SUPPLEMENT

TECHNICAL REGIMEN, PART 5

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AT TONEBASE.CO

HANON EXERCISES
JEFFREY BIEGEL – INSTRUCTOR

“Sometimes you have to put work before pleasure”.

Written by the French composer Charles-Louis Hanon, the three books of

exercises entitled "The Virtuoso Pianist" – which came to be known simply as
“Hanon exercises” – have been boring students for generations. How can a
teacher or a student make Hanon exercises fun to play?

Jeffrey Biegel offers a number of fresh ideas for going beyond what's printed in
the score and transforming these exercises into something more.

Set a metronome at 72 beats per minute, spread your right hand slightly,
without tension. Biegel puts his left arm over his left leg, and leans his body
slightly forward. Play the first note of the first Hanon exercise, a C below
middle C, and get used to the sensations. Repeat it with the metronome a few
times, in the right hand only.
Exercise 1

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 Then play the full exercise, one note per beat. Lift each finger after you release it
from the key.

When you reach the upper limit of your metronome, divide the number in half and
play two notes per beat. There isn’t much need to play the entire page at 72
beats per minute. You build fluidity, speed, and evenness by allowing the tempo
to grow as your fingers get warmed up.

Next, repeat the same exercise or play another one in your left hand. Biegel
usually prescribes three exercises a day from Book 1 (exercises 1 to 20), and one
or two a day from exercises 21 to 31. This way, you’ll have every exercise done
in a week or two!

Recall from earlier lessons, that the finger should strike the key firmly, but relax
immediately afterward to avoid tension.

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 Here are some other ways to play the notated exercises. You can play each note
with various articulations – legato, staccato, or one hand legato and one hand
staccato. Then you can switch hands for the descending portion of the exercises.

You can also alter the rhythmic values of notes in the exercise, such as waiting
for one extra beat on every downbeat.  Try playing the exercises over a triplet
subdivision, or a dotted sixteenth one. These exercises will be very helpful in the
music of Bach, where scale patterns are presented in various ways with different
articulations. Biegel also demonstrates Hanon exercises with his hands crossed.

Try both right hand over left, and left hand over right. Continue to add all the
previous modifications to speed, rhythm, and articulation. Also be sure to allow
your body to follow the hands, and don’t let the hands rest on each other, either.

Josef Lhévinne, a Russian pianist from the early twentieth century, used to
recommend playing exercises in four speeds. Using Hanon #21 as an example
(excerpt on the following page), take a metronome and begin at 60 BPM, fitting
four notes per beat. When that is comfortable, move to 80 BPM, then 92, and
then 108. The numbers you choose are up to you. Never go so fast that you lose
contact with the bottom of the keys.

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 Exercise 21

While some teachers transpose these

exercises, Biegel likes to play them in C,
since it promotes maximum evenness on
the white keys. It gives him the sense
that there are no spaces between his
fingers. Imagining music as a connected
whole, rather than measures separated
by barlines, helps with this feeling of
“flow” and “evenness” as Biegel puts
it. 

Remember that pianos of Hanon’s time

had much lighter action, and were
easier to play on. Be careful not to
overwork yourself or feel pain while
playing.

An heir to the
legacy of Josef
Lhévinne and Adele
Marcus, Jeffrey
Biegel has garnered
a reputation as a
prolific pianist and
sought-after
teacher.

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