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PRACTICE TIPS #53: Czerny & Hanon: More Readers Reply
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Brent Hugh
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Jan 19, 2001 19:19 PST
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PRACTICE TIPS #53: Czerny & Hanon: More Readers Reply
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Here is a sampling of the reader comments regarding the quotation from Abby
Whiteside.
By the way, I found out that there is an Abby Whiteside web site (!):
http://www.abbywhiteside.org/
Among other things, the site lists performers and teachers who use
Whiteside's principles.
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Mallie wrote:
To Hanon or not to Hanon????
I am an independent teacher of Junior High and High School students. If any
fingers need Hanon (or something comparable), those do. This is a crucial
time in their development and it is important to build strength and eveness
in the fingers. I know that most of these students will not be piano majors,
but I plan their work as though they are going to be, both with technique and
literature.
Fun? I think it not be dull and dry with a bit of variety and imagination! I
use the exercises to teach various touches,( i.e., RH - legato, LH -
staccato) group the notes for a particular phrasing, and can find at least
10 different rhythms which can be applied. All of these WILL be found in a
piece of music somewhere, someday, and therefore, a problem can be solved
before it happens. Also, I assign Hanon for only a couple of consecutive
lessons, maybe 2 or 3, then take a break for a few lessons and assign a short
Etude, such as easier read Czerny ( or from a host of others). So far, I
haven't had serious moans and groans about Hanon, and my ears CAN hear the
difference!
Perhaps Abby Whitside doesn't have students with weak, "noodly" fingers!!
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Debbie wrote:
I have heard so much pro and con about using (aka wasting students' time
with) the above methods as well as those of Schmitt and Phillip in
teaching,and yet when push comes to shove sometimes the only way to get
through a particular technical problem is to go back to these exercises.
As for concrete examples, I had one student, a number of years ago -- a
talented teenager who was working on the Bach Invention No. 10 in G with
its sustained trills on the second page. My student was directed to
please work on HALF -- not the entire -- Hanon trill exercise in order to
develop the necessary flexibility for clear, articulate trill work in this
piece, especially since (a) she did not practice as regularly as she should
have, and (b) she was going for the last 5 points toward a gold cup at NFMC
Festival. Unfortunately, she did not pay much attention to the exercise
nor did she practice as much as she should have (just working over the
trill passages in the Invention would ultimately have helped, to be
honest), and she lost a point for not having executed the trills
correctly. A week after Festival she decided to work on the Hanon trill
exercise, and within a short time thereafter could execute the Invention
trills with no difficulty. After that I had little or no difficulty
assigning either Hanon or Czerny -- the value of these exercises had been
made quite apparent.
In another instance, I am now working with a 15-yr. old Russian student
whose teachers had never given much attention to hand position. As a
result, even though he is playing at a Moderately Difficult level, he still
must be taught to bend his fingers at each joint in order to have greater
control over dynamics and articulation. He has a rather bad habit of
letting his fingers drag from key to key rather than lifting and pressing
each one, and must do some intense work on development of independence of
fingers. Although we have been working from Czerny, I recently introduced
him to the Hanon exercises in order to fill in some of the missing
technique he will need to play the more advanced literature he wants to
play. (We also have been using Schmitt preparatory Ex's 111 - 118 in every
key he studies in order to modify hand position and develop articulation).
In my own experience, when in younger days I was not teaching as much as I
am now and had the luxury of 4 or more hours a day to practice, I would do
at least an hour and a half of exercises, etudes, scales and other warm-up
work, and my fingers would feel wonderfully ready to play anything at that
point.
My adult students are very clearly in favor of practicing exercises because
they find them a perfect vehicle for developing focus before moving on to
scales and pieces. That is also why I use exercises at all
levels. None of my students is a professional pianist. That is not to
say that a number of them couldn't sit down cold and launch into a piece of
music they are studying, but they all realize the value of warming up, and
wouldn't think of playing a piece of music without doing some preliminary
"limbering up", as it were.
As a result, I have come to the conclusion that the student reflects the
attitude the teacher projects. If a teacher respects the value of certain
exercise series and doesn't use it indiscriminately or without reason,
there will be less possibility of students balking at the idea of spending
time with these technical vehicles. On the other hand, if a teacher's
attitude is such that he/she wouldn't be bothered wasting time with
exercises, he/she had better be sure the students spend time with intense
passage work or they may not develop the ability or the patience to
advance to more difficult literature.
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Further reader comments in a couple of days.
Happy Practicing!
--Brent
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