Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum [Poll] Which exercise book do you do and why?

Inspired by this post.

You can vote and view the results here.

I myself had to do a bit of Schmitt exercises with my first teacher and Hanon with the rest. So it has been prescribed to me and I can't argue for or against either. However I like the small volume of the Schmitt exercises.

I've been using this book recently

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Finger-Exercises-Ernst-Dohnanyi/dp/1480304883

I use Hanon. It was assigned by my teacher so not my choice but I quite like the exercises, I've gained a lot of strength in my 4th fingers.

Hanon numbers 1, 6, and 15, in every key using the C major fingering. It's part of my daily warm up. I do one key every day.

Dohnanyi looks interesting because you have to hold some keys while playing. That requires a very relaxed technique.

Meghdad - Good poll. If you'd like to modify the poll or create a similar expanded one in the future, there are many other ways to improve the fingers and hands. Some are for intermediate and advanced players. Some are more musical (etudes) than others. Some contain exercises and/or etudes from multiple composers. Including your choices, here is a partial list:

Hanon
Czerny
Schmitt
Chopin
Debussy
Liszt
Rachmaninoff
Scriabin
Kohler
Bach
Burgmuller
Bartok
Schytt
Beyer
Gurlitt
Schumann
Oscar Peterson (Jazz Player)
Heller
Moszkowski
Palmer (Alfred's)


There are several more, but these are the ones that come to mind because I've been looking at them lately. Be sure to keep the level of difficulty in mind. You can find these on Amazon and elsewhere. Also, some people use multiple exercise and etude composers, so you might want to allow more than one choice in your polls. Personally, I like and will be using many of the exercise and etude composers on the above list.

Stormbringer

I like these quite a lot.

Wieck studies

Hanon, 60 exercises. But you knew that...

Czerny and Beyer. They were recommended by my teachers in China and were available.

Yeah I was aware of some of them however I they are not finger exercises (as in you know, strength and independence e.g) are they? I should have added the finger adjective to distinguish from the "musical" ones.

That said, I'm gonna edit the poll based on your suggestions.

Same with Schmitt and that's one more reason I like it more than Hanon. It also introduces those exercises early in the book.

Another thing worth mentioning is that a week ago I felt like trying some of the exercises in Schmitt and even though I have done quite a few Hanon exercises, those early Schmitt ones were curiously more challenging that I'd expected. And I'm not even talking about those 'hold down one key and play other keys' exercises.

Those two are also popular books in my country. I must say I quite enjoy practicing Beyer even though many people here disregard it for being too old or boring.

Care to explain a bit why did you choose it? Was it assigned by your teacher or else, why didn't you for example choose Schmitt?

The option "none" is missing. I haven't done any finger exercise up until recently, when I stumbled upon very advanced material. And even then, I don't do exercises from a book. You can reach your goal equally well with targeted practicing and exercises based on the piece you're playing imho.

Yes that's the topic that was raised in the other thread about Hanon exercises (not sure if it was you hehe). Many of our fellows believe that they can be effective in mastering a particular technique faster than just practicing pieces. I myself don't have an informed opinion on this, but based on the general consensus I'd continue the finger exercises.

P.S 'None' option added.

My teacher used the Dozen a Day series. I think I went through 5 or 6 volumes. Highly recommended, but should probably only be used under direction of a teacher, as there are generally no instructions for these diverse and progressive technical exercises.

Meghdad - Wow, the poll looks excellent now. Great job on the update!

Yes, etudes are exercises in disguise. They accomplish many of the same things as the older exercises do. Only difference is that they aren't so "dry" because they are more musical. The advantage to using etudes instead of "dry" exercises is that they are funner and more musically interesting to play. This keeps more people interested whereas they might lose interest if they were just dry exercises.

I like both etudes and dry exercises : )

Hope that makes sense.

Stormbringer

The teacher got her students into Czerny-Germer 50 selected Studies and Palette of Touches. They are less boring than Hanon.

Dozen a Day.
Because my teacher assigns them.
I've been in Book 4 so long that the cover has fallen off. Maybe I can get to Book 5 before Book 4 completely disintegrates.

FYI -> https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=14597.0