Check out my latest guest blog post for Pianist Magazine on the importance and value of Czerny exercises. Also, learn why I think they are so much more helpful in developing technique than Hanon exercises. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading this post, please subscribe here to receive monthly email updates on my performing activities and blogs on lesser-known works and teaching.
In this particular exercise, students learn a variety of lessons: hand independence, melodic and legato playing, controlling LH support figures, and the use of multiple articulations and touches.
I am a firm believer that musicianship and technique should be developed collaboratively—this study accomplishes both rather efficiently. We all want to get to a point where we can play Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninov etudes—the pinnacle of the piano literature. In order to reach this level, however, we need to incorporate a steady diet of scales, arpeggios, and chords, which are the building blocks of Western literature, as well as the appropriate repertoire.
I also propose that one should add Czerny exercises to the mix because they allow students to further develop these fundamental skills—setting up a good foundation for the future when one tackles more difficult etudes. There are so many musicians with this awful condition and once established, it is difficult to eradicate. Much of my time as a piano teacher is spent correcting bad or inappropriate technique especially in adults or more advanced players, who have unwittingly allowed the problem to get out of hand.
I love teaching technique and could wax lyrical about it for hours on blog posts so do let me know if you want more info! My professor insisted on Czerny studies and other studies too. In fact all my teachers from the beginning have insisted on this and I also believe that they are the best way to learn complete physical freedom in piano playing.
I studied two or three every week and remember practising them first thing in the morning for an hour or two. They were swiflty followed by a strong coffee and some Liszt incidentally! When studying technnique, I find it necessary to practice with complete finger independence in mind i. The wrist causes problems for most students. High wrists or stiff low wrists merely exacerbate tension and if continued, make playing at speed and with great power impossible or at least very difficult.
Fingers should work alone from the knuckles so in effect the whole arm is just supporting the fingers and allowing for beautiful tone production. Fourth and fifth fingers are always weak so they need special attention and lots of work normally.
Try keeping your wrists as free as possible by keeping them moving so they are fluid. Adults and teenagers find changing the way they play awkward and soul destroying at first, but they soon realise they feel better once they start releasing their tension problems and almost immediately their stiffness goes away. Find a teacher who can explain and demonstrate all of the above.
Covering a huge array of styles and genres, the course features a large collection of progressive, graded piano repertoire from approximately Grade 1 to advanced diploma level, with copious practice tips for every piece. A convenient and beneficial course for students of any age, with or without a teacher, and it can also be used alongside piano examination syllabuses too.
You can find out more about my other piano publications and compositions here. I do practice scales and some short exercises every day guided by my piano teacher. What are your thoughts on the relative importance of Czerny-type etudes for the adult amateur, given our usually limited practice time?
Making sure that each finger plays properly alone especially the 4th and 5th fingers to the bottom of the key whilst keeping the wrist free. My teacher gave me an exercise that I think is somewhat along those lines, using the fingers and not the wrist:.
Hold down each finger on a note and tap each adjacent key with the next finger, allowing the other fingers on that side to move as a relaxed unit. So you would hold a C, for example, with the thumb, and then play the D with the index finger, keeping the other fingers close and relaxed. Then hold down index finger on D, play the C with the thumb. Then hold down D with the index finger, play E with middle finger, and so on. I do love listening to piano though and many time wish I could play.
Valuable and interesting blogging: thank you. Thanks for the post and for your conversations on youtube I discovered your channel listening to your discussion with Katsaris. This is a nice topic with tons of different views. I would ask you why not use baroque music to build up technique? Scarlatti is the foundation of keyboard thus piano technique. Many Cramer etudes for instance are very Scarlatti-like, because Cramer studied his sonatas. Always easier said than done… It takes time, patience and concentration.
However, this cannot be further away from the truth. In his exercises and etudes he covered pretty much every single aspect of classical and romantic pianism and for those who might be thinking that all of his etudes are about playing fast — this also includes playing slow cantabile , or I would even say — bel canto. Though being a scrupulous teacher, demanding precision and quality, he also demanded depth of feeling, elasticity and freedom of delivery.
From my own experience I can say that if there are any technical problems with the repertoire one is studying, using the appropriate etude by Czerny very likely will solve them. However, we have to know where to look and how to look. Navigating through hundreds and hundreds of his etudes is really not easy. I would imagine that every teacher has their favourite opuses, as do I. This Opus is an excellent starting point for beginners and pianists of intermediate level at any age.
The minute exercises contain snippets featuring a huge variety of technical elements to help build an excellent foundation of good pianistic habits.
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