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HomePractisingThe Practice Sleuths Episode #4

The Practice Sleuths Episode #4

By Informance, 2025-05-29 Posted in: Practising, Technique

Beyond Hanon – A Modern Approach to Technical Exercises

In this blog series, our Practice Sleuths Graham Fitch and Adina Mornell investigate practising mysteries in detail and discuss ideas and insights on how to solve them! In the first episode, the duo unravelled the mysteries of piano fingering and the second episode tackled the age old debate of fast vs slow practice.

Following on from the previous episode’s deep dive into the exercises of Hanon, this next episode our sleuths explore fresh, modern approaches to technical exercises – moving beyond Hanon into the world of improvisation, jazz-inspired warm-ups and artistic etudes!

Works featured

  • Charles-Louis Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist (click here for open domain scores)

Further resources & links

  • Using Technical Exercises and Studies – Click here for more information on Graham Fitch’s two-part interactive workshop on using technical studies and exercises effectively.
  • The Hanon Debate – Click here to view a series of blog posts in which several pianists and pedagogues share their views on Hanon’s exercises.
  • Jailbreaking Hanon â€“ Click here to find out more about Graham Fitch’s video series showing Graham Fitch shows how Hanon’s exercises can be used as a blank canvas to experience and develop movements encountered in real music.
  • Practice Clinic – Click here to view an index of our regular Practice Clinics in which Graham Fitch answers practising-related questions submitted by Online Academy subscribers.
  • The Secrets of Experts – Click here to find out more about Adina Mornell’s course on creating your own recipe for enjoyable, successful performances.

Future Episodes

A full archive of Practice Sleuth episodes will be available here as further episodes are added and in the meantime, be sure to sign-up to our mailing list to be notified of new episodes!

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Tags: exercisesHanonpractice sleuths

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