Finger exercises for piano players

By | April 7, 2021

Things to think about

Before you start playing exercises, there are several things to focus on before you start and when you play. Be sure to drill your fingers hard into the buttons. The keys that are played should always be fully depressed if you practice förte or pianissimo.

Be sure to exercise slowly first and then gradually accelerate each exercise once you have become comfortable with it, perhaps one to two metronome clicks per day.

Having your fingers perfectly bent as instructed by your piano teacher is essential when practicing. Improper finger curvature during daily warm-ups and exercises can generate exceptionally unpleasant habits that take up your valuable time and effort to repair.

Reaching an advanced level as a pianist is not an excuse to give up finger exercises. To cope with the difficulty of the pieces they play, those who are more advanced must spend more time training than beginners.

Hanon

Charles-Louis Hanon was a virtuoso French pianist best known for his composition ‘The Virtuosian Pianist in 60 Exercises’, commonly known as ‘Hanon’. First published in 1873, the exercise is divided into three parts of 20 exercises each.

Progress through the exercises numerically, because everyone is different. Spend one or two weeks on each exercise, and train only one at a time for the two weeks. For each exercise, you can train differently for the entire week or two that you spend on it. Different ways to train them is to play them staccato, legato and in a long or short long rhythm. It is not absolutely mandatory to complete the entire exercise, but many virtuosos and teachers

Scales and Arpeggios

Not only are scales and arpeggios an effective way to warm up, but they also build experience as they consistently appear in beginner, intermediate and advanced pieces. Knowledge of all keys’ scales and arpeggios in all forms, including large, smaller, harmonic smaller, natural smaller and reduced, is really basic for advanced piano players.

Along with Hanon, you should play scales every day as a workout and a warm-up for your fingers. Like Hanon, the scales should be divided into time frames, for example training c-smaller scales for one week and then d-smaller scales next week. Having dexterity and strength in the fingers is the most important part of becoming a virtuoso piano player. Hard pieces require not only an advanced level of mobility and speed in the fingers, but also the combination of strength and agility.

Source:danspela.com