| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: techincal practice | |
| PomPom -- 02/13/2007, 07:49:07 -- #33022 | |
| What routines do you have to train your accuracy, dexterity and your speed ? I don't know if i should practice hanon because a lot of people say it is not a very good method. | |
| Paul -- 02/13/2007, 12:28:55 -- #33022 | |
| I wouldn't say that that Hannon is not a very good method. It's just not musical. I was at one time very religious about working out of the Hanon book and one day I'll probably get back to it. Nowdays I prefere to take licks and play them in all keys with both hands playing in unison (like Hanon) | |
| Paul -- 02/13/2007, 12:29:48 -- #33022 | |
| I wouldn't say that that Hannon is not a very good method. It's just not musical. I was at one time very religious about working out of the Hanon book and one day I'll probably get back to it. Nowdays I prefere to take licks and play them in all keys with both hands playing in unison (like Hanon) | |
| MoJazz -- 02/13/2007, 13:31:07 -- #33022 | |
| Specifically, work on the diminished scales, altered scales and melodic minor (jazz minor) scales for a more modern jazz style. For older styles, practice bebop scales, blues scales, left hand stride chords and blocked-chord melody. Then, practice these as like a Hanon method, using correct fingering, phrasing. Then, as Paul suggested, develop licks from these scales and apply same method. | |
| alhaynes -- 02/14/2007, 06:47:57 -- #33022 | |
| I find that classical piano is great for cross-training purposes, even if (like me) you will never be a good classical player. I like the Bach preludes & fugues, any and all Chopin, and the Shostakovich preludes and fugues. | |
| Jazz+ -- 02/14/2007, 22:18:45 -- #33022 | |
| Don't neglet arpeggios. Derive solos in large part from arpeggio type shapes. | |
| jazzwee -- 02/14/2007, 22:51:12 -- #33022 | |
| PomPom, what I found for myself is that Hanon-like exercises have the fingers really close together. Arpeggio-like exercises have the fingers apart. So you have to exercise both ways or your technique suffers. A particular arpeggio-like exercise is the Rachmaninoff Exercise. I don't know if there is sheet music for this (perhaps others might know of a source). Beyond this I prefer practice on actual music. Pick out some fast moving type of head like 'Donna Lee' or something equally complex and do it slow first and increase speed. The problems that you encounter in real life has to do with fingering issues and you really don't encounter this much with strengh and evenness exercises like scales, Hanon, etc. If you stay within the domain of the exercises, you might find you may not be able to play a 'Donna Lee' type of head because you've never encountered the fingering issues. I think your technique gets fully developed when you've practiced every possibly fingering scenario and at high speed. This is why scales alone will not supply all the fingering possibilities. | |
| jwv76 -- 02/15/2007, 02:38:49 -- #33022 | |
| I would like to know more about the Rachmaninoff Exercise-? Hannon was part of my daily practice routine for a quite some time, several years, and I can't say I regret it. What I like about Hanon is that like no other exercise I immediately notice the results. After working on Hannon exercises, in different keys, etc., for 15-20 minutes, immediately afterwards everything I try to execute just seems a lot cleaner. If for some reason I don't practice for a few days, if I'm out of town for a week or whatever, nothing brings my fingers back into shape like Hannon. But, yeah, Donna Lee kicks my ass. There are spots in that tune where I've worked out three or four different fingerings, and still not been happy with any of them. | |
| Gordon -- 02/15/2007, 05:27:02 -- #33022 | |
| Hi, In the "Technique and Excersises" room, Scot has posted a file called "Rachmaninoff Exercise" | |
| sdm -- 02/15/2007, 09:07:42 -- #33022 | |
| Seems to me (that's me of the poor technique) that working bebop heads make pretty good technical excercises. My teacher suggests doing them in two-handed unison. I do this with a couple now -- Moose and Au Privave but want to work up do things like Donna Lee. Still, I do Hannon and will take a look at this Rachmaninoff Exercise. | |
| jazzwee -- 02/15/2007, 11:34:08 -- #33022 | |
| I don't actually do the Rachmaninoff Exercise but my teacher created one that is practically the same except it's more jazz sounding. According to him the benefits are the same. I really swear by this exercise. It made a big difference for me. The key to playing this is to do it legato. You'll feel a lot of strain in the upper shoulders and that's good muscles for tone (apparently). Now I've never tried playing Donna Lee in unison... | |
| Whacky -- 02/15/2007, 13:00:42 -- #33022 | |
| It's interesting that you find strain to be a good thing. Most of us do not. I feel it's important to relax the body parts you are not using - and to a certain extent also the onew you are using. The more relaxed you are, the more effortlessly you can play. Chopin wrote some very cool, very challenging and very musical exercises called Etudes. They are fairly difficult to learn and to play, but each address different technical problems or situations. Some other not so musical exercises are Brahms (51 exercises) Pischna (and Litttle Pischna), Schmitt (Preparatory exercises, and of course Czerny. Be careful not to O. D. on exercises (unless your goal is to master the Chopin Etudes). If you're going to play jazz, you need to develop the techinque needed to execute your ideas, but you also need to develop ideas to execute. | |
| jazzwee -- 02/15/2007, 22:17:26 -- #33022 | |
| Well, the strain is for developing the muscles in exercises. I agree, Dr. Whack that there should be no strain in playing real music. My teacher refers to this as "going to the gym". For example, playing the Rachmaninoff exercise as legato as possible forces some pretty quick movements (similar to quick changing block chords). I think it is this quickness of movement that develops rather than brute strength. However, there is a burning sensation that you have to shake out because of the difficulty of the exercise and having to learn to quickly relax unused fingers. It is very challenging to perfect IMHO. My teacher studied with some of the masters of classical piano technique (Madame Chaloff) so I figure he's not b.s'ing me. I have to admit his teaching method differs from my prior teachers (more strength exercises) but he's the one responsible for the greatest improvement in my technique. Note though that I hardly do any hanon. I certainly don't which style works better to teach technique. I can only report what effect it has had on me personally and that's all I can speak of. | |
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