Do you ... etude?

TC3 · 2026-02-11T16:47:46+00:00

tl;dr version: Do you use etudes (other than those that are so good that they are just treated like repertoire pieces) in your practice? If so, how / how mu...

Nightowl

Animisha I think many hobbyist pianists are also looking for pieces like that, in the Goldilocks zone.

TC3

Animisha So far, my Czerny exercises are four measures long.

Which exercises are those, if I might ask?

Animisha

TC3 Which exercises are those, if I might ask?

The pdf is called Carl Czerny's studies, selected and arranged by Heinrich Germer. I have just started with number 5 and 6. But I see now that the exercises are rapidly growing in size, already number 8 is eight measures.

TC3

Josephine I do the same as you, I use small parts of the piece as an exercise. To make it more fun I use pieces that I would love to play but are too difficult and/or way too long for me.

I like that idea quite a bit!

Animisha The pdf is called Carl Czerny's studies, selected and arranged by Heinrich Germer.

Thanks!

raagamuffin

Animisha
I only started piano recently, I consider anything that I can play well as an accomplishment at this point. 🙂
So given that background, I find Hanon to be painful and boring, though I like Czerny's etudes. I also like Burgmuller's etudes, but many of those are not playable by me just yet. I also like to play snippets of Bach.

I agree with you, it takes about the same amount of time (for me) to learn an etude as some of the simpler pieces I do, so the effort feels quite herculean. But I'm hoping my teacher knows what he's doing when giving me these exercises. Otherwise I'll just be eternally posting Czerny etudes for all the recitals here 🙂

Josephine

Animisha

Hey Animisha!

Have you already tried to play on the first and second beat fast, then pauze. The next two beats fast, pauze, next two beats fast, pauze. And so on? And then again from the start, first beat, pauze, second and third beat fast, pauze, next two beats fast, pauze (now you are playing and connecting notes on other beats fast after each other). And then you could try to play 3 or 4 beats fast, pauze, and so on.

I do this when I can't improve the speed. Another thing I do (when only a few sections are problematic) is playing it faster than it's supposed to be played and using the technique I described only on the parts that I can't play fast, and when it gets easier I go back to the normal speed. Then it suddenly feels easy.

Animisha

Josephine Have you already tried to play on the first and second beat fast, then pauze.

Thank you Josephine! My teacher says my speed limit is caused by tension, and we are working with those Czerny exercises in a very specific way to get rid of tension. So I have put all tricks from my trick book for fast playing aside, and dilligently perform her exercises. Well. Maybe not so very dilligently, but still, often enough.

Josephine

TC3

I do the same as you, I use small parts of the piece as an exercise. To make it more fun I use pieces that I would love to play but are too difficult and/or way too long for me.

I don't think I will ever be able to play a Chopin ballade for instance, I started playing piano too late for that. But I can learn some short sections and use them as an exercise, and that's fun too.

So when I want to learn something I start looking for a beautiful piece that has that particular thing. I also read the sheet music of my favorite pieces and write down all exercises I can find in that piece.

pseudonym58

The cellist Janos Starker and the violinist Otakar Ševčík both wrote books on designing your own exercises based on perceived technical shortcomings. In a sense, this is being taught "how to fish" rather than having fish served to you.
I incorporate some of these techniques in both cello practice and piano practice. It can involve things such as transposition (of very short figures), or practicing even streams of fast notes using dotted rhythms as in long/short and short/long. One or the other rhythm will be much more challenging to play evenly, and that's the one that I then concentrate on.
Hamelin also uses mirror transposition, but that's considerably more difficult for mere mortals such as myself! 😆

plop_symphony

I consider the RCM etudes books to also just be repertoire books. Many of the pieces in there weren't even written as etudes, but they happen to focus on some specific techniques so the syllabi creators chose them for the etude book.

ranjit

I do some of the Hanon five finger 12543423 exercises etc. but that's about it. I do like playing Chopin etudes too if that counts.

Animisha

raagamuffin I agree with you, it takes about the same amount of time (for me) to learn an etude as some of the simpler pieces I do,

I did not say that! My etudes right now are much simpler than my pieces, because they are used to address the tension in my hands, so we can focus on technique and not much time is "wasted" trying to learn the notes.

raagamuffin

Animisha
My apologies, it was OP that hinted at that !

TC3

raagamuffin And I'll downright say it explicitly too! 😃

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