end of the day :)

Depends on how you use it. Your wrist and arms shouldn't be locked in place, but rather let the hands move to wherever your fingers take them to. As a result you may end up with rotating wrists no matter what you are playing. But if you are rotating your wrists in order to push down the fingers, no.

That is great. Many blind pianists have proven that we don't really need to see the keys or hands to play piano at an advanced level. Yet we tend to rely on our vision a lot. There is a lot of things you can start seeing when you are not busy following your hands with your eyes.

Thank you!

Sorry, for late reply. I just noticed your comment. I start my students' technique training with Dozen a Day series. They provide variety of small exercises with which you can you can reinforce good finger shape while practicing note reading.

Pandemic has definitely changed everyone's lives. It gave me enough free time to start my RU-vid channel, too. I still would like to go out and enjoy restaurants and bars, but we should all enjoy what we can in this situation. Piano is definitely one of them!

Yes, but not all music is slow. Even in slow pieces sometimes you need the ability and technique to accelerate at certain passages!

@@ronstlouis2745 this! Hanon exercises arent supposed to be musical, theyre supposed to improve your technique so that you have the ability to play fast passages. Saying that hanon exercises are unmusical seems a strange critique to me, since they are literally just technical exercises- you need a balance in practise, if you just practise slow pieces then it is going to take a long time for finger dexterity and speed to develop, so we have exercises to help

I hope this trick helps you.

I recommend doing the 4 variations on a single exercise everyday as a warm up before practicing other pieces, rather than once a week.

Not many people LOVE Hanon, that's great you do! I personally hated Hanon, but now I'm glad I did it. And now thanks to Hanon, my channel is going somewhere. So I owe Mr. Hanon a huge apology.