The Virtuoso Pianist In 60 Exercises

The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises, by Charles-Louis Hanon, is a compilation of 60 exercises meant to train the pianist in speed, precision, agility, and strength of all of the fingers and flexibility in the wrists. The Virtuoso Pianist is Hanon's most well-known work, and still widely used today by piano instructors and pupils.

The exercises address common problems which could hamper the performance abilities of a student. These include "crossing of the thumb," strengthening of the fourth and fifth fingers, and quadruple- and triple-trills. The exercises are meant to be individually mastered and then played consecutively in the sections they are placed in. Apart from increasing technical abilities of the student, when played in groups at higher speeds, the exercises will also help to increase endurance.

The exercises are divided in three parts.

The first part, consisting of exercises 1 - 20, is labeled "preparatory exercises." These are also the most famous exercises.

The second part, consisting of exercises 21 - 43, is labeled "further exercises for the development of a virtuoso technique." This more difficult section is meant to be played after the pianist has fully mastered Part 1. Part 2 includes scales and arpeggios.

The third part, consisting of exercises 44-60, is labeled "virtuoso exercises for mastering the greatest technical difficulties." Since this section is considerably more difficult, Hanon recommends the mastery of both previous parts before proceeding to this one. This part includes repeated notes, repeated double notes, scales in thirds and octaves, tremolos, and more.

After all three parts are mastered, Hanon recommends all exercises be played through daily to retain technique.

Criticisms of The Exercises

The exercises are not without their detractors. Some, such as Abby Whiteside have dismissed the very notion of finger independence which they are intended to encourage, insisting instead that only a technique based on the use of the humerus can be effective.

One pitfall is that practicing the Hanon exercises with imperfect technique will reinforce the technique errors via endless repetition. Students who don't apply the requisite keen technical meticulousness to their study of these exercises (or who lack qualified and diligent teachers) may risk "burning in" their technical errors. More seriously, poor technique, especially when exacerbated by narrow repetition, can give rise to repetitive stress injuries - to which pianists are notoriously susceptible.

The most common criticism of the Hanon exercises is that having students drill on purely physical exercises results in an unmusical, mechanistic attitude toward the piano. Practicing in an unmusical way dulls one's musical instincts, especially when forced upon children and beginners, who need to cultivate their musicality rather than inure themselves to rote physicality. Training in most art forms involves practicing technique, however repetitively, within artistic context. Switching one's musicality on or off to suit context divides the student into two pianists: the performing, musical one, and the drilling, unmusical one. It's more efficacious to practice one's musicality as one practices one's technique. Furthermore, musicality drives technique; the flow of musical expression is a potent motivator to finger agility.

The problems with Hanon exercises and similar methods are well-stated by Ching Chong Chang [http://pianofundamentals.com] :

If we concentrate only on developing "finger technique" and neglect music during practice, we can pick up non-musical playing habits. Non-musical playing is an absolute no-no at all times because it is one form of mistake. One common symptom of this mistake is the inability to play the lesson pieces when the teacher (or anyone else!) is listening. When an audience is present, these students make strange errors that they didn't make during "practice". This happens because the students practiced without regard for music but suddenly realized that music must now be added because someone is listening. Unfortunately, until lesson time, they had never really practiced musically! Another symptom of non-musical practice is that the student feels uncomfortable practicing when others can hear them. Piano teachers know that students need to practice musically in order to acquire technique. What is right for the ears and the brain turns out to be right for the human playing mechanism. Both musicality and technique require accuracy and control. Practically any technical flaw can be detected in the music. At the very least, the music is the supreme test of whether the technique is right or wrong.

...many students tend to practice neglecting the music and preferring to "work" when no one is around to listen. Such practice methods produce "closet pianists" who love to play but can't perform. If students are taught to practice musically all the time, this type of problem will not even exist; performing and practice are one and the same.

Chang notes that there are more musical ways of practicing and developing technique, such as Bach's Two part Inventions, and careful use of HT (hands together) and HS (hands separate) practice techniques.

Hao Huang agrees [http://pianoeducation.org/pnotmi2.html] :

There is nothing more dulling than hours spent mindlessly going over finger patterns. This does not prepare you to be either a pianist or a musician. Too often, teachers assign technical exercises as a shortcut to technical mastery. It is easier to assign pages from an exercise book than to analyze and break down the physical elements in a specific difficult passage of music. Teachers need to guard against the idea of technical exercises as panacea....Dorothy Delay is one of the well known pedagogues who campaigns against technical exercises, asserting that they do far more damage than good. Certainly, indiscriminate practicing of exercises can damage a pianist just as forcing repetition of a difficult piece.

Trivia

*In the finale of Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, the piano part at one point contains a series of running figures which are obviously derived from the Hanon exercises. Since the concerto was dedicated to (and premiered by) his son Maxim, some have suggested that these passages are a reference to the Hanon exercises Shostakovich would have heard his young son practicing.Fact|date=June 2007

*The pianist and songwriter Bruce Hornsby wrote a song titled "Spider Fingers" which uses the technique from Exercise 40. Hornsby makes a direct allusion to the technique in the lyrics [ [http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Spider-Fingers-lyrics-Bruce-Hornsby/6B4DACD389E4772748256A9A002CF9E8 Bruce Hornsby - Spider Fingers Lyrics ] ] : "It's just a little hand trick/A little prestidigitation/Better get out your Hanon/Practice that repetition"

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