How Hanon Saved My Technique Without Me Even Noticing

Let’s be honest, pianists:

A lot of us, though not all of us, play Hanon exercises before practice sessions. For me, Hanon was never fun in my beginning years of piano. It always felt like a chore. Like musical broccoli! I knew it was good for me, but I didn’t know exactly why. That's what led me to try answering two crucial questions:

“Why should I start or continue Hanon?"

“Are there better exercises out there than Hanon?"

Why should I start or continue Hanon?

If you are interested in doing these long-term exercises but aren’t sure how effective they truly are, here's what you need to know: Hanon is not the hardest set of exercises out there; there are many many studies extraordinarily harder than it.

However, we must ask, “Does harder mean better when it comes to piano exercises?” Well, what is the purpose of piano exercises? The answer is quite simple: it serves the same purpose as working out at the gym. People consistently go to the gym to gradually get stronger over time. They don’t start with the hardest, most intense workouts, but they eventually get to them through incremental steps. This is what Hanon primarily reflects.

The Three Sections of Hanon

1. Exercises 1–20: Foundational Work

If you own the exercises, you’ll notice that the first 20 exercises look achievable and manageable. They consist of simple finger patterns that go up and down in a scale-like manner. All of these are in the key of C. Pianists of most levels could start these and gain extremely noticeable technical benefits from them.

2. Exercises 21–43: Intermediate Studies

This part of the book has you learn many techniques. Technically advanced and lengthier finger patterns, difficult thumb studies, and all of the single note scales and arpeggios. Mastering this part of the book takes a long time and requires a high amount of patience and focus during practice sessions.

3. Exercises 44–60: The Virtuoso Pianist Section

This part of Hanon has repeated note studies, trills, double note trills, triple note trills, four note trills, four note trills in sixths, and the tremolo. Chordal wrist exercises, much harder finger stretching studies, scales in octaves, broken octaves, and thirds. Arpeggios in octaves, and sustained octaves with detached notes. Yep, there is a lot to learn in this study and it takes years to master!

The Value of Hanon's Span of Techniques

The reason you should start Hanon is because of the span of techniques that it covers. Unlike other studies such as Czerny’s and Cramer’s exercises, Hanon is a set of exercises that even a beginner can start.

I am by no means denying the effectiveness of Czerny and Cramer's exercises; I’ve practiced theirs as well as Hanon’s. But what sets Hanon apart is that it can help a wider range of pianists of different levels than the others. To start Hanon, you only need basic music reading skills and technique.

Why the “Easy” Exercises Matter

The beginning exercises of Hanon are not very difficult but do not skip them. What I didn’t realize when starting is that I was playing the correct notes, but not playing the notes well. Even when going through the easiest of the exercises, my finger weight wasn’t even, I had a harsh touch, I wasn’t completely steady, and many more things were wrong with my technique.

Why do I say this? This is exact proof that technically easier exercises allow us to focus on our overall technique more, rather than just purely hard notes.

Yes, of course, we eventually need to be able to play complex and technically demanding exercises (to become a virtuoso), but you definitely shouldn't start with harder exercises. It’s harmful to your progress, being able to halfway play harder exercises is nothing compared to being able to do the fundamental exercises perfectly.

I am not implying that Hanon doesn’t eventually get very difficult, but I am simply saying that the first exercises are much more beginner-friendly than some of the other sets of studies. Because Hanon gradually introduces new technical difficulties, the pianist has a chance to build a solid technical foundation with the easy exercises that then help you overcome the scarier ones that come later.

What Makes Hanon Unique

But doesn’t every study progressively get harder and harder? Absolutely, I’m not denying that at all.

What I am saying is that most exercise books don’t span the techniques for a beginner to the techniques for a virtuoso. Most cover intermediate techniques to virtuoso techniques. This is what makes Hanon an absolute must-have for any aspiring musician. It can turn a beginner into a virtuoso with the correct type of practice.

Should You Only Practice Hanon?

Should you only practice Hanon exercises and never others? Nope!

While Hanon covers the widest range of technical difficulties, that doesn’t mean it covers the hardest techniques. This is where I think exercise books like Cramer and Czerny’s exercise books are very beneficial.

Some questions may be, “When should I start these more advanced exercise books? After I've learned all of Hanon? After I’ve learned half of Hanon? A quarter?”

While not every size fits all, I would strongly suggest starting one other more technically advanced exercise book after you’ve learned the first 20 Hanon exercises. After you learn the first 20 very well, you’ll have a good enough foundation to start another set.

The ones I chose and practiced the most are the technical exercises Franz Liszt wrote. These have technically benefited me beyond comprehension, and I would suggest them to anyone interested in heavily pursuing the romantic era works.

Final Thoughts

To sum things up, Hanon is a necessity for anyone pursuing mastery of the piano. It offers many technical benefits that will bring you very far in your musical journey, even if you are a beginner.

You must take care to read the directions of how to practice them from Hanon himself, and then apply the instructions to your practicing. These are best to be studied at the beginning of your practice session. After some of them are learned solidly, they work amazingly for warm-ups.

Hanon is the best because it can help beginners as well as advanced players.

Conclusion

I hope this has been helpful if you've had any questions or concerns about starting Hanon. I strongly suggest that you start studying the exercises as soon as possible, because Hanon is a long journey.