Suddenly back to basics

Volume 2 starts as easy as volume 2. I'll take the opportunity to remind the general gist of these exercises:
Exercises divided in halves: ascend along the keyboard as you play, then descend back to the beginning.
The exercise is mastered once played at the highest tempo (usually 108 beats per minute (BPM))
Fingers are numbered from the thumb (1) to the pinky (5)
Right hand is mapped to the Sol staff (aka G staff)
Left hand is mapped to the Fa staff (aka F staff)

This exercise is exactly like exercise 1, except it has you play five extra notes at the beginning, going up and then down again with RHF1-2-3/LHF5-4-3 and only then jumping with RHF2/LHF4. Same thing on the way down. The only difficulty I had was that the melody is so similar to exercise 1 that I'd begin playing it instead of doing the little combination that this exercise appends to its beginning. Rather than training or easing you into a new realm of finger dexterity, this exercise is more about honing your self-control.

Having come from exercise 20, I was expecting something equally difficult and was left feeling equal parts disappointed and relieved. Doing this exercise after all of that feels like coming back to the place your journey first began as a stronger, more capable adventurer. I wonder if Hanon intentionally placed this exercise here to serve as a morale boost.

Notice that there's more musical notes per measure as compared to the exercises on volume 1, but the tempo is the exact same. Notice that to the right of each staff there is another mark. It indicates how many beats each measure is made of. In this case, it's made of four quarter notes. There's sixteen notes on each measure, meaning each note is a sixteenth. Four sixteenths make a quarter. Maths! Music theory! A concept I've learned and unlearned for years now properly setting in my mind. Practice does make perfect.

Makes you feel your fingers are dexterous

Another fun little exercise that eases all the tension caused by thinking Volume 2 would be a succession of complicated exercises. I jumped so quickly into it from exercise 21 that I'd instinctively play the second part of its up-sequence. That was most of the trouble in mastering this exercise. Even its ending, which departs from the pattern set by the down-sequence, makes such melodic sense that it wasn't awkward at all. It's not remarkable enough that it's on my list of favourites, but it ranks way up there.

If you mastered every previous exercise and manage to play Volume 1 in sequence, this exercise will likely give you no trouble. I can't say for sure since I haven't experienced it any other way, but I'm grateful of my own preseverance. This exercise made it feel like it paid off.

Haven't we just been through this?

A direct, shameless elaboration on exercise #21, which is an elaboration on exercise #1.
Talk about easing the tension... The only trouble to be had here is making sure you don't slip into exercise #21's pattern.

Seriously, I think we've been through this already

Yet another direct elaboration, this time on exercise 22.
I tripped once or twice trying to remember how many times I had to repeat the first four-note sequence before making the jump. I also had a little trouble with my right hand doing the first four-note sequence, because it doesn't seem like I'm moving my fingers right. That is to say, I'm using my wrist more than I am pressing the keys down through the power of my fingers. It's like I don't feel them as sharply as the same fingers on the left hand.

Again, nothing out of this world, but I wasn't going to underestimate any of these exercises. Hanon managed to surprise me every time I began thinking I got the gist of how the book was going to work and my confidence in my ability began to rise.

Like going down a slide

Finally! A fun yet moderately challenging exercise!
This time, the bumps along the road present an interesting challenge. The up-sequence is as much of a climb as the exercise with that title. It feels good to slide the fingers up the keyboard and end the rep with a descending three-note combination that ends in a skilfull-feeling switch of fingers on the left hand (LHF1-2-3->1-3-4). But the really fun part to play is the down-sequence, which goes follows the same logic as the up-sequence, with the finger switch happening at the end of a rep for the right hand (RH3-2-1-3-4). It's like going down a slide and it feels almost cathartic in how fun it is to play. This exercise jumped immadiately to my number 1 favourite after I was done with it.

A fun, if simple challenge had finally shown itself and I was halfway through the first ten exercises of the volume. I knew business was about to pick up.

The least melodically logical piece yet

In our lives, sooner or later, we are met with a barrier that defies all logic and spits on the self-imposed principles which have fueled our Journey.
An inescapable reality that we must confront:

理不尽 「Do as I say」

It finally happened. I may have ran into exercises I disliked, challenges I may have despised, but never did my Soul outright reject an exercise - until now.
The up-sequence is simple enough, the down-sequence is not too bad and the transition to exercise 27 is a challenge to take seriously. But this exercise falls apart at the up-down transition. The melody progression set up by the up-sequence is completely broken. A melodic bump is to be expected considering the down-transition is usually a mirror of the up-transition, but never before is the break so abrupt it destroys the melodic flow of an exercise. There is no other way to say it: exercise 26 sounds bad.

Yet you must play it to progress.
Are you really going to leave behind one exercise just because you feel offended by how it sounds?
Of course not.

The transition from the up- to the down-sequence breaks the flow and the down sequence itself does not sound pretty. Yes, this is Hanon. The sequences are repetitive and are not meant to sound good enough to play in concert. But there is harmony in them. Not here.

Yet, just like exercise #20, I decided to trust the process. It is meant to be a win-win proposition and, although I don't see the benefits now, I am sure to reap them later.
I will do as you tell me. Don't make me regret it.

Finally, a hint of a challenge

Mind you, the exercise by itself is quite simple and rather fun to play. It's the transition from exercise #26 to #27 where the real challenge lies.

The finger positioning within the red rectangle in the picture above. Save this final rep, the down-sequence for exercise 26 always ends with RHF2-1/LHF4-5, with RHF5/LHF1 doing the shift to the next rep. Here, to prepare the finger stance for exercise #27, it's the opposite fingers that do the shift. This shift makes the initial conbination in exercise #27 easier to play, but the inversion in hand position shift coupled with the repeated keystrokes make the transition a little slippery.

It's not as difficult as the 19-20 transition, far from it, but it's the biggest challenge to be found within the first 10 exercises of Volume 2. For me, the trick is to lift the required fingers from their respective keys instead of keeping them resting over them as usual. Let my hands feel lighter and slide my fingers gently over the keys.

I suppose mindset was also a hurdle. Even though I was mentally prepared for things to get tougher eventually, this did not feel at all like the place where I'd find a set-back. Moreso because it's exactly when the exercise I hate the most is just about to end. It's like a poisoned parting gift. I didn't like exercise #26, and exercise #26 didn't like me.

Exercise #5 grows a tail

Go look at exercise #5 one more time. The second half of each rep here is exactly the same thing.
Now go and look at exercise #24. The first half of each rep here presents the same pattern.
So exercise #24 and #28 share a relationship quite similar to exercises #14 and #18.
This makes this exercise as forgettable as exercise #8, but that's already exercise #8's thing...

The challenge of repetition. Will you forget yourself and play the first half as many times as in exercise #24? Will these relationships confuse you? Will the repetition tire you out as you get into the second half of the rep? For me, I found myself falling in the same pitfall described in exercise #5 -- that is, resisting the urge to play the initial part of the second half of the rep faster than I'm supposed. That becomes more of a problem for my right hand on the down-sequence. The first half of the rep has RHF5 feeling numb after a while. Very likely a sitting/arm posture issue I will have to address some time sooner rather than later.

Aside from that, it's a challenge I had already surpassed and managed to surpass again.

Not a thrill

A preparation for the trill for all five fingers. So says the note at the top of this exercise.
... The up-down transition provides the only semblance of a challenge in this exercise.
... Yeah...
... I don't have anything else to say concerning this exercise...
... It's definitely here, and it definitely prepares for the trill...

Well, it reminds me of tap dancing because two fingers adjacent to each other play in succession, then there's a little jump sideways to continue the tap dance with another set of fingers. It becomes kind of fun to play with that mental imagery.

... Is that it?

Another exercise that brings up images of tap dancing. This time the jump sideways is a little longer.
Not very hard to play. Not very challenging. Relatively fun. But I can't help but feel underwhelmed.

After this, I mastered exercises 21-30 in sequence, which was also not particularly difficult.
Yet another test in patience because, this time, it takes twice as long to go through one exercise when comparing with exercises 1-20.
It takes about the same amount of time to perform 1-20 as it does to perform 20-30.


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As of the time of writing (04/06/2024), I have not yet played 1-30 in sequence. I have made some attempts and the transition from exercise #20 to #21 is mastered. However, considering how long it's required of me to play at such a high tempo (a little over 20 minutes... Yeah, I'm a wuss), I'm not challening myself to perform all these exercises in sequence until I have built enough resistance. I'd rather not injure myself than aim for a milestone that the book doesn't specifically mention. They do say it's best to play these exercises as frequently as possible. In my case, I divide my practice in two sessions. The first half of both sessions is a review. In the first session I'll play 1-20 in succession. In the second session I'll play 19-30 in succession. The remaining half is focused on new exercises or any imperfections I detect in my playing. I am yet to tackle actual piano pieces outside those simple ones that come in beginner books. Go me...
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And with this, half the book is done!
30 exercises down, 30 to go!

... So why are there still this many pages left?

Anchor of serenity

This is the bump in difficulty at the exact moment I was expecting.
I studied the fingers to press and hand positioning and understood this was going to be different from all the other exercises in this volume so far.

There's a couple of different things about this exercise. First of all, notice that each measure is composed of 3 quarter notes than the usual 4. It's not shown here, but there's no fluid up-down transition like with all other exercises, as this one demands you wait a full measure at the end of the final rep of the up-sequence before you begin the down-sequence. Furthermore, this exercise demands you make a full octave skip to play one entire rep. Not only that, the left hand begins on the Do (C) key while the right hand begins on the Mi (E) key. This is not the dealbreaker as far as challenge goes but, before we get to that, I must digress.

The combination of sounds caused by the two-key discrepancy in both hands is beautiful to me. It immediately brings autumn hues to my mind. It sounds so serene and feels like closure. If somehow this is where I was to meet the unbreakable wall, it would not have upset me. The melody is sending me off with a kind smile.

So what is the big hurdle in this exercise?
The ending.

In order to end the exercise, the finger to press before the final note is changed compared to the way the down-sequence rep ends. Instead of LHF5/RHF1 and to free those fingers for the finale, it shifts to LHF4/RHF2. This requires a little bit of finger gymnastics to get to work properly. But it didn't feel frustrating. It was more like an excuse to keep playing this exercise. Sure it was frustrating and I struggled a bit to figure out how to properly begin the exercise at whatever point I wanted rather than having to start at the beginning of either the up- or the down-sequence but my mind had little space for negative feelings. I had it all down in about two or three days and hitting that final note was like peering into what musical satori must Be like.

Reading the exercises ahead, my feelings were not completely misplaced. Exercise 31 is indeed the ending to a stage in this book's cycle.
I have also mastered the transition from exercise 30 to 31, just to say I did it. But it doesn't seem required.

Turning the thumb under the second finger

Of note: a measure is now six eight notes; the maximum tempo is now 72bpm

I'm not the best person to ask about this exercise, because I already knew how to play a couple of scales much before I got to it. Most scales require you to make this exact movement. Nevertheless, the up-down transition and the highest tempo present challenges.

As of this writing (07/06/2024), I perform this exercise with all other fingers lifted way above the keys. I assume this is not optimal and requires correction, but I'm not going there for now.

Turning the thumb under the third finger

This exercise presented a bit more of a challenge. The thumb skipping itself is something to keep in mind, but notice the 7th note and the start of each rep: they key pressed by LHF3/RHF2 must immediately give way and allow finger 1 on both hands (the thumb) to play the exact same key afterwards. The key won't even come up if one is too quick, leading to the key press with the thumb to not produce any sound.

The up-down transition and the fastest tempo are challenges in their own right, but time seemed to fly by while I mastered those, as I had more fun playing it than exercise 32.

Turning the thumb under the fourth finger

The same difficulty found in exercise #33 appears here once again. Other than that, this exercise has us back on 2/4 tempo and demanding completion at 108bpm.

The transition in this exercise gives me trouble. For some reason, I keep forgetting exactly when I should begin the down-sequence. I frequently had to go back to the sheet, find out the right key, practice transitioning once and then do the full sequence. This has been happening with decreased frequency, but still frequently enough that it's unprecedented. Since the exercise is not so novel in the difficulties it presents, I suppose I subconsciously want to get on with it to exercise #35, the one I am sure will give me plenty of trouble.

Barrier of transcendence

Here I stand. A waltz tempo of 3/4, hinting at a deadly dance.

The big quirk of this exercise, which is sure to become useful, is that the thumb has to skip a distance equal to the length of one's own hand, maintaining constant speed and accuracy. This is no easy feat. Notice also that the difficulty found in exercises 33 and 34 is also present here. A very empirical way of assuring the balance of one's rhythm.

I started slow and built my way up. Same routine as always: super slow all the way up to 108BPM. And boy did 108BPM give me trouble. Trying to keep the rythm and accurately hit the right key with the thumb at such speeds was difficult. As usual, the up-down transition became the main bottleneck.

It was complete in two days of focused practice. A grand total of 45 minutes of play.

For a little over a year, I've been looking at this exercise believing it would be the one to finally stop me. To finally force feed me a big dose of reality directly to my deluded "you can start at any age and be just as good" brain. So much so that I decided to put advancing through Hanon on hold until I was all caught up with this progress log, so I could relay here my pure, raw feelings of broken dreams, or a better look at my immediate mindset when faced with an incredible obstacle that I eventually clear. It seems like it's not yet the case.

Even so, the 108BPM, although mastered, was difficult to tame. Satisfied, I look over the sheet one more time.

...And realize I was doing at 108BPM an exercise that had its upper limit at 72BPM.

Beyond the barrier

Seeds of doubt are sown with this exercise.

I took some time to read the sheet properly, practiced, nailed mostly everything except the transition, which I read wrong. There's no indication of the BPM I should play this exercise at, so it's assumed it's the same as the previous exercise. Nevertheless, I mastered it at 108BPM because it's easy enough. Only the sheet reading gave me trouble.

Not simply about the thumb

Unaware of it, doubt was continuing to build up.

This exercise doesn't seem so complicated: fingers 2-4-5 press the keys shown at the start for its full length, all the while skipping your thumbs along three keys, which I'll call "low", "mid" and "upper" based on their relative positions. Again, no indication of tempo. I checked online and, again, it's played at a maximum of 72BPM. It was the excuse I needed.

I must have some issue on my right shoulder, because I find myself adding too much strain on my wrist to achieve the movement from mid to upper key. To avoid it, I have to rotate my elbow more than what I'd consider necessary (left hand being my frame of reference). Regardless, I always hit the keys with my thumbs at an angle. For the left-low and right-upper keys, it's not the base of my thumb hitting them, but rather the upper surface, with my nail. I checked online and it doesn't seem like there's any expectation otherwise.

This was a very frustrating exercise to play not only because I felt physically limited, but also because this exercise leans more on precision. I was surprised by the number of times one of the fingers pressed on the keys would come up on its own or play along with the thumb. Playing each measure twice on a slow tempo, wanting to be done with it because it's the final exercise focusing on thumb movement only made me further restless. It didn't take a long time (3 days unfocused, combined 60 minutes), but it was still longer than I would have liked. I tried 108BPM but I didn't progress too much there because it bores me, I'm concerned about my wrist-elbow-shoulder and 72BPM is what's required... Apparently.

Prelude to the True Beginning

I finally become aware of my confusion.
Yet again, no indication of tempo. This should mean the exercise implies a 72BPM max. Yet again I go online and behold, everyone is at 108BPM. I'm beginning to think everyone wings it when there's no tempo on the sheet. Reading ahead, I realize exercise 39 (scales) demands a 120BPM. I compromise and go at exercise 38 with a 108BPM max.

This is far from the first exercise in which the left hand and right hand move in disparately, but the added thumb skipping presents a bothersome pitfall. It took me three sessions to get it right, but only 10 minutes in each were dedicated to this exercise. I got it at 80BPM and procrastinated. The truth is that this exercise caught me by surprise. It's much harder than exercise 35, which I thought would be the grand decider of my near-future. Looking at what they demand of me, it's easy to assume this to be the case.

I was so mentally ready to ace this exercise in half a session that, having skipped directly to 108BPM, I was beyond frustrated that I couldn't even land one rep cleanly. So I let it simmer with the summer heat. Ultimately, the drive to challenge myself prevailed. I got it right at 108BPM and flipped the page to exercise thirty-nin--

Exercise 38, part 2

The Concept of perfect evenness

I was so ready to stop thinking about it that I forgot exercise 38 has two pages. Now, by going up the keyboard on one hand and down with the other, they become a perfect mirror. However, the next rep has both hands move up the keyboard, meeaning the jump between reps is different for both hands. This disconnect discouraged me before even trying. Things only got worse when I began: it's hard to look at both hands to make sure I'm starting the new rep properly. So I let the exercise simmer again, this time for much longer.

A week later, with no more excuses to keep away, I finally got back on the piano. Two whole hours over the course of the day, playing this exercise with either hand only, at different tempos, trying to understand my weaknesses. Like all previous exercises, I can play witthout looking at the keyboard when using only one hand. Unlike all previous exercises, I can't do it when playing both hands. I played some more and realized that, somehow, my right hand always landed in the right spot at the start of a new rep, so long as I believed myself

And why shouldn't I?
How long have I been going at this? Playing these mindless exercises to improve dexterity. My fingers always hit the right spots in all other exercises. Why shouldn't they now? Just because I'm faced with a never-seen-before movement? How many times has that happened before?

I kept playing and took mental note of how my right arm, wrist, elbow and shoulder were moving. The distance from one rep to another. I consciously applied the same distances to my left arm. When I believe myself, I land every rep. When my mind drifted, into asking how the hell was I pulling this off, looking back at the keyboard to check if the fingers were really landing on the right keys, suddenly my playing would crumble. It's not the first time this happens, but this felt different. The movements I was employing were charged with greater intent. It wasn't only my fingers or wrists moving. My whole arms, even my body, were part of the process. Moving at the same time, the same distance. Amidst the moments of mental chaos, the answer to the why revealed itself in a mantra that extinguished all doubt.

Perfect evenness.

This is what is meant in the book. This is the way I should have been playing all along. I had always hit the keys with a little too much strength, which always made me tire quicker than I'd like. Thinking about each hand as the opposite of the other rather than as complementary extentions of a whole.

My playing felt gentler. My mind felt lighter. And as I got to the up-down transition, which mercifully allows us a whole measure of pause (image not shown), I slid down without a second thought. And thus I reach the final note, perfect evenness stabilising my thoughts.

The exercise was complete. At 80BPM. Having spent a combined total of 120 minutes of my day on this, I decided to leave 90 and 108BPM to the next day. And in the next day I finally nailed a complete play of exercise 38 at 108BPM in 10 minutes.

Having spent so long playing no other exercises, I decided to do a good old Ex1 to 20 victory lap to reinforce my dominance.
...And immediately fail the transition from Ex1 to Ex2.
My hands were now so used to the transitions in Ex38 that my fingers skip more or less keys than they have to. Nothing that a quick freshening didn't fix, but that's not the thing that made me introspective.
I realized I needed to play every exercise so far the same way I did exercise 38. Lighter, more self-assured, freer.