What do you think?
Rate this book
Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist Sixty Exercises for Piano Complete Edition
(Piano Method). Since the first release of this classic Schirmer edition over 100 years ago, almost anyone who has taken piano lessons for more than two years has played from The Virtuoso Pianist . Millions of copies have been sold of these progressive exercises which guide a player's technique, building finger independence and strength. This was the first American edition released of this music, and remains a classic at a remarkably affordable price.
116 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1873
242 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
February 25, 2022
Simply the best of its kind. Basic enough to really work the fingers. All you really need is this - work through them all - coupled with the Chopin Études, which approach routine studies with breathtaking musicality. Far more interesting than endless scales and arpeggios.
February 20, 2015
Most students will agree: there's nothing worse (or more boring) than playing "outdated" exercises. After all, who really plays classical anymore? Everyone wishes they could mimic Bach or Mozart, but isn't that impossible? (I mean seriously, they were both child-virtuoso's!)
Practice does, indeed, help your piano-playing improve. Quite dramatically, in fact. But the great composers have shared a secret with us humble modern musicians that most teachers fail to pass on to their students. What's the secret? It's simple. Hanon exercises.
In order to play long passages that are difficult, one must have strong finger muscles. And strong hands. And strong arms; while you're at it, develop those shoulder muscles and strengthen your stomach muscles. Don't believe me? Any professional musician will tell you that playing the piano with skill is a full-body workout.
Hanon's exercises sound boring and repetitive and frankly, look intimidating when you open the book's cover. But in one week, fifteen minutes a day of faithful and diligent practice will give you results that may shock you. Because Hanon knew the hidden strength a pianist has when they build their muscles with this musical exercise book.
The exercises are all very simple once you learn them. The secret is repetition. As you practice, you'll begin to build up speed--which is where the strength training comes in hand (no pun intended). This book is a musician's best friend and a lifesaver when preparing for college-level music studies, heavy classical music, a recital or when you've encountered a hand injury and need to put those muscles back into shape. HIGHLY recommended.
Practice does, indeed, help your piano-playing improve. Quite dramatically, in fact. But the great composers have shared a secret with us humble modern musicians that most teachers fail to pass on to their students. What's the secret? It's simple. Hanon exercises.
In order to play long passages that are difficult, one must have strong finger muscles. And strong hands. And strong arms; while you're at it, develop those shoulder muscles and strengthen your stomach muscles. Don't believe me? Any professional musician will tell you that playing the piano with skill is a full-body workout.
Hanon's exercises sound boring and repetitive and frankly, look intimidating when you open the book's cover. But in one week, fifteen minutes a day of faithful and diligent practice will give you results that may shock you. Because Hanon knew the hidden strength a pianist has when they build their muscles with this musical exercise book.
The exercises are all very simple once you learn them. The secret is repetition. As you practice, you'll begin to build up speed--which is where the strength training comes in hand (no pun intended). This book is a musician's best friend and a lifesaver when preparing for college-level music studies, heavy classical music, a recital or when you've encountered a hand injury and need to put those muscles back into shape. HIGHLY recommended.
August 18, 2010
Outdated poison. There's a better way to develop piano technique: practise a piece you enjoy with fierce attention to the score and the sound of your own playing.
Addendum: After attending piano school for a week, I feel obliged to admit that there might be some value to finger exercises. However, after revisiting these, one's time could be better spent with Brahms' 51 Exercises.
Addendum 2:
I have changed my mind after using these to warm up for piano playing after a long break. These can be a useful means of rehearsing the basics of rhythmic security and good keyboard contact, and therefore I have to admit that I was a little harsh in my previous reviews. Apologies to M. C. L. Hanon!
Addendum: After attending piano school for a week, I feel obliged to admit that there might be some value to finger exercises. However, after revisiting these, one's time could be better spent with Brahms' 51 Exercises.
Addendum 2:
I have changed my mind after using these to warm up for piano playing after a long break. These can be a useful means of rehearsing the basics of rhythmic security and good keyboard contact, and therefore I have to admit that I was a little harsh in my previous reviews. Apologies to M. C. L. Hanon!
November 20, 2024
It’s a great book for building good foundation & warm-up!
July 27, 2025
I just discovered this is on goodreads... Well, now I've seen everything. Does this really count as a book? Yes, it has pages which one can turn, and technically you do "read" music, but I don't know if I can give this a pass. It's a music book. Furthermore, it's finger exercises which counts as music in only the technical sense. Since it is on this site, though, I reckon I'll rate it, and it deserves five stars. Not because there is anything approaching a hep tune contained within, but because they are great exercises for warming up before practice, and for giving one technical skill if practiced correctly. That reminds me of something my piano professor in college once told me: "They say practice makes perfect, but that's not correct. Perfect practice makes perfect." Meaning if you're practicing something incorrectly, then you're never going to get it right.
I was a piano major in college for a year and half before I gave it up. (The major, not the instrument, to be clear.) It was just too demanding, and it eventually sucked all the fun out of playing. I learned a lot, but I just didn't have the dedication necessary to be great. For anyone who pooh-poohs a music major, let me tell you it ain't no joke. Where I went you were required to practice 14 hours a week on your primary instrument, seven hours on your secondary, and you had to participate in some kind of choir which had a few practice sessions every week. (I went with the handbell choir. Yeah, yeah, I know dorkus maximus, but I actually had a lot of fun with it.) That's three hours a day of practice not including the choir thing and performances. When you add in the music classes which weren't very easy either (I never got headaches until I started taking music theory classes), and then pile on everything from regular classes, and that didn't leave any time for the real stuff you're supposed to be doing in college, which is just hanging out with dormmates, partying, and getting drunk.
When I was serious about becoming a better pianist, I warmed up with exercises from this book. I had to memorize 10 every semester and be prepared to play any of them during the exam, and they built on each other, meaning I had to know the first 30 for the exam during my third semester. The professor might ask for any one of the 30, not just the 10 new ones I learned that semester. That was 25 years ago, though, and I've since forgotten them all except the first two. However, a few years ago when I was trying to get back into piano because I had to play for my mother's church one Christmas, and I was teaching a friend who wanted to learn, I used this book to get my fingers back into shape, and it seemed to help. That and the scales, arpeggios, broken chords, etc. I've slipped back to playing just a couple of times a month, and basically, I suck. I mean bad. People (nonmusicians) tell me I still sound alright, but anyone with a musical ear would want to puncture his eardrum with a screwdriver. I did play for a bit the other night, and the way I was hitting the keys, I don't know why they didn't jump up and hit me back. But that's still better than one practice session sometime last year when the elephant who donated the ivories for my piano showed up at the door demanding they be returned if they were going to be abused in such a fashion. (I promised to do better, and he went away.)
I've always found parts of the preface for this to be amusing, so the rest of this review will be a few quotes from it (and me arguing with them in italics). Bear in mind this was written 150 years ago.
"The study of the piano is now-a-days so general, and good pianists are so numerous, that mediocrity on this instrument is no longer endured." (A truer word was never spoke. I've gone from mediocre to abysmal, and that's what my poor family now has to endure if they're unfortunate enough to return to the house while I'm amusing myself at the piano.) "In consequence, one must study the piano eight or ten years before venturing to perform a piece of any difficulty, even at a gathering of amateurs." (I don't know; I used to impress people long before I hit the eight or ten year mark. Hanon's students must've really sucked.)
"These piano exercises are interesting, and do not fatigue the student like the generality of five-finger exercises, which are so dry that one requires the perseverance of a true artist to summon up courage to study them." (Hanon is overly impressed with himself. "Interesting" is not a word I would apply to these, and some of them are as dry as yesterday's dust.)
"If desired, any of these finger exercises may be played on several pianos simultaneously, rousing a spirit of emulation among the students..." (Say, that does sound like a rip-roaring good time: Surround sound scales! And while I know some finger exercises that could be considered rousing, they don't have anything to do with a piano.)
"The exercises are so arranged, that in each successive number the fingers are rested from the fatigue caused by the one preceding. The result of this combination is, that all mechanical difficulties are executed without effort or weariness..." (Lies. LIES! A falsehood of this magnitude would make even Dr. Fauci blush with shame. These things sometimes wore my hands and wrists out.)
"This entire volume can be played through in an hour; and if, after it has been thoroughly mastered, it be repeated daily for a time..." (That's just what the other residents of the house need: a full Hanon concert every... single... day... You wouldn't last a week before someone popped a cap in your dome.)
All kidding aside, I'll reiterate that this is a great tool for getting your fingers back into shape and running a couple of these at random for a warmup does wonders for loosening up the fingers.
But seriously, why is this on goodreads?
I was a piano major in college for a year and half before I gave it up. (The major, not the instrument, to be clear.) It was just too demanding, and it eventually sucked all the fun out of playing. I learned a lot, but I just didn't have the dedication necessary to be great. For anyone who pooh-poohs a music major, let me tell you it ain't no joke. Where I went you were required to practice 14 hours a week on your primary instrument, seven hours on your secondary, and you had to participate in some kind of choir which had a few practice sessions every week. (I went with the handbell choir. Yeah, yeah, I know dorkus maximus, but I actually had a lot of fun with it.) That's three hours a day of practice not including the choir thing and performances. When you add in the music classes which weren't very easy either (I never got headaches until I started taking music theory classes), and then pile on everything from regular classes, and that didn't leave any time for the real stuff you're supposed to be doing in college, which is just hanging out with dormmates, partying, and getting drunk.
When I was serious about becoming a better pianist, I warmed up with exercises from this book. I had to memorize 10 every semester and be prepared to play any of them during the exam, and they built on each other, meaning I had to know the first 30 for the exam during my third semester. The professor might ask for any one of the 30, not just the 10 new ones I learned that semester. That was 25 years ago, though, and I've since forgotten them all except the first two. However, a few years ago when I was trying to get back into piano because I had to play for my mother's church one Christmas, and I was teaching a friend who wanted to learn, I used this book to get my fingers back into shape, and it seemed to help. That and the scales, arpeggios, broken chords, etc. I've slipped back to playing just a couple of times a month, and basically, I suck. I mean bad. People (nonmusicians) tell me I still sound alright, but anyone with a musical ear would want to puncture his eardrum with a screwdriver. I did play for a bit the other night, and the way I was hitting the keys, I don't know why they didn't jump up and hit me back. But that's still better than one practice session sometime last year when the elephant who donated the ivories for my piano showed up at the door demanding they be returned if they were going to be abused in such a fashion. (I promised to do better, and he went away.)
I've always found parts of the preface for this to be amusing, so the rest of this review will be a few quotes from it (and me arguing with them in italics). Bear in mind this was written 150 years ago.
"The study of the piano is now-a-days so general, and good pianists are so numerous, that mediocrity on this instrument is no longer endured." (A truer word was never spoke. I've gone from mediocre to abysmal, and that's what my poor family now has to endure if they're unfortunate enough to return to the house while I'm amusing myself at the piano.) "In consequence, one must study the piano eight or ten years before venturing to perform a piece of any difficulty, even at a gathering of amateurs." (I don't know; I used to impress people long before I hit the eight or ten year mark. Hanon's students must've really sucked.)
"These piano exercises are interesting, and do not fatigue the student like the generality of five-finger exercises, which are so dry that one requires the perseverance of a true artist to summon up courage to study them." (Hanon is overly impressed with himself. "Interesting" is not a word I would apply to these, and some of them are as dry as yesterday's dust.)
"If desired, any of these finger exercises may be played on several pianos simultaneously, rousing a spirit of emulation among the students..." (Say, that does sound like a rip-roaring good time: Surround sound scales! And while I know some finger exercises that could be considered rousing, they don't have anything to do with a piano.)
"The exercises are so arranged, that in each successive number the fingers are rested from the fatigue caused by the one preceding. The result of this combination is, that all mechanical difficulties are executed without effort or weariness..." (Lies. LIES! A falsehood of this magnitude would make even Dr. Fauci blush with shame. These things sometimes wore my hands and wrists out.)
"This entire volume can be played through in an hour; and if, after it has been thoroughly mastered, it be repeated daily for a time..." (That's just what the other residents of the house need: a full Hanon concert every... single... day... You wouldn't last a week before someone popped a cap in your dome.)
All kidding aside, I'll reiterate that this is a great tool for getting your fingers back into shape and running a couple of these at random for a warmup does wonders for loosening up the fingers.
But seriously, why is this on goodreads?
April 9, 2023
Excellent book about the basics of playing piano and helps build muscle memory with repeated scales, although something that I didn't like about this book is its repetitive format and boring etudes, which lack a sense of musicality.
August 4, 2025
Because:
https://youtu.be/EC_3xg7J4VE?si=a0BL6...
And I totally agree.
https://youtu.be/EC_3xg7J4VE?si=a0BL6...
And I totally agree.
December 12, 2007
These are not only great exercises, they're fun little songs too. Most of them have at least one "trick" that helps build your technique, giving each song a rather unique and mysterious sound. Highly interesting for pianists, maybe not so much for people listening.
July 28, 2013
Standard for piano technique. Must do with attention otherwise, will reinforce whatever bad habits already ingrained.
May 9, 2019
I have only skimmed the Piano exercises! I must say from looking through at the fingering exercises
it will be quite a challenge. I have only four years of learning the piano, and it requires that you have two years of lessons to read and learn and practice to get through the book! I know that you reading this will never hear me play or recite or perform it on the Piano or keyboards, so if there is anyone who knows about fingering and reading music correctly at the same time it's a good challenge!
And a good music book!
[email protected]
[email protected]
it will be quite a challenge. I have only four years of learning the piano, and it requires that you have two years of lessons to read and learn and practice to get through the book! I know that you reading this will never hear me play or recite or perform it on the Piano or keyboards, so if there is anyone who knows about fingering and reading music correctly at the same time it's a good challenge!
And a good music book!
[email protected]
[email protected]
July 2, 2020
While it is an essential collection for technical development (I'm going to be throwing this at people who ask how I type so fast), it doesn't change the fact that it's a rather boring series of études. I prefer the Czerny School of Velocity. But that's just me.
June 23, 2018
Piano Bible
Pianistic medicine...daily dedication required...pearly playing results.
Looks daunting but once the patterns are mastered and played diatonically and modally for a Jazz twist...Virtuoisity will result. My mistakes is forgetting to increase tempo.
Pianistic medicine...daily dedication required...pearly playing results.
Looks daunting but once the patterns are mastered and played diatonically and modally for a Jazz twist...Virtuoisity will result. My mistakes is forgetting to increase tempo.
June 30, 2019
Must do exercises for any Pianist
Every pianist should go through these exercises. Even if you cant achieve the highest speed mentioned, you should continue with the exercises, and then revisit later to get to the highest speed.
Every pianist should go through these exercises. Even if you cant achieve the highest speed mentioned, you should continue with the exercises, and then revisit later to get to the highest speed.
July 19, 2025
This book is the bane of my piano journey. Hanon’s suggestion to lift the fingers as high as possible leads to hand pain. This suggestion could be excused or ignored if the exercises weren’t so plaintively dull.
May 21, 2018
An absolute must have and must use! It's the gold standard.
Read
February 14, 2020Excellent choice for learning piano.
March 5, 2020
I can't fault it for improving dexterity on the piano although it is debateable whether regular practice of scales and arpeggios could be just as good.
December 10, 2020
Build piano-playing muscles
Repetitive, demanding, exacting, challenging
Try not to overdo it
If this is what you are looking for, you found it
Repetitive, demanding, exacting, challenging
Try not to overdo it
If this is what you are looking for, you found it
March 11, 2021
*plin plin plin*
August 4, 2021
Book 1 contains only the first 20 exercises. You might want to consider getting the "complete" version for a better deal.
September 20, 2022
Gruelling, yet ideal. Muscle memory, nimbleness, speed, reaction, technique, it develops it all.
Read
May 10, 2025Adding just to feel like I achieved something on the piano
December 30, 2020
Great Drills
November 13, 2007
Still learning the pieces. Marked as "read" though I'm not done, because piano books aren't exactly the same as regular books you can finish in a day or two. ^_^; For its purpose, this is a useful book, but it can get oh-so-boring at times. *sighs* I'm a picky player.
June 5, 2022
Surprisingly fun —
People say it’s not “musical” but sometimes that’s a good thing. It’s more like a game/challenge than like trying to interpret a piece which helps me focus on developing a specific set of skills without worrying about artistry at the same time.
People say it’s not “musical” but sometimes that’s a good thing. It’s more like a game/challenge than like trying to interpret a piece which helps me focus on developing a specific set of skills without worrying about artistry at the same time.
April 7, 2008
it's a good book, but i'm always bored doing this excercise
December 29, 2010
Drills and technical exercises. The classic reprinted.
July 8, 2011
.very technical
September 14, 2012
A must book for the keyboardist/pianist. Finger independence studies for coordinating the left and right hands. Great technique book.
February 8, 2014
Build a great basics
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews