2 questions:
1. Ther are so many dfferent composers of exercises, which are the best? Or if some are created to work on specific problems, then which excerises are good for what?
2. Once a pianist is good enough to play a good amount of etudes, would he/she be able to just play the etudes daily rather than exercises? It`s just because etudes are so much more musical and fun the play than exercises.
I`m only two years into piano, (age 13) I`m advancing very quickly but I`m FAR from being well rounded, so I`m just asking around to fill in some holes.

thanx in advance for the reply,

OK, to clarify (I just read the question, it didn`t make much sense), I pretty much meant which exercises would be most useful?

I agree with you that exercises are boring, but playing some won`t hurt.
For etudes, you can play Chopin`s 24 Etudes. They`re very musical. If you want more, you can try SOME of Bach`s DWTK. I don`t recommend playing all.

Yeah, I love a bunch of Chopin`s etudes but many of them are too difficult for me to play at the minute. I was just wondering which exercises to use. I`m currently using Hanon`s Virtuoso Pianist exercises, but I`m wondering if those are the best or if it doesn`t really matter what I do.

I just read a book by pedagogue Karl Leimer (teacher of W. Gieseking). He didn`t recommend to get saturated of exercises and etudes at the expense of the true repertory. The student should learn to obtain his exercises from the same work he`s learning. Anyway some exercise work is unavoidable and he advises:

i) Learn all the major and minor scales, play them with separated hands first, so that one hand doesn`t drown the other, and every defect can be recognized. Do it slowly and looking mainly for smooth and level sound for all the fingers, without jumps nor irregular dynamic. Very important is to keep the hands completely relaxed for pearly scales. Then play with hands together.

ii) Do the same work for the arpeggios and also for arpeggiated diminished seventh chords, useful because all the fingers are used.

iii) The most important advise is to do the exercises continuosly hearing the sounds one produces, otherwise it`s a waste of time. I never found in this book nor in other ones any emphasis on fast playing of exercises, but on the quality and beauty of the sounds.

I use any of the Hanon`s exercises 1-30 in order to warm the fingers before my practice, and of course I begin slowly. On my own I suggest daily work in sight-reading. After playing for 5 years I regret that I was not guided to this area early.

thanx, so far I`m up to exercise #9 in Virtuoso Pianist (adding about 3 or 4 a week). I didn`t know scales were that important though, I just thought they helped you memorize the keys. Guess not, but I still have yet to practice any apreggios. And about the saturation with exercises, don`t worry, I dont` saturate. In fact, until a month ago I didn`t do ANY exercises at all. I really only play a few exercises then play and learn songs for about an hour. If anyone else has anything to add they can keep the post goin

Here are some ex that I use for my students...but dun just focus on the mechanical aspect...as someone had already said...focus on the sound. These technics are only there as a means of getting the desired sound/effect.
1. For purely mechanical work:
...Hanon
...Schmitt
...School of Velocity

2. For technic and musicality
...Burgmuller
...Bertini ( for intermediate players )
...Cernzy ( pls note that there are different series for this )
...Bach preludes,inventions
...Stephen Heller studies

3. For advanced player
...Pischna ( to prepare for diploma technics... u`ll understand when u look at the book.)
...Liszt`s technical drills( These are not his Transcedental etudes...alot of pp do not know about these, check it out...they`re pretty good. )
...Rach`s etudes ( think of em as advanced repertoires instead)
...Chopin`s etudes ( same here)
...Liszt`s etudes ( same here )

I think the etudes and studies from Czerny are quite useful. Start with the easiest ones. You play them using your metronome. First you play for example: MM=80 for every 4th note. You increase this tempo. then you take MM=100 for 8th notes and also increase this tempo. and so on. It`s very important you start slow and repete them every day. Also scale practice is important. It`s the basic of every composition.
Other possible studies: Cramer, Heller, ...
The etudes from Chopin are quite difficult. I`m playing the piano for about 12 years (I`m a piano student at concervatorium) and I`m trying to play them.
Good luck!!
Greetings
Ann

Well...........i ean`ta teacher nor in a concervatorium
but i have been playing the piano for 6 months ... i have just started Toccatta and fugue and i`m really enjoying myself.anyways i thought the starting bit was a good exercises 4 u (and the piece is quite easy!so that helps)

.....that is to say toccatta and fugue in D minor from Bach !!