Hanon Exercises: A load of hooey, or a useful exercise?
Category: Miscellaneous, Reviews, Technique
I grew up with a fluorescent green book full of a wonderful world of finger exercises by a man called Charles-Louis Hanon. This book had several redeeming qualities: It glowed in the dark, and it entertained me for hours and hours upon end. OK, so maybe it wasn’t so entertaining… and it didn’t actually glow in the dark. But little did I know, as I was hammering away at my Hanon exercises, a raging debate was taking place about whether these exercises were helpful, or … dun dun duuuuuun….. harmful! to your technique.
There are several arguments for Hanon:
Hanon-the-Good
- Hanon develops finger strength and dexterity. I can’t argue with this one. Hanon is equivalent to running on the treadmill: It takes you nowhere, but you can certainly feel the burn!
- Hanon develops finger independence. I think this could be true, except for that in my experience most Hanon exercises are the same in the right and left hand. But don’t take my word for it – I haven’t used Hanon in quite some time.
- You can let out your anger with Hanon. It certainly is satisfying to bang out a quick Hanon (pardon the ahem, innuendo). You can play it loud, you can play it ugly
- You can annoy your neighbors with Hanon. Yeah. I find these exercises very annoying. This might belong under the Hanon-the-Bad category. But sometimes it can be useful to annoy your neighbors.
- You can train your fingers to find intervals with Hanon. In my opinion, this is one of the major strengths of playing Hanon. It’s all about learning where the notes are and training your fingers where to find them.
Hanon-the-bad
- Hanon gives you wrist problems? Some say that the repetitive nature of Hanon exercises can give you wrist problems? I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m just skeptical.
- Hanon does not increase musicality. Hanon is repetitive. Hanon is boring. So by extension, Hanon cannot be musically engaging and increase your musical ability. Again, I tend to disagree (not about the repetitive and boring part), because I think that an increase in control can help your musical expression. Hanon does help with control if played correctly. Hanon exercises are not intended to stimulate your creativity.
- Hanon exercises were developed like a million years ago… how could it be applicable today? Argue this one yourself. Or don’t.
OK, that’s it. So it’s pretty obvious that I’m biased. Hanon is boring, Hanon is repetitive, but in my opinion it IS useful for strength and dexterity if practiced correctly. My verdict: Hanon is OK!
Check out the new book. Its not bright green, and it doesn’t glow in the dark, but its still Hanon.
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Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist, Complete Edition By Charles-Louis Hanon. Edited by Robert Heath. For Piano. FJH Classic Editions. Traditional Studies. Book. Published by The FJH Music Company Inc. (H1006) See more info… |
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Posted on March 17th, 2009 by sharlene
5 Comments
November 17th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Hi
I do like hanon and it is not boring but you do have to pratice a lot and it give my fingers abilty
February 26th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
yeah, it can be boring to learn, but there’s no question it will make you a better player. it’s like a football player going to the weight room. how can you question its value?
June 11th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Good Day,
I have taught for 40 years and never use Hanon. I have interviewed numerous hand surgeons and they state it is impossible to build finger strength. There are no muscles in the fingers. The are remote controlled from the forearm. Some suggestions by Hanon (lifting the fingers high) will actually cause physical problems. The physical application on a piano involves gesture movements; rotating, shifting, thrusting, etc. Watch professional pianists and you will see these techniques. I have never used Hanon and my students perform professionally and passing the audition process easily at universities and gaining scholarships. They did not know how the hand really worked in that period. Look at this site on how the fingers move.
http://www.pianomap.com/tendonitis.html
June 11th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Here is a much better site that demonstrates how the fingers work.
http://www.eatonhand.com/hw/hw022.htm
June 16th, 2010 at 10:29 am
I have practiced books 1, 2, and parts of 3 of the virtuoso pianist everyday for nearly 3 years now and I have felt no pain at all in my wrists. My technique was in shambles before I started practicing it and now I get perfect on every tecnhique test I take, no joke. I find it silly when people completely disregard the excercises and say you should just practice repertoire, any art takes practice and this is it. Also, I don’t need to hear some scientific shmob about finger muscles and whatnot, these excercises work. Look at Rachmaninoff for example, he attributes the outburst of Russian virtuosos to hanon as it was what students of the Russian school had to practice every day. You need to do more then rotate your arm and shoulders to play the piano well, sorry no shortcuts.