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flats or sharps in a given key, and arpeggios will drill in the notes that belong in the root chord of that key.

CONS

1.) Exercises Can Be Tedious

The biggest complaint students have against technical exercises is that they are boring. Exercises are often designed to be repetitive, however playing them in different keys brings challenging variations.

If your exercises feel tedious, you might need more of a challenge. Use a piano scale book to work through the scales in each key. Play scales and arpeggios in two- or four-octaves and learn to play them in contrary motion.

For a change, buy new piano exercise books. Hanon exercises begin simply but rapidly become challenging. Practice them with a metronome and when you are comfortable try them in different keys.

2.) Muscle Strains

A real concern of technical exercises is the risk of injury through strained muscles. When learning a new scale or exercise, it may be tempting to stick with it until you really "have it". However, it is easy to overdo-it with new exercises, leading to sore, strained muscles, not only in your fingers and hands, but in your wrists, arms, back, and neck as well.

As with any exercises, start slowly and build your dexterity over time. Ten minutes of practice each day will lead to greater benefits than one two-hour practice session once a week. Spreading the practices will gradually strengthen your muscles and will lower your risk of injury.

3.) Exercises Take Time

Some students shy away from technical exercises because they seem to take up too much time. Casual pianists may not want to put in the regular practice that a professional musician would.

However, technical exercises do not have to take up a lot of time to be beneficial. Simply learning and practicing one new scale each week can bring great rewards and that can be done by only committing 5 minutes to practice each day.

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced pianist, technical exercises can bring many rewards. Talk to your piano teacher or pick up some books to begin incorporating scales, arpeggios, Hanon, or other exercises into your daily practice.

It only takes a little effort each day to improve your skills and make piano playing even more enjoyable.

Learn more about this author, Susan Quilty.
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