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I'm sorry that it does that to you. I know from personal experience that it doesn't do that to everyone.

Your take on it of course, but hardly binding.

Transposing the first 30 exercises (the others are bad signal to noise ratio) can be very beneficial, but only if the brain is fully involved.

Personally, I prefer the Dohnanyi exercises, but a good run-through of Hanon in a key besides C major is actually a lot of fun. Then try this: work your way backwards!

Interesting things happen.

I started with Hanon, but now I prefer Dohnanyi.
I occasionally do some weird things with Hanon, like some of the exercises that have been mentioned here.

All the exercises you could ever want are right there in the music, if it is practiced properly. But of course if you enjoy Hanon then it certainly won't do any harm. But in direct response to the young man who started the post I think using actual music from composers such as Bach for his technical study would do allot more good for his song writing carrier then Hanon. He could always do both, but if it didn't cut into his creative time for composing

When you say playing Hanon in different keys, do you mean that you just transpose it? Or is there another book that focuses on that?

Just transpose it. Same fingering.

Which of the three parts does this apply ? Because I wound't know how to, for example, transpose the very first exercise ...

For the very first exercise, start on D, imagining you are in the key of D major (F# and C#) and use the same fingering and the same progression as in the first exercise. If it makes it any easier, using the music of the first exercise, start reading it and playing at measure two and, following the music continue, keeping in mind that F and C are sharped as you go up. For the last measure ascending, read the first measure one octave higher.

That should be easy enough.

Regards,

That makes sense! Thanks
I will definitely try it, when I'm more proficient with Hanon, because for now I've only been playing the first exercise at 60 bpm the last week (first day hands separate), and will start increasing the speed a little day by day.

Shouldn’t you write it out to make it easier to transpose? (it’s not written out in the book.) For me it’s a little tough to transpose some of these Hanon exercises in my head in realtime!

Now in response to Miguel Rey, I have a deep, maybe even stupid, question for you and others based on something you said. People act like the more good music you hear the better, because it is a good compositional influence. It intrigues me to take the opposite of that thought though. I hear a lot of guys on this forum freaking out cause they have certain musical ideas that are in other influential pieces in their own work. Now you take someone like me who doesn’t listen to a lot of other classical musicians, and you see I don’t have that problem so much as others perhaps. So in essence, is it possible for you to listen to too much music so that it spoils your musical appetite so to speak, and makes you tend to gravitate toward certain sequences/hooks/etc. from other composers? I’ve carried this fear and therefore have been trying to play it safe with non-musical exercises like Hanon.

I know that’s pretty deep and I’m not sure this thread was quite ready for that, lol. But I would appreciate any insight as to whether that’s just a lot of nonsense or a legitimate thought pattern.

"...Shouldn’t you write it out to make it easier to transpose? (it’s not written out in the book.) For me it’s a little tough to transpose some of these Hanon exercises in my head in realtime!..."

You took the words out of my mouth. Writing it out on score paper--- including the fingering, which is not going to be the same for every key--- is not a heavy chore, and could be very helpful.

"...So in essence, is it possible for you to listen to too much music so that it spoils your musical appetite so to speak..."

In music as in food, a balanced and varied 'diet,' taken in moderation, is the best way to go. So says Julia Child: "Eat whatever you want--- but not too much." 'Eating' too much of anything can make you sick of it. Urping up anything is vile, but Hanon urp is the vilest of all. And a Hanon hangover is worse than mixing the grain and the grape: the French (who know--- and after all, Hanon was French) say: "Never."

Learn it in C (the original notated key). Move your fingers a half-step up. Play with the same fingering in all keys (which is not really necessary, Db and E will suffice).

Hanon in all keys

Playing Hanon in each key? Do I use the same fingering I use to practice scales and simply start on Bb, for example? This requires that I adjust all the fingering for each key. Pretty time consuming! Is this the correct approach? Chuck Leavell even recommends this method.

I don't think about Hanon.

I use the same fingering for all of the keys (the major keys, anyway - I don't practice them in the minor keys). I get the idea that is what most people do, those who practice them in different keys.

The exercises only make sense if you _keep the fingering_, and move the hand up one semitone, or one tone, or three semi-tones . . .

. . . So if you're playing in C#, and the original pattern begins on C in C major, your thumb goes _on the C#_ when you start.

This is not "normal fingering" for "normal pieces", but it's just right to develop your skills. All kinds of awkward positions will get their day in the sun.<g>

It also gives you transposition practice, as a side benefit.


. Charles