Professional pianist here. They are boring but that’s hardly the biggest issue with Hanon, unfortunately. The biggest problem is the instructions that the composer leaves for the student, which includes the insistence that the student lift the finger high off the keyboard with each note.
I can think of practically nothing more injurious to good technique and nothing more likely to induce tension than this.
Hanon could have some value if teachers and students would employ the concept of weight transfer from finger to finger with constant contact with the keyboard. But his idea of finger calisthenics is a relic of the 19th c.
I can think of practically nothing more injurious to good technique and nothing more likely to induce tension than this.
Hanon could have some value if teachers and students would employ the concept of weight transfer from finger to finger with constant contact with the keyboard. But his idea of finger calisthenics is a relic of the 19th c.