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PRACTICE TIPS #54: Czerny & Hanon: Yet More Readers Reply
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Brent Hugh
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Jan 24, 2001 21:06 PST
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PRACTICE TIPS #54: Czerny & Hanon: Yet More Readers Reply
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Here are more responses to the Abby Whiteside quote about Hanon and Czerny
exercises.
Let me first take a moment to plug Whiteside's book, _Indispensables of
Piano Playing_ (NY: Scribner's Sons, 1961), again. Whiteside *is* extreme
in her views; that is exactly her virtue. Someone once said, "There is a
way of being wrong that is also necessarily right." When Whiteside is
wrong, she is wrong in exactly that way--you may quibble with her details,
but she has a "big" vision of what music should be, that could benefit a
lot of pianists.
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Florence wrote:
I like the Hanon exercises! Why are piano exercises different from any
other kind of exercise? We happily go to gyms, ride the treadmill, lift
barbells, run, walk, and do other kinds of exercise to improve our
bodies. What's wrong with exercises to improve our technique? Should we
also say that scales "do" something to our musical soul? I don't think
so. And why are we talking about "fun" in practicing? As in every
endeavor, there is WORK involved. Why does everything have to have a
"fun" component?
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Jeff wrote:
. . . I propose that, like many other things, Hanon and Czerny have their
place. While they have probably been over-prescribed at times, they are
(at least) a time-efficient method of warming up, and of educating the
fingers in a number of basic patterns and positions.
I suspect that the musician's soul is a fairly resilient animal. If it can
endure scales, practicing trills, and learning a new piece hand by hand and
bar by bar it's unlikely to be seriously damaged by rational doses of these
masters of drill. . . .
If things get really boring, try playing with them. There is a lot of
musical expression that can be wrung out of even a simple exercise, anything
from graceful phrasing to strong rhythmic emphasis. Czerny in salsa, long
sweeping lines in Hanon, or a stuttering, minimalist Reichian set of
ascending scales!
[I think Whiteside might respond to the idea of spending hours practicing
scales, trills, octave exercises, and so on, the same way she did to the
idea of spending hours on Hanon and Czerny. Her point--and one well worth
taking, in my humble opinion--is to spend less time churning out notes and
more time making music.
I think your point is well taken, too--in the right proportion, and
approached in the right way, Hanon, Czerny, scales, and trills can all have
their place. But sometimes, as I'm yawning my way through another set
piano auditions, I wish some of the pianists would use as much imagination
in performing their Bach, Chopin, and Liszt as you are suggesting they
should use in their Hanon studies!
--B]
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Further reader comments in a couple of days.
Happy Practicing!
--Brent
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