Makes you feel like this will be a cakewalk

No doubt the easiest exercise of the bunch, so I'll use it to explain the rules:
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)
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)

All that aside, this exercise is a no-brainer. I'm at a loss when it comes to giving tips. The most important thing is to assure that you are playing the notes clearly and one after the other. Meaning: when you begin to press one key, you should make sure you lift up the finger on the key pressed immediately before. You should only be hearing one key per hand. This might come naturally to same people (sure did to me), but to those who can't yet do it, this exercise might be a tortuous experience. Do not be shy to spend an entire sessions trying to nail it at the lowest doable tempo (even if below 60BPM. Even with no tempo at all) and then slowly making it up to 108BPM.

If you manage to do this, I promise you the next couple of exercises will be simpler, because you have just unlocked a most important skill in your road to virtuosity.

Makes you think your fingers are dexterous

I call it the hiccup because it goads you into thinking you're going to play from finger 5 to finger 1 uninterrupted, but you have to go back one key in the middle. Although it reminds me of a hiccup, mastering it certainly wasn't. Had I written this log as I did it, my prose would reek of arrogance. I don't even remember exactly where it gave me trouble outside making sure I'm pressing every key clearly, but that's a struggle with every exercise. There's a note at the end of this exercise that makes a good point:

The fourth and fifth fingers being naturally weak, it should be observed that this exercise, and those following it up to nº 31, are intended to render them as strong and agile as the second and third.

The book is right. The fourth and fifth fingers are not as strong, but I'd say the sequential connection between the third and fourth fingers (middle and ring finger) -- that is, the ability to play with one finger and then move to the other without any interval when both keys are pressed at the same time -- is just as weak. Even weaker than the same sequential connection between the forth and fifth fingers. This would be something that I'd only realize later.

Fusing exercise #1 and #2. Going for gimmicks this soon?

Not as big a hiccup as exercise 2, but it's making you go back up. Furthermore, it's the first exercise where the sequence doesn't end in the finger that's next to the finger that plays the first note in the next sequence. This didn't prove a challenge to me. On the other hand, it's the first exercise in which the last key of the up-sequence is right next to the first key in the down-sequence, making it easier to make the transition. The disposition of the keys, both physically and written on the staff, going up and down, remind me of waves. This would not be the first exercise to do so.

With three exercises aced so easily, morale was high and I assumed I could keep on breezing through these exercises.

Creates rifts in space-time continuum

This exercise was a reality check. I assumed each exercise would ease me into new finger movements and I wouldn't even notice myself learning them. I'd just breeze through and, at the end of the book, I'd look back and marvel at the seamlessness of the process.

That wasn't the fate expecting me. I'd feel every single movement getting hammered into my psyche.
Exercise 4 really took me for a ride. My first mis-step was assuming the movement on the way up would be the same for both hands. The transition to right-5/left-1 felt much more natural if it were, and was surprisingly difficult to hit when done as intended. I'd either play the first 4 keys too fast, use the wrong fingers (Left5-4-5-4) or not reach the key. I'd get there playing slowly, but the moment I added the metronome to it, my playing would crumble. I spent a whole hour trying to get it right, but couldn't.

After waking up the next day and getting back on the piano -- miracle! I was somehow playing the sequence seamlessly! The trick had to do with slightly rotating the wrist to facilitate the movement. Sleeping on the subject did the trick!... For the lowest metronome setting. And only the up-sequence. I hadn't even gotten into the down-sequence.

With the wrist epiphany fresh in my mind, the down-sequence was easier to get through, but still troublesome. To this day, if I don't make a conscious effort, I'll play this sequence too quickly or too slowly, but I'll only notice because my playing will stop matching the metronome. It's like this finger combination opens localized wormholes into a couple of milliseconds into the past or future. Very annoying.

The final hurdle was the transition from the up-sequence into the down-sequence. The fear of playing the keys wrong or with the wrong timing made me press the keys too fast. Not only that, but at first I kept skipping the last key of the up-sequence. This became the first exercise I had to master at 60, 70, 80, 90 and finally 108BPM to make sure I got it right. And still in the back of my mind there's a hint of uncertainty.

But I did it! My dreams of virtuosity were not meant to die so quickly!

Easy, but your hands will feel tired

And right after being humbled by exercise 4, the next couple of exercises gets us back to smooth sailing.

Instead of focusing on hand movement, this one is all about finger coordination. You have to fight the urge to play all the fingers in sequence (5-4-3-2-1) and instead do like the hiccup in exercise 2, but for every single key you progress (5-4-5-3-4-2-3-1).

Another callback to exercise 2 is its author's note. The weakness of the fourth and fifth fingers is reflected here in finding yourself unconsciously playing the 5-4-5 sequence faster than you want to. For me, this was particularly noticeable for my right hand. I'd continue to run into this problem.

The up-down transition can also catch you off guard, because the first key of the down-sequence is exactly the same as for the up-sequence but, once you nail it, it'll feel so satisfyingly seamless. Like playing a 3D sonic game.

A psychological roadblock I still sometimes run into is the finger exhaustion I feel when playing in sequence starting at exercise 1. Exercise 4 was imprinted such that it seems like my mind enters a state of completion, disregarding the importance of all the exercises that come after.

Still not enough to 100% cliffs of Dover

The melody reminds me of baroque music. Although I can't think of any song that uses it, I get the feeling it's the type of melody often played on haprsichords in music of that era.

This was one of the exercises I aced quickly. An issue or two with the up-down transition, but nothing I couldn't get through. I'm at a loss for tips or issues I ran into when trying to master this. Perhaps that's because this is a pattern that's not entirely foreign to me. Years before, when mastering guitar hero 3 on expert, I ran into the exact same pattern in the song cliffs of dover, one of the only fun songs to play in the final stage. In that song, there's a similar pattern that I could never play properly. I haven't plugged guitar hero back on for a long time, but I think that, while it may have helped me in mastering exercise 6, mastering this exercise is not enough to properly play that sequence in cliffs of dover.

Restores vitality

No need to extend any fingers! They all remain in the same conformation. Going up on the keyboard becomes much less tiresome. On the right hand, finger 1 goes to the key finger 2 was at. On the left hand, finger 3 goes to where finger 2 was. Instead of the hand doing an extending motion, it's like it's doing a contraction. A chance to rest some muscle groups.

I only found trouble in this exercise when performing the transitions, either up-down or at the end of the exercise. Suddenly, you have to use other fingers after spending 14 sequences doing the same combination. From up to down, the right hand uses a new pattern (finger 3 presses key used by finger 4) while the left hand maintains the same pattern. On the final transition to end the exercise, it's the other way around: right hand keeps the same pattern while the left hand does the finger3-to-finger4 combiation. This was confusing when I first tackled the exercise and putting it into words after mastering it is just as confusing.

Induces anterograde amnesia

After surviving exercise 4 and wrapping my head around exercise 8, the sky was the limit. Exercise 8 only served to reinforce that notion. I think I cleared it in 10 minutes. I wouldn't know how to describe what might be difficult about it. Perhaps the fact that it mimicks exercise 1 In how you go up and down the keyboard but mixes a bit of exercise 5 into it. Maybe that would lead somoene to start playing exercise 1 or exercise 5 midway through but, to me, it was only a couple of similarities I noticed.

When it came time to play exercises in sequence, there was a period in which I would completely forget how this exercise even went so I'd try to remember how it goes while playing the other exercises. Naturally, my playing would crumble. I even spent a 20 minute session focusing exclusively on memorizing the exercise, but that didn't help. The only thing that helped was trusting myself. My body remembers. Let it flow. And so it did.

Deeply frustrating psychological roadblock

This exercise is about finger posture and mental preserverance. Going up, I would find myself lifting finger 5 away from its key. Going down, the same would happen with my right hand. Supposedly, it's good form to keep fingers above the keys, directly touching them without pressing down. It just so happens that when I'd try to maintain good form, I'd accidentally press the key, or mess the combination some other way, but soon enough the issue was solved.

Playing from exercise 1 to 10 in sequence was a milestone I laid out to myself. During these sessions, I would play a couple of exercises in sequence, but never all the way to the exercise I was at so as to not overwhelm my mind (remember: I am going as slowly as I can allow myself). Maybe three exercises in a row to gain some muscle resistance.

When it came down to playing the 1-10 sequence, anticipation would build up every single time. Surviving exercise 4 in sequential play would always get me stoked but the feeling that I might actually pull this off THIS TIME would always kick in around exercise 7. If I made it to exercise 9, I'd enter tunnel vision, so preoccupied with watching my fingers hit the right keys that I'd mess up.

Would I overcome this psychological barrier? Find out in exercise 10!

Makes you feel like you can take on the world

This exercise is absolutely nothing to write home about. I'd say it's the second easiest exercise, beaten only by exercise 1. The real hurdle laid in doing all exercises in sequence up to and including exercise 10.

By the time I got to this exercise, none of the previous exercises gave me any trouble performing, but I believe the psychological pressure to get them all done in sequence got to me. I'd say this is a side effect of doing things slowly. Although I mastered a ton of exercises relatively quickly, I was playing in short sessions. I'd try for 20 minutes a day on average (very inconsistently) but that's obviously not going to lead to quick results. I must have built the notion in my mind that, had I done consistent one hour sessions, I would have reached this spot in one week rather than the month it took me. So, if I couldn't do these ten exercises in a row after taking things oh so slowly, something was bound to be wrong with me.

I can't say for sure if this was the way my subconscious was working, but I definitely felt the pressure every time I reach a self-imposed milestone like this. An itch on my face; a sudden-overwhelming feeling of self-awareness; feeling like I'm playing way too smoothly, the fatal mistake that will comproise the entire sequence is inevitable and the more I ward it off the more spectacular the failure will be, like two tectonic plates applying more and more pressure against each other -- lost in thoughts and analogies while playing, awfully aware that I'm digging my own grave, knowing smile on my face.

I eventually pulled off the full sequence. What helped? Short term, allowing myself to keep playing even if I missed a key. If the mistake was small enough I could recover and continue playing in sequence, I'd keep doing so. If it was serious enough I'd have to stop, I'd continue from that exercise. With enough repetition and enough self-delusion that the sequences I had played were "good enough", I managed to eventually complete it without mistakes. I believe it may have taken me around two weeks.

Makes you feel talented

It looks and feels a lot like exercise 3, except the "hiccup" happens at right hand finger 5-4/left hand finger 1-2. Coming out of exercise 10 and into this. I had already mastered this exercise in isolation while attempting the 1-10 sequence. It offers no challenge outside the transition from exercise 11 to exercise 12, and only because they connect so smoothly that you'll accidentally feel like continuing to play the down-sequence of exercise 11.

If the rest of the exercises are gonna be like this, I got this in the bag!
What a strange sense of deja vu...

Snaps you back to reality

Of course, I always have to swallow a big jug of reality whenever I start feeling cocky. It's a trait of my life at this point. I'm humble not necessarily because I'm a humble person but because, if I try to stand out, I'll be hammered down in increasingly creative ways by bad luck and circumstance.

The challenge in this exercise is three-fold: the transition from exercise 11 to exercise 12 is seamless, yet the disparity in hand/finger positioning is unprecedentingly complex: for the first time, all five fingers won't be on adjacent keys. Right hand finger 5/Left hand finger 1 will have one key between them and the other fingers. The exercise itself eases it in by allowing the first rep of the sequence to be played with all fingers in adjacent keys, but the next rep in the sequence will jump two piano keys instead of one to create the distance for RHF5/LHF1. It's a big leap if you're not used to it.

That's the first difficulty. The second issue lies in the up-down transition.

While playing the up-sequence, RHF4/LHF2 are not used at all. Then comes the final rep of the up-sequence, which has you finally use those fingers. It's essential to have the fingers resting above their respective keys for this very reason. It's not too troublesome if you've already come this far but, during my first runs of the up-sequence, I'd feel these fingers slightly lifting up, so I'd have to spare thought to keeping them down, which would mess with my playing. The big issue is combining this with having to change finger positioning for the down-sequence, a mirror-image of the up sequence: RHF1/LHF5 stay in the keys they're at, while fingers 2-3-4 on both hands move up one piano key. With that hurdle out of the way, things seem easy enough.

... Until the final rep of the down-sequence. We're back where we started and, likewise, the exercise demands the finger positioning goes back to all fingers being adjacent to each other, to prepare for exercise 13 which is such a breeze to play that the trouble with it comes from slowing it down to the right tempo, which would always make my mind glitch for a moment.

This exercise is by no means the absolute hardest, but there's so many particularities to it that it became the first exercise I had to give careful thought to. Before I made my webpage, I already had the idea of making a Hanon progress log, but this was the first exercise I remember thinking about what I'd write to properly express its challenges.

Really fun to play as fast as you can

Just like exercise 7, it feels like this one restores your vitality. They're also very similar. The main difference is that, while exercise 7 starts with RHF1/LHF5, exercise 13 starts at finger 3 for both hands. The final three keys of the sequence in exercise 7 go down, while exercise 13 has them go up. There's no weird finger positioning in the transitions and they are so seamless. The only issue came from the melody between sequences changing so abruptly it's like crashing into a wall at 100km/h. It's because both sequences begin with the finger 3 on both hands.

No doubt one of my favourite exercises to play, along with exercises 5 and 7.

The transition to exercise #15 is harder than the exercise itself

This exercise never felt right to play. It doesn't even feel like it deserves its spot as the 14th exercise. Are you telling me this exercise is somehow harder than any of the exercises preceding it? And the sequence itself feels incomplete. Did I get a draft version of the book?

Perhaps it's because of the transitions. Those gave me some trouble, especially -- you guessed it -- the transition to the next exercise. The last rep of the down-sequence goes exactly the same way as the reps before it. The final note is played by finger 3 on both hands, leading RHF1/LHF5 to the first key of exercise 15, putting you in position to play it. The rest is detailed on exercise 15.

Steel your mind to not go out of sync

The fingers are in position to play the first keys as I slide the rest of my fingers down the keyboard to prepare for the rest of the sequence. But then each hand plays each rep of the sequence in a different order: the right hand immediately jumps one key to prepare for the next rep, while the left hand leaves the key skipping to the last key press. Coming from an exercise that is relatively uniform, it's enough to make one trip.

Although the first keystroke of the exercise comes naturally, the same is not the case for the rest of the fingers: the last key pressed in exercise 14 is the same as the second key pressed in exercise 15, except exercise 14 uses RHF3 while exercise 15 requires RHF2. As soon as exercise 15 begins, the hand must move up one key. Meanwhile, the left hand has no such issue, since the final keystroke of exercise 14 is exactly the same as the second keystroke of exercise 15. One hand follows the natural flow of the previous exercise, making it easier and faster to play, while the other imposes its own movement, requiring a bit of extra care, lagging behind. The mind glitches trying to sync it all properly (I sometimes feel compelled to play the last 3 keys on my right hand of each rep of the up-sequence at light speed). But eventually I got over it.
The up-down transition could cause one to trip but, frankly, the melody of the transition sounds so logical that I had little issue with it. Because of this and how it requires some concentration to play both hands at the same time, this exercise joins exercise 5, 7 and 13 among my faves.

The transition from exercise 15 to 16 is not troublesome either. Finally, things are looking up. The transition woes are over!

The calm before the storm

Little did I know, the worst was still to come.

The only troublesome thing about this exercise is positioning RHF5 during the up-sequence. It always feels like I'm breaking the flow of the melody because I can't place it quick enough. You can hear the key skip since it's not connecting as naturally as all the other keys before and after. Even in the sheet, the key skip, which occurs not at the beginning or end, but rather in the middle, is so abrupt it seems like there's a ledge. I need to focus on moving the finger over to its key during the keystroke that precedes it rather than moving the finger after that keystroke.

Easy to play, easy to master. Although presented with challenges, nothing was as threatening as exercise 4 thus far. And by the time I had masterred this exercise, even that was a fond memory and a source of motivation. I would need it for the challenges ahead.

The trick to it is that the trick to it is not the trick to it

Just like exercise 12, the hand placement leaves a one key gap between LHF5/RHF1 and the rest of the fingers. Just when it seems like that is the trick to this exercise and I'll ace it without much an issue, I reach the up-down transition. That's where it all comes crashing down.

It's not a mere movement of fingers 2, 3 and 4 on both hands, like it happens with exercise 12. Reading the sheet and interpreting the hand positioning was awkward enough as it was, so I'll use images to explain it.

This is the finger positions for both hands on the up-sequence when playing its last rep:

Now the finger positioning for the first 3 key presses of the first rep of the down-sequence:

And this is the positioning of the rest of the fingers while playing the rest of the first rep of the down-sequence:

Going down two key positions in one fluid movement with LHF1/RHF5 and LHF2/RHF4 whilst stretching LHF4/RHF2 and jumping two keys at once. First it was making extra sure I was reading the sheet properly, then it was figuring out how to shift my fingers from one position to the other. Then it was actually playing them in sequence. Then playing them in the right tempo, even if in super slow motion. And then performing the transition in sequence. Then with a tempo. And then incorporating it with the entire up-sequence.

It was tough. I decided the best way to go about it would be to create muscle memory in performing the down-sequence. So, after mastering the up-sequence and coming to grips with that was expected of me in the transition, I skipped to mastering the down-sequence, which was not too troublesome. The problem with this exercise is only the up-down transition.

Knowing what to play in both sequences, practicing the transition at 60, 70, 80, 90 and 108BPM as well as sleeping a couple of nights on the subject did the trick. Performing the transition in a full sequence and then performing the down-sequence without pause came almost instinctively. I have 100% accuracy today when performing the exercise, but I don't bother to try and think about the movements. A slight slide along the keys, feeling the fingers stretch enough to skip the required key distances, playing the sequence and that's it.

It all came down to practice. The adage at the beginning of this page was yet to fail me. My fate was not yet sealed.

Direct elaboration on exercise #14

Now this sounds exactly like what exercise 14 should have sounded. I know the book says this exercise works all fingers while exercise 14 prepares for the trill, but I have the nagging feeling Hanon had 59 exercises ready but realized calling his book "The Virtuoso Pianist in Fifty-Nine Exercises" doesn't have the same ring, so he added exercise 14 to even things out. Who knows, maybe there's more filler exercises up ahead?

The challenges in this exercise are the transitions and keeping all my fingers over the keys. Specifically, RHF3 when doing the up-sequence and LHF3 when doing the down-sequence. The up-down transition has RHF1&2/LHF5&4 play keys that are played by RHF2&3/LHF4&3 in all previous reps, while the the transition to exercise 19 does something similar to get RHF1/LHF5 on the right keys to begin exercise 19. As for the third fingers on both hands, I instinctively raise them from their respective keys because it makes playing the sequences easier. It took a moment to corect, but I got it right.

This was another one of those exercises I mastered in a 30 minute session. After the ordeal presented by exercise 17, this was a welcome change of pace.

Hitting the skill wall at 108bpm

A fun exercise to play, if not for the baggage that comes with it.

Absolutely nothing special. Really fun combination involving the strongest, best-group-coordinated fingers. Tried it at 90bpm and hit it off almost immediately. I went straight to 108bpm afterwards and I pulled it off smoothly. It was time to study the transition to exercise 20 and get the first 20 exercises under my belt. One third of the-SPLAT

The first real decider

Most of this text will be about my personal journey of Attainment of the transition of exercise 19 to 20 and of exercise 20 itself.

It began with learning exercise 20. The resting finger positioning in this exercise is completely different from all the exercises preceding it.
Below, the resting finger stance at the end of one rep in the up-sequence:

Understanding the resting finger stance is half of the work done. Reading the exercise to find this stance is more complex than for the exercises preceding it mostly because, apart from exercise 17's up-down transition, I never needed to go that far to master them. The finger sequences are so simplistic most of the time that there's no need to go this far. Figuring this all out was an exercise in memory: go to the sheet, check which keys to play with which fingers, finish one rep, understand which fingers to move to begin the next rep and figuring out the pattern. This took its moment, but it was not impossible. Hurdle clear and up-down transition dead ahead, I find yet another fortress to solve.

Below are all the movements and final finger positions at the end of the final rep of the up-sequence.

LHF5/RHF1 naturally move from the key shaded yellow to the key shaded blue as the rep progresses. LHF4/RHF2 plays the key it should at the beginning of the rep but, in the up-down transition, instead of playing the key shaded orange, they play the same key as the one in the beginning of the rep. Nevertheless, keeping it over the key shaded orange until it's time to press the key shaded blue again will maintain the hand in the standard resting position shown before, avoiding additional strain on the fingers and wrist.

To understand the resting stance at the end of one rep in the down-sequence, it's important to understand the first half of the rep, as it dictates how the rest of the fingers will move:

Much like in exercise 17, the subtlety of a different keypress in the final rep prepares the stance to as seamless a transition as possible into the down-sequence.

And now the finger movements and resting stance at the end of a rep in the down-sequence:

Follow the red arrows to transition from the finger positions in the first half of the rep (shaded yellow), all the way to the resting position at the end of the rep (shaded purple). LHF1/RHF5 must then skip up one key as indicated with the orange arrow to begin the next rep. I found myself dancing with my wrists up and down. This part of the exercise allowed me to gain a level of subtle control over my wrists that I never had before.

But we're not at the end of the exercise yet.
This is the final rep of exercise 20:

Visalized as:

One final pebble on my road to completion. The right hand finishes in a logical place, as the resting position for this hand is already primed for this final keypress. Meanwhile, the left hand has to skip two keys down and extend the hand further to reach the full required octave.

I learned all these details one by one, much like I did exercise 17: first the up-sequence, then the down-sequence, the final keys and then the transition. It must have taken me two weeks. A good portion of that time was spent in disbelief and dismay, abruptly concluding already short 20 minute sessions between procrastination, over what I was reading on the sheet; wallowing in impatience both because I had to keep moving in the sheet back and forth memorizing a repetitive exercise, dedicating to it an amount of brainpower I haven't had to use for any exercise before or since, and also because I was having trouble figuring out the correct stances.

And so the exercise is complete!

Liar

All twenty exercises, under my belt.

Liar

It's time to move on to Volume 2, exercise 21.

LIAR

It's a requirement to play these exercises in sequence.

Exercise 19-20 transition

The Line

The final of the initial trials

So what's so special about this transition?

Every single exercise from 1 to 19 shares vital traits in their resting stances: for one, they all come back home with RHF1/LHF5 to the Do (C) key. Exercise 19 is no different. Yet, exercise 20 starts with those fingers on Mi (E). This requires one to skip two keys immediately after finishing one exercise. Furthering the issue, it's not just one finger skipping a couple of keys. The resting finger stance also changes dramatically, requiring RHF2/LHF4 to skip a key, then RHF4/LHF2 to skip yet another key.

All taken together:
Abrupt key skip;
Multiple sequential key skips
Finger resting stance shift;

Just thinking about it was enough to lose motivation.

This exercise is so fundamentally different from those that precede it. The exercises coming afterwards will likely introduce all these elements separately and retroactively make exercise 20 easy. I should go study those instead.

The note at the end of exercise 20 stops me:

"After having mastered this First Part, play it through once or twice daily for some time before commencing the study of the Second ("transcendent") Part; by so doing, one is sure to obtain every possible advantage that this work promises. Complete mastery of Part I gives the key to the difficulties found in part II."

I check online if I'm supposed to do 19-20 in sequence or simply pause at 19, readjust my fingers during a 4 beat pause and then proceed with exercise 20.
No such information is found. Written and video evidence that it's meant to be played in sequence, along with my conscience weighing me down.

The door closes. Did I ever do that? Skip a portion of an exercise and study exercises ahead? I did not. Besides, this is far from the toughest type of transition I'll deal with if I want to become a True Master.

I can't do anything this cool yet. If I begin skipping and leaving difficulties here, I will keep doing it in the future. I'll just need to keep practicing and soon I'll reach their level.

Will I really?

All these people began practcing from an early age. What about me? Besides some faint stints in elementary and middle school, there's a full decade and a half gap of nothing.

Who am I fooling?

I'm looking at and comparing myself to people who have decades of experience under their belt. They have an immesurable headstart. Catching up is impossible.

I can't do it. They did it first and are doing it better. They started before me. I'll be even older than I am now if I ever happen to catch up to them.

They enjoyed the benefits of a young, plastic mind eager to create all the necessary neural connections to optimize the pursuit of the arts.
My brain is old and room for growth is nigh-existant at best.

These cheating motherfucking pieces of shit.

Who the fuck do they think they are?
I'm gonna catch up on all of you in record time then leave you all in the dust. I'm gonna laugh in your stupid faces that you couldn't hold on to your throne despite me giving you that headstart out of the kindness of my heart. I'm the best and that means I'm better than you. There's no better human being on this planet than スレナガ. I cannot be beat. It's only a matter of time. Fate has decreed that glory belongs to me. Beating this hurdle is but a formality that I shall indulge before breaking it over your face. I won't let them kill me. The shards of my broken Soul are too valuable to lie in the hands of these cheating cunts.

Wrath and pride are part of the main negative forces guiding my life. In violent situations, I never played it cool or landed a simple yet decisive move. In adversity, I always feel slighted by circumstance and push forward with righteous, if unjustified, indignation. Wrath directed inwards, hurt pride projected in all directions.

Mind you, I'm not the type to throw the controller at the wall when I lose a game. I process everything within and move with warped purpose. Although I typically attempt to act with noble heart and high virtue, when the going gets desperate I'll do everything I can to see things through, carrying the type of feelings you won't see motivational speakers or successful public figures ever admit to use as a source of strength. It's not like the virtues and dreams that brought me to this point simply disappear, or were smoke and mirrors all along. They simply take a back seat while the id takes over the wheel.

This would be no different. Landing the first key of exercise 20 coming out of exercise 19 at multiple speeds, then the second key, then the third, and fourth, until I could land the entire sequence. It took me two additional weeks, a lot of grasping at straws, internal strife and multiple prematurely suspended sessions, but I got there!

Persistence fueled by self-hate. It's not pretty, but it helped me through a hurdle. The sequential playing of exercises 1 through 20 would take a while longer, over the course of many months (first mastering 5-15, then 1-15, then 15-20, then 10-20, and finally 1-20, at increasing speeds) but that was more an exercise in patience and endurance than a true test of ability. Still, I only advanced to exercise 21 when I mastered the full sequence. There's a lot to talk about there but it's mostly summarized in my retelling of mastering the 1-10 sequence in my entry about exercise 10.

Hanon Volume 1, complete.

Volume 2 opens its doors to me.

Transcendence awaits.