What is the best Hanon for Accordion?

[Felipe Ventura]

Hello accordionist friends! All good? We know that in order to have a fine, refined technique and total mastery when playing the Accordion, it is necessary to practice scales, arpeggios, chords and agility exercises. In my opinion, the best method to obtain agility is to study the exercises of the French composer Charles Louis Hanon.
We also know that there were a multitude of teachers who adapted and arranged Hanon's exercises for Accordion, such as: Pietro Deiro (father and son), Alfred D'Auberge, Frank Gaviani, Charles Nunzio, Sergei Rodionoff, Anthony Aretta, Luigi Oreste Anzaghi, Luigi Lanaro, Cambieri-Fugazza-Melochi, Raymond Gazave, among others...
My question is: among so many versions and arrangements by Hanon, which one do you consider the best to refine the technique and which resembles the original for Piano as much as possible?
Thank you for contributing, a big hug to everyone.​

 

[JerryPH]

My 2 cents:
There is no real “best”. I now must have 6-7 books of variations of the Hanon exercises and the best one is the one that you faithfully review front to back and in all keys.

 

[xocd]

The only good hanon is a pulped hanon (lower case is intentional).

 

[Zevy]

Hello accordionist friends! All good? We know that in order to have a fine, refined technique and total mastery when playing the Accordion, it is necessary to practice scales, arpeggios, chords and agility exercises. In my opinion, the best method to obtain agility is to study the exercises of the French composer Charles Louis Hanon.
We also know that there were a multitude of teachers who adapted and arranged Hanon's exercises for Accordion, such as: Pietro Deiro (father and son), Alfred D'Auberge, Frank Gaviani, Charles Nunzio, Sergei Rodionoff, Anthony Aretta, Luigi Oreste Anzaghi, Luigi Lanaro, Cambieri-Fugazza-Melochi, Raymond Gazave, among others...
My question is: among so many versions and arrangements by Hanon, which one do you consider the best to refine the technique and which resembles the original for Piano as much as possible?
Thank you for contributing, a big hug to everyone.​

I enjoyed reading through your question. I did not know that they were that many adaptations of HANON for the Accordion. I don’t know how one can answer this without reviewing or playing through all the different books that you listed. From personal experience, I can tell you that the version by Charles Nunzio is excellent. I studied it with him and I still use it very often. It was printed twice; I would advise the second version which is in two volumes. It is still available from his son, Charles M Nunzio. Good luck!

 

[JerryPH]

Yes just for accordion I can name several off the top of my head (and thats not including Nunzio's versions, as you mentioned!)... The Wizard Accordionist, Hanon for Accordion, The Virtuoso Accordionist and many others. Often Pietro Diero Jr's name is involved.. check this out:

The Wizard Accordionist:








In the end... Hanon is Hanon. They are all essentially based off the same 36 exercises for the piano. The TRUE advantage is when you can play all 36 in all the different keys.

A more or less direct quote from Cory Pesaturo "my one regret is that I did not learn the Hanon exercises IN ALL KEYS sooner..."

 

[Felipe Ventura]

My 2 cents:
There is no real “best”. I now must have 6-7 books of variations of the Hanon exercises and the best one is the one that you faithfully review front to back and in all keys.

Thanks! I agree with you.

 

[Felipe Ventura]

I enjoyed reading through your question. I did not know that they were that many adaptations of HANON for the Accordion. I don’t know how one can answer this without reviewing or playing through all the different books that you listed. From personal experience, I can tell you that the version by Charles Nunzio is excellent. I studied it with him and I still use it very often. It was printed twice; I would advise the second version which is in two volumes. It is still available from his son, Charles M Nunzio. Good luck!

Yes! And truth! Hanon by Charles Nunzio is excellent, I have the two volumes that I acquired with his son. But he could have put a finger on his left hand to play both hands in unison. Do not you think?

 

[Felipe Ventura]

Yes just for accordion I can name several off the top of my head (and thats not including Nunzio's versions, as you mentioned!)... The Wizard Accordionist, Hanon for Accordion, The Virtuoso Accordionist and many others. Often Pietro Diero Jr's name is involved.. check this out:

The Wizard Accordionist:








In the end... Hanon is Hanon. They are all essentially based off the same 36 exercises for the piano. The TRUE advantage is when you can play all 36 in all the different keys.

A more or less direct quote from Cory Pesaturo "my one regret is that I did not learn the Hanon exercises IN ALL KEYS sooner..."

Great! I think the left hand fingering (to do it in unison) is better designed by Pietro Deiro Jr. than by his father.

 

[Felipe Ventura]

Yes just for accordion I can name several off the top of my head (and thats not including Nunzio's versions, as you mentioned!)... The Wizard Accordionist, Hanon for Accordion, The Virtuoso Accordionist and many others. Often Pietro Diero Jr's name is involved.. check this out:

The Wizard Accordionist:








In the end... Hanon is Hanon. They are all essentially based off the same 36 exercises for the piano. The TRUE advantage is when you can play all 36 in all the different keys.

A more or less direct quote from Cory Pesaturo "my one regret is that I did not learn the Hanon exercises IN ALL KEYS sooner..."

Oh, did you say "36 exercises"? I have a Hanon for Accordion transcribed by Enzo Gesualdo that lists the 60 exercises from the original. I consider this the best I've ever seen. Somebody knows? There is also the French professor Raymond Gazave who transcribed the 60 exercises, but I don't know why he did the first 38 in the key of F major...

 

[Zevy]

Yes! And truth! Hanon by Charles Nunzio is excellent, I have the two volumes that I acquired with his son. But he could have put a finger on his left hand to play both hands in unison. Do not you think?

The option to play unison with the left hand is definitely very useful and quite challenging. However, there are two very big advantages to Mr. Nunzio’s method, where the left hand is accompanying the right hand. I find that the various combinations offered are very useful in many situations outside of the Hanon book. Also, it allows one to enjoy the exercises so they aren’t boring.

 

[debra]

Until today I never heard of Hanon. So I guess it is quite possible to learn the piano and the accordion without the Hanon exercises. For exercises we mostly used Czerny, and also did a lot of Bach. Furthermore we also practices scales and chords a lot...
I never had the feeling that in terms of study (not in terms of having truly enjoyable fun songs to play) I was missing out...

 

[PhiliGol]

Until today I never heard of Hanon. So I guess it is quite possible to learn the piano and the accordion without the Hanon exercises. For exercises we mostly used Czerny, and also did a lot of Bach. Furthermore we also practices scales and chords a lot...
I never had the feeling that in terms of study (not in terms of having truly enjoyable fun songs to play) I was missing out...

Same here. I guess every serious player made it through "the ambitious accordionist" based on Carl Cherny's etudes.
It's a 3 volume set of books - still available.

 

[JerryPH]

Czerny (he was Czech, his name basically means "black") had some outstanding exercise works and his name was used in a LOT of books, especially the speed drills.

Looking at the Hanon, the originals were 60 exercises for the piano, that's their origins and they were made to be "easier" because many beginners could start and grow quickly. LC Hanon was actually Charles-Louis Hanon (2 July 1819 – 19 March 1900) was a French piano pedagogue and composer.

Also, different authors took different liberties with the numbers. The Virtuoso book I show above has 30 and the Wizard book has 60, culminating with a torturous 3 pages of 3 and 4-finger tremelo exercises (I have fond and painful memories of that exercise... this was the absolute last thing that my teacher made me do at full speed 20 times in a row before he mentioned to me that he had taught me all that he knows and a week later I was in the Toronto conservatory starting that adventure.

 

[Felipe Ventura]

The option to play unison with the left hand is definitely very useful and quite challenging. However, there are two very big advantages to Mr. Nunzio’s method, where the left hand is accompanying the right hand. I find that the various combinations offered are very useful in many situations outside of the Hanon book. Also, it allows one to enjoy the exercises so they aren’t boring.

No doubt! For total finger independence, Charles Nunzio's arrangement is the best.

 

[Felipe Ventura]

Until today I never heard of Hanon. So I guess it is quite possible to learn the piano and the accordion without the Hanon exercises. For exercises we mostly used Czerny, and also did a lot of Bach. Furthermore we also practices scales and chords a lot...
I never had the feeling that in terms of study (not in terms of having truly enjoyable fun songs to play) I was missing out...

Yes, it is possible to learn to play well without Hanon's exercises, but it will take longer to achieve this goal. Hanon's exercises only accelerate learning.

 

[Felipe Ventura]

Same here. I guess every serious player made it through "the ambitious accordionist" based on Carl Cherny's etudes.
It's a 3 volume set of books - still available.

Very interesting! I don't know this book. Who wrote it for Accordion?

 

[Felipe Ventura]

Czerny (he was Czech, his name basically means "black") had some outstanding exercise works and his name was used in a LOT of books, especially the speed drills.

Looking at the Hanon, the originals were 60 exercises for the piano, that's their origins and they were made to be "easier" because many beginners could start and grow quickly. LC Hanon was actually Charles-Louis Hanon (2 July 1819 – 19 March 1900) was a French piano pedagogue and composer.

Also, different authors took different liberties with the numbers. The Virtuoso book I show above has 30 and the Wizard book has 60, culminating with a torturous 3 pages of 3 and 4-finger tremelo exercises (I have fond and painful memories of that exercise... this was the absolute last thing that my teacher made me do at full speed 20 times in a row before he mentioned to me that he had taught me all that he knows and a week later I was in the Toronto conservatory starting that adventure.

Excellent placement! But don't blame Hanon for the crazy things his teacher committed... The torturer was his teacher , because unfortunately most people don't know how to study Hanon. The indications for tempo, modulations and articulations are just suggestions and should be studied according to the style of your repertoire. There are students who can't reach 90 on the metronome, others reach 132... And that's okay. The important thing is to define very well what our limits and virtues are.

 

[Zevy]

Charles Nunzio also authored three books of Czerny exercises for accordion. They are titled “Little Czerny” volumes 1-3. I studied them with him as well. I think that they are not as useful as the Hanon, and one of the exercises is actually more harmful on the accordion than on the piano because of its vertical keyboard.

 

[Felipe Ventura]

Charles Nunzio also authored three books of Czerny exercises for accordion. They are titled “Little Czerny” volumes 1-3. I studied them with him as well. I think that they are not as useful as the Hanon, and one of the exercises is actually more harmful on the accordion than on the piano because of its vertical keyboard.

I only have "Little Czerny" volume 3. I think it's an excellent work! I would need to look at the other volumes to be sure, but I always think that any "old" exercise on the Accordion is valid! The important thing is to always exercise! Regarding the Accordion's vertical keyboard, I believe that everything can be played there, just use a different fingering than the Piano. Gary Dahl gave good examples in his scales book.

 

[Zevy]

I only have "Little Czerny" volume 3. I think it's an excellent work! I would need to look at the other volumes to be sure, but I always think that any "old" exercise on the Accordion is valid! The important thing is to always exercise! Regarding the Accordion's vertical keyboard, I believe that everything can be played there, just use a different fingering than the Piano. Gary Dahl gave good examples in his scales book.

The third book is more about the left hand. The first example in the first book is, in my opinion, not good for the accordion player. It involves holding the fifth finger down while playing with the other fingers. I don’t recall exactly how, but I found it painful. And pain usually means that something is wrong. I would have to look for it again to clarify.