As a beginner pianist (9 months), I've heard of Hanon and Czerny exercises but I don't know what they are exactly

In my tutor book, there are only a couple of useful exercises, although I've recently found a few more in some secondhand music I'd got, and I feel as if I could do with some more as they're only very short.

Would Hanon or Czerny exercises benefit a pre-G1 student, and what's the difference between Hanon and Czerny?

An Idiot's Guide would be wonderful, but any info or advice appreciated

Hanon is in three volumes and the first volume is just (!) finger exercices. Czerny is studies and therefore pieces, and musically far more interesting.

You could probably play the first exercices in Hanon - both hands are doing the same thing in unison and you just repeat the same pattern up the keyboard. I doubt if you could play Czerny, which you would have to learn like a "proper" piece..

If you like scales you may like Hanon. When I was at school I used to use both scales and Hanon for getting rid of tension when I came home . Whether they would actually be "useful" to you at this stage I have no idea.

I'm fairly sure that Hanon is out of copyright and I seem to remember having seen it available for download on the internet somewhere. (Otherwise, if you like, send me an e-mail and I can scan you a couple of pages).

Both Hanon and Czerny can be found cheaply in second-hand bookshops and/or on e-bay.

I've done relatively little of anything like that.
I think that exercises are probably best used for a particular purpose rather than because they are there.
The main difference as I see it is that Hanon is more like a drill and Czerny more like studies and so more like 'tunes'.
There is an easier (half the length and more user friendly) version of some of the first Hanon exercises and I use these with students sometimes. At the moment I have an adult student playing some in order to try to establish a good hand position without having to think too much about notes and interpretation.
Maybe your teacher has some ideas about what (if anything) is necessary or suitable for you.

Id agree that Czerny is alot more tuneful and more of a study, there are some Czerny that you could probably manage 101 little pieces i think its called or something similar. Also i think Hanon is more for building strength in the fingers. Although i maybe wrong.

The first book of Hanon can be found here.

I quite like Hanon exercises for a bit of mindless bashing of the piano. I'm determined to be able to play the whole first book the way it's instructed (full speed and non-stop and 4 times over) without dying of exhaustion first, but I can't see it happening for a while!

The first half of the second book is more of the same-but-longer, then the second half is smainly scales and arpeggios from what I remember.

The third book is 'virtuoso exercises', so things like repeated notes, scales in octaves, tremolo, etc. I wouldn't recommend you go near anything in there for a while.

The Dozen a Day books are quite nice, I agree with Sarah, stay away from the 3rd book... it is horrible!

myself, I prefer the Dozen a Day books, but the best thing really is to look at them in a shop, so you can see if they are the right standard etc.

I would say that Hanon (IMHO) is better, as it develops the fingers more for trills, turns etc, but ive played little czerny. Burgmuller also might be good, but i think thats closer to grades 3/4

I'm going to have to disagree with you there HC! It's the most fun of the 3 books, but possibly just a little bit scary for a pre-grade 1 pianist.

I've just bought the first blue Dozen a Day book for my daughter (who is playing pieces around grade 1) and she likes them. They are shorter (only one or two lines long) and more varied than the Hanon and she can sight-read them all (and her sight-reading is appalling). There are several "dozens" in each book and she has just played through the 1st dozen. This first series had exercies for legato, staccato, chords, thumb under, hand over and stretches.

Thanks for the explanations everybody, and for the link Sarah. I can see some exercises which I think will be around my level (not too many leaps!) so I'll print out those pages and take them to my next lesson to see what my teacher thinks.

I thought the exercises would be useful for building up finger strength, and to a lesser extent to help with reading intervals more quickly than I do at present. Many years ago I learnt to touch-type by doing finger drills, so I know the value of drilling in that context and I'd like to see if it works for me in a piano context too.

I'll have a look at the Dozen a Day books as well next time I go to a music shop.

Thanks again all

I've never tried the Hanon, but I use the Czerny exercises a lot both for my own use and for students as a bit of sight reading practice. The 101 progressive study books are very good.

I am not part of the group who think Hanon should've been hanged, to start with!
Week after week (or better, fortnight after fortnight) I have learnt the first 20 Hanon exercises for finger dexterity, speed, etc. and I do one or two Hanon exercises every day (10 minutes or so). I find them useful, relaxing and very helpful. They are so mechanical that once you've learnt them well, you can concentrate on posture, relaxation, position of the hands, speed, and so many other aspects that one neglects when one's attention is taken up by many other things when one playes pieces. My ex-piano teacher said they are like gym for the pianist. That gym can be done with Hanon or in so many other ways, e.g. Czerny studies, and so many others (like Heller and Cramer's for those who simply need to have an appreciable melody line when practising).

It's a little-known fact that Hanon and Czerny did not die but were secretly spirited away to Japan, where they are kept very busy!

Viohazard started piano a year ago, and having finished the venerable Beyer, has been on a strict diet of Hanon and Czerny (Etudes de Mecanisme), certainly from before Grade 1 level.

What he's told is "Hanon for strength, Czerny for speed, Le Couppey for expression."

Don't know what Burgmuller (another member of the brotherhood of the piano undead) is for!

It's often the first thing my son does when he sits down at the piano, while he's still physically a bit bouncy, until he's settled down. He's only on no. 17 or 18, though, so quite a way to go.



Son hasn't been given Czerny or Le Couppey, so I can't compare, but I would agree with Hanon for strength - and some speed too, I think

quick edit to add that he loved Dozen a Day.

Hanon's exercises can be useful - but it is not a good idea to simply play the notes, especially not mindlessly. To be beneficial they have to be done for a specific technical purpose and correctly. That needs the guidance of a good teacher, or at least an experienced and knowledgable pianist-friend.

Doing them wrong will do more harm than good, as it will entrench bad habits at a very basic level.

Czerny's studies are a more tuneful and musical way of developing skill at the piano. They cover a far wider range of pianistic skills than Hanon's exercises. They vary from trivially easy to some that require high-class virtuosity - at least if they are to be played well. However Czerny wrote hundreds, if not thousands, of the things and many of them cover similar ground to each other. Again you need an experienced hand to pick out a set that covers a complete technique, emphasizes skills you need to develop rather than those you already have, and is at the right level of difficulty for you.

I feel like I have to stress here that Hanon exercises are not for mindless bashing away at the piano!

Yes - they can be played like that, just as many people play scales just to get through them, but you will not be gaining anything from them by playing them in this way.

Hanon exercises can be used to focus on a plethora of things to do with technique, hand position and posture. The only benefit one could get out of just playing them through and through is that you would learn the notes of them well, which is useful in so far as that once you know the notes, you can concentrate on your problem areas.

Skylark - I think anyone, pre grade 1 or otherwise, can reap rewards from Hanon exercises (as others have said, I would leave Czerny for a little while until you are more familiar with the demands of slightly more difficult pieces). I certainly get my students to do 2 or 3 exercises from Hanon once they have been playing for around 2 months or so. But with each student, once they know the pattern of notes, a different weakness is highlighted when they play Hanon, which is what we then focus on, using the relative simplicity of the exercise to draw it out. In effect, I'd say that the basic purpose of Hanon exercises is pretty much the same as the purpose of scales - as a facilitator to improve technique, especially finger strength, dexterity and evenness of tone.

Have fun!

Have never done Hanon/Czerny but I did do dozen a day when I was pre grade 1 and I loved it. I was allowed to draw in the smiley face on the stick person when I'd finished the exercise.

I use Dozen a Day and Book 1 of Bartok's "Mikrokosmos". I particularly enjoy the Bartok and would recommend it. However, I think I may check out the Hanon too after reading other posts.

Two years ago when I came back to the piano (after a 34 year gap from grade 5) I tried Hannon book 1 at the lowest recommended tempo. I played the first exercise once through, then the second exercise and half way through the third, at which point my forearms seized up. They still felt like they were on fire 2 days later: Moral - Don't go at it like a cavalry charge.

After a month or two of perseverance I did work my way up to doing the whole of book 1 at the fastest recommended tempo right through only stopping every 3 exercises. Even at this it would make my forearms ache and bring on the sweat of exercise. I'm quite sure that this helped bring me back to my previous level far faster than I might have done withoug, though I never did get up to 4 times without a break. Moral - persevere, even the worst of us can benefit.

Now I have a teacher. Under her guidance I passed grade 8 last year and am now working my way through Czerny studies (currrently working through the School of Velocity, slowly) alongside works by a variety of composers from several eras to correct the more obvious deficiencies in my technique. Some of the Czerny studies are very like some of the Hannon studies, but without the boredom. Moral - Studies and exercises can be good for solving specific problems, but you need a guide.

I believe that Peter Donohue (among others) plays the whole of Hannon every day: He uses the time to catch up on the soaps. Oscar Peterson made no secret of his having played both Hannon and Czerny during his training. Moral - even the best can benefit.

Finally, good players may well use Hannon, Czerny (Chopin, etc.) to maintain or develop skills. That does not mean that being able to play Hannon or Czerny (or Chopin etc.) will necessarily make you a good player; There are some awful renditions of Chopin etudes available on Youtube!

Thanks for all the input, it's really interesting to read about everyone's experiences. I'll have a look at the recommendations when I next go to town

I use the Hanon but I've been looking at the dozen a day series. Can anyone recommend which of the books would be most appropriate for around Grade 3 standard please

Thanks

Prompted by Robodoc's revelations I have to come clean ...

When I started 5 years of intensive work at the piano in 1980/81 (as a 'rusty' grade 8 pianist) my new teacher - an exceptionally capable concert pianist - started me immediately on Hanon, but he was very fussy about how it was played. We eventually worked through all three books, and it definitely gave me the basis of a sound technique. He introduced all kinds of variations like one hand forte, the other piano, one hand staccato, the other legato; one hand doing a long crescendo, while the other does a long diminuendo, and so on ...

Fast forward to an evening in 2008 - with my present teacher in Utrecht we spent an entire 2 hour lesson on the first couple of bars of just one Hanon exercise from book 1.

I confess - I regularly play the whole of Hanon - not every day, but probably some on alternate days and certainly all of it each week. As well as playing the Book 1 exercises in C, as written, I play them in all 12 keys - but with the same fingering (surprisingly easier than it sounds).

It has not made me into a great pianist, but without it I'd be at a much lower standard than I've managed to reach.

I've got a useful book called Hanon Preliminary Exercises for Piano edited by John Thompson. It contains Hanon exercises but includes pictures and diagrams demonstrating how each exercise should be played. Although it's designed for younger pianists I've found it useful for monitoring my own technique and that of my pupils. It's published by Willis Music Company.

Thanks for the further comments, and I like the sound of that book LizzieT, I'll look for it, thanks.

Yesterday I was reading all the previous threads about Hanon, Czerny and Dozen a Day. I'm a bit concerned about several people reporting the damage they did to themselves through playing Hanon - either to their wrists or with RSI. Which is why I like the sound of the book which LizzieT has recommended, showing you how to do it properly. I'm sure my teacher will show me as well, but I like to see things written down so that I can study it and make sure I haven't forgotten anything.

The other thing which I've thought about since hearing more about it, is whether it makes difference to use a digital piano. Obviously I don't need as much pressure to depress the keys on a digital - does that make a difference to how useful the exercises are?



PS. On one of the other threads, I found this link to SheetMusicArchive where they have a couple of Czerny studies available for free download, and lots of other free music as well.

Only ever having played a digital once I'm not really sure about the pressure.

I think the reason Hanon can cause pain is because (for untrained/out-of-practice hands) there are awkward stretches between fingers (particularly the third and fourth and the fourth and fifth) and you are repeating the same stretch over and over again.

I've never done any Hanon, but I've looked at the book in the music shop and it looks rather scary

I use A Dozen a Day which I absolutely LOVE! I've also got 'Introduction to Pianoforte Technique'. I've forgotten who its by, but its an ABRSM book I *think*.

Might be the Geoffrey Tankard one?

(ed - maybe not - a quick search indicates his books are published by Novello)

Ah Tankard that's right!! My ABRSM guess was way off!!

My piano teacher has just given me a copy of this to work on!