How to Practice Hanon - Beginner Piano Technique

during the years that i've been playing handing exercises i found some helpful strategies for learning these beginner finger exercises quickly and easily without getting overwhelmed both my students and i have seen huge improvements in our finger strength speed and timing by practicing hanon correctly before i teach you how to practice hannan you might be wondering what handing exercises are there a series of 60 finger exercises composed by charles louie hannon a french piano teacher and published in a book called the virtuoso pianist this volume has been highly regarded by teachers and pianists throughout the world such as rachmaninoff for 150 years each exercise consists of a repetitive pattern that goes up the keyboard for the first half the exercise and then descends in the second half although the sheet music looks complicated you'll be able to play the exercise from memory once you learn the pattern now you're familiar with hanon here's how to incorporate these amazing exercises into your practice routine without feeling bored or burnt out choose one new exercise to learn per week if you're struggling with a particular one simply spend two weeks on it if you're brand new to hannan i'd suggest learning the first 10 exercises in the book once you've chosen an exercise practice it for five to ten minutes a day your progress might seem slow but you'll notice a lot of improvement if you persevere avoid tension by warming up with a couple of scales before you jump into the exercise if you're feeling stiff stop playing and rest for a day or two to prevent an injury use hanon in moderation cannon is best when used as a supplement the scales chords arpeggios and technically enriching repertoire don't pressure yourself to learn all 60 exercises i've seen great results despite only learning about 25 of them now that you know how to add hint into your practice routine let me show you how to learn a hidden exercise quickly and easily by showing you how to play the very first exercise start by recognizing the pattern featured in the exercise although the sheet music might seem intimidating each exercise consists of a one to two bar pattern that's repeated up and down the keyboard take a moment to look at the sheet music and to learn the pattern then practice it super slowly if this feels overwhelming do the exercise hand separately at first if you're new to piano simplify the exercise and only do it for one octave the pattern for the first hand in exercise is very similar to a c major pentascale [Music] the only difference is we're going to be skipping the second note c skip d play e f g a g f e d and then you're gonna start the next repetition using the same formula skipping that second note [Music] this pattern repeats until we reach the g's that are two octaves above where we started once we reach the g you're going to reverse that pattern coming down so remember to skip the second note again which in this case is f where we're starting g e d c b c d e and then we're gonna start on f here but we're gonna skip e again skipping that second note continue this pattern until you get back down to the low c's where you started once you've learned the pattern play every note precisely and at the same volume make sure each note sounds on its own without slurring or overlapping with other notes to get the full benefit of practicing hanon sit with proper posture at the piano and hold your hands correctly when you play otherwise you will become tense and increase the chance of an injury if you're not sure if your hand posture is correct double check by watching this video play hand in the same way you would play a song and keep body movement to a minimum don't drop your arms with every note as that will prevent you from playing at a faster tempo let your fingers rest gently on the keys when they're not pressing down a note when you're playing higher or lower on the keyboard simply lean from side to side rather than scooting on the bench and here's a super important tip play very slowly until you've mastered the pattern if you prioritize perfection over speed you'll eventually be able to play both quickly and accurately once you're comfortable playing at a slow speed play the exercise with a metronome this will reinforce the strict timing and clean playing that you're trying to develop if you're a beginner set the metronome to 60 beats per minute and play one note to the beat like this [Music] as you become more confident play two notes to the beat [Music] finally work your way up to playing four notes to the beat [Music] now that you've mastered the exercise with the metronome slowly work on building up speed if you increase the metronome speed by 8 to 12 beats per minute each week before long you'll be able to play very quickly 108 beats per minute is a good goal speed once you've mastered the exercise play it musically by using different keys touches and shading you're already familiar with playing the exercise legato or smoothly so try playing it staccato or detached [Music] you can also experiment with different rhythmic patterns such as long short [Music] or short long [Music] to create more musical interest add volume variations such as crescendos and innuendos crescendo means to gradually get louder and dimindo means to gradually get softer to apply these concepts to a hand in exercise start out by playing softly and then gradually get louder as you reach the turn around at the top when you come down play more softly towards the end you can reverse this or incorporate smaller crescendos and dimundos for more practice as a fun theory challenge try transposing the exercises to different keys start with simple key signatures like f major g major or a minor or work your way through the circle of fifths i hope these tips have answered your questions about hand and exercises i'm excited to see how they'll strengthen your fingers and improve your technique if you have any questions leave a comment below and don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for notifications so you don't miss any exciting new videos happy piano playing

Channel: Learn Piano with Emma Blair

Views: 26,019

Keywords: hanon, hanon exercises, hanon exercises piano, piano exercises, piano technique, piano lesson, hannon, hanon exercise no 1, hanon exercise 1, hanon exercise #1, how to practice hanon, beginner piano technique

Id: AcLfNC9d02s

Length: 7min 21sec (441 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022