Poor Piano Hand Technique?
My piano teacher keeps telling me to play hand technique studies like Czerny to develop my hands. He says if i don't develop my hands now i won't be able to play more complicated stuff later on. Its really boring though and i never do it. If i don't develop my hands would i still be able to manage the harder stuff later on? I don't think my hand technique is that bad but i wouldn't say its that great either. Advice from pianist is much appreciated
Comments
I was very similar to you a while ago, but even though I constructed several arguments against the use of such technical exercises I do I fact use them quite frequently now. There is a fair amountof debate on the subject, but most professional pianists I have talked to do advocate technical exercises. On a side note, don't forget scales and arpeggios, which are probably the most useful of all technical exercises.
I don't know why, but they really do help - they are normally developed by excellent pianists who truly understand the issues of piano playing and the most common technical deficiencies of pianists and they propose exercises to fix them. I would recommend Bach as well as normal technical exercises - much of his music was didactic and for some reason it works wonders for technique. Etudes (for example the Chopin and Scriabin ones) can be more enjoyable than bland Hanon and Czerny while still also being technically oriented.
I would say that some people do far much of those exercises. This makes them forget musicality and can result in a not well-rounded technique. Much of instrumental practice is about having a well balanced technique, so practice pieces from all periods and styles. It is up to you to find a balance that you think works well, but if you want to be good you will have to do some things you don't want to. Most importantly, however, if you find piano playing becomes a chore, then it is normally more constructive to reduce whatever you find boring and add something enjoyable, because normally you will practice more and have better quality practice.
Hope this helps.
If you aren't going to listen to your teacher why are you having lessons?
It is only after doing the prescribed etudes that you will realize how little you had to go on before.
There is a notion that a disciplined study and practice (that's what it IS) should be 'fun' all the time. There is a lot of work that is 'no fun' but pays off huge dividends. No one has yet written up the Czerny Etudes as monuments of great music, yet generation of generation of concert pianists have pretty consistently gone through many of them, exactly for the technical workout they offer, and the benefit of having done such exercises.
Do them - you will really be astonished, after the fact, at how much easier the studies of the later difficult pieces you want to play become. You need them, exactly as the teacher prescribed.
If you really want to get better, and be and sound accomplished, and tackle those more interesting and more difficult works of more 'musical value.' you will do exactly what your teacher says.
Best regards.
Forget about Czerny. Focus on Bach´s Well Tempered Clavier.
Listen to your teacher! What he's saying is very true. Even doing exercises for ten minutes a day is better than nothing. Exercises get your hands ready for more challenging pieces.. And yes, it will be much harder to learn those pieces if you don't do your exercises!