Book Description

In this short book you will find condensed and simplified versions of the Hanon piano finger exercises 1 - 30 as well as the major, harmonic minor and melodic minor scales in every key (two octaves). What is Hanon? The ‘Hanon Virtuoso Pianist’ is a collection of piano finger exercises designed to give equal strength, agility and flexibility to all five fingers of both hands. Written by Charles-Louis Hanon in the 1800s, these exercises without doubt have become one of the most widely used techniques by today’s pianists. In my opinion these are the best finger exercises available. One really great thing about these exercises is that they are applicable to both absolute beginners and advanced players alike, particularly as the reading ability required is minimal. Whatever your ability, these exercises will help improve your technique and finger strength. So why do I need this book? The whole point is to make it easy to read and to reduce page turns - less is more! In the full version the first 30 exercises take up fifty pages whereas here there are three exercises per page for the first 20, then two per page for the next 10, reducing the fifty pages to just twelve. I initially produced this for my own use only but figured that others may like to take advantage of what I’ve done. Does this mean that the print is just smaller? No, not at all. If you are familiar with these exercises you will know that they are repeated patterns which ascend and descend for two octaves diatonically. To condense and simplify them and consequently eliminate an enormous amount of page turns I have shown: the all-important fingering on the first pattern (as per the original); then the repeated second pattern; then ‘changeover’ patterns between ascending and descending - which are sometimes slightly different; then finally the last pattern of each exercise which again is often very slightly different. All of the exercises can be heard if required in the pdf version (a free link is given at the end of the book).