Hanon Exercise #7

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to be learning "Hanon Exercise Number Seven" from his collection The Virtuoso Pianist. Let's come to the piano to get started. Let's take a look at measures one and two. My challenge to you is to pause the video and figure out the right hand part of measures one and two by yourself. be sure to watch the notes and fingerings carefully. Then press play and we'll check it out together. Here's what you should have figured out: We start with finger 1 on middle C, skip up, step down, skip up, step down, skip up, step down, step down, and now here's the tricky thing. Our finger 1 is asked to play D. Normally our finger 2 would want to play that D, but here's how we shift up. Usually, in past Hanon exercises we've been doing some kind of finger stretch to get up, but this time it's a thumb glide. So our finger 1 is going to glide over to D, and then everyone else just shifts over after that, and that's the pattern in this one. Okay, so we stay in that same position the entire measure and then our thumb glides over and that scoots us up. Thumb glides over and that scoots us up. Very simple. All right, now let's take a look at the left hand part. My challenge to you this time is to pause the video and look at the left hand part, and see if you can find something unexpected. There's one fingering in measure one and another fingering in measure two that isn't quite what you would expect. Pause the video, learn the left hand part, watch the fingerings carefully, and then press play and we'll check it out together. Did you find that unexpected fingering? Where is it? We have a 5, skip up, step down, skip up, step down, skip up. Now here is the unexpected fingering. Our finger 2 would normally be expected to play that F, but Hanon wants to train your fingers to do tricky things and so finger 3 is going to scoot over for F E D, and that's how your left hand ends up moving up a position is by finger 3 scooting over. Remember, our thumb was scooting over in the right hand part, but in the left hand it's going to be finger 3 that scooches over to F. Yes, that is a technical term: scooch over. 3 1, and then finger 3 scooches over. On that second to last note of every measure, the left hand finger three is going to scooch over a note, and what that will do is help give extra exercise for fingers 3 4 5. Your fingers 1 2 3 often are considered the strongest fingers, but those 4 and 5 will get some extra practice this way. Now, what makes this tricky is when you put it hands together, when you get to this note, your right hand is going to play finger 4, your left hand finger 3 scooches over. So it will feel like your fingers are a little out of sync until you get to the first note of the next measure. See how that works? So right here the left hand finger 3 scooches over. So feel free as you're first practicing this hands together, to pause right there before you play the seventh note of the measure that second to last note. Give your hands time to figure that out, but then eventually you'll be able to do that at full speed, and do that finger scooch automatically. Now let's skip ahead to measure seven. The last measure of ascending, and what do you notice here on the seventh note? Now something new happens. Finger 3 plays in both hands and that prepares us for measure eight where we start descending. Okay, so it's very important to watch that fingering carefully in measure seven. In fact, let's try that. Skip up, step down, skip up, step down, skip up, then in both hands finger 3 scooches over. Step down, step down. Pause the video and work on measure seven. Maybe right hand alone once, left hand alone once, then try it hands together, then press play to go on. Now let's check out descending and this time let's try the left hand. First, can you once again challenge yourself, pause the video, and try measures eight and nine left hand alone descending. Watch for any tricky fingerings that Hanon may try to throw in there, and then press play and we'll check it out together. Here's what you should have gotten: Finger 1 on G, skip down, step up, skip down, step up, skip down, step up, step up, and then here finger 1 is going to scooch over. So basically the left hand is doing what the right hand was doing before. It's common for these Hanon exercises, and then once again finger 1 scooches over and we continue on from there. Now if that matched what you played, great job. If you need extra time to work that out, then feel free to press pause. Otherwise let's check out the right hand part. Once again, let's challenge yourself pause the video and try to figure out right hand just measures eight and nine. Watch out for any fingering challenges, then press play and we'll check it out together. So, did you find the tricky spot? Here it is on the seventh note just like the left hand had before. Our finger 3 has to scooch over there. 5 3 4 2 3 1, 3 scooches over, 5 3 4 2 3 1, finger 3 scooches over. So once again the challenge will be on that seventh note. The left hand's going to play finger 4, but the right hand has to scooch over finger 3, and then the left hand thumb scooches over. So the scooching happens at ...