Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel, Op. 599, Nos. 41 – 60

Two posts ago, I began my quest. My quest to play all 100 exercises in Carl Czerny’s book of beginner piano études, Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel. What is a piano étude? Well, my previous post explains this and much less (that is to say, it does not explain much more than this), and I strongly suggest you start from the very beginning if you are trying to learn piano.

Actually, if you are trying to learn piano, I strongly suggest you do not try Czerny’s piano exercises at all. The learning curve is too steep, and without a proper piano teacher, your form and posture will be all incorrect. I do not count as a proper piano teacher because my form and posture is already incorrect and its incorrectness is already incorrigible.

This post, we’ll talk about posture, technique, and another guy, Hanon, ‘s exercises. That’s improper grammar and punctuation, but I want to pronounce ‘Hanon’ with pauses at each end, and ‘s exercises together as one word, because English is stupid and French liaisons sound really, really good. Unlike my performances of the following exercises.

Pay attention to the sixteenth-notes/semiquavers in the left hand. It’s a sort of modified Alberti bass; a normal Alberti bass is a four-note pattern, while this is a six-note pattern.

Those staccato dots under the slur are called portato (sorta like potato but without as much money. That’s why it’s a poor-tato). It’s basically a cross between legato and staccato; instead of slurring the notes, you gently pulsate them. I say ‘gently’ here but when I play, it sounds more like I’m banging the notes, so don’t learn from me. Research about how to play proper portato yourself while I go cry in my little corner

Now, we introduce a little something known as a rest. What is a rest? Well, when you have a rest, your hands should… rest. Basically, a rest is the same as not having a note there. There are different types of rests and they look different, but they all mean the same thing: lift your hand off the keyboard. These add variety to compositions, because things would be boring if there were music all the time, right? Right?! Right…

Just a note in case any of you were wondering: I’m not playing repeats because it’s not in my character. Also because my sketchy counterfeit contraband possibly illegal Chinese copy doesn’t mark repeats, and so I always forget where I’m supposed to repeat. Also because pffft, you’ve heard it once, you can re-hear it a thousand times unless you suddenly become deaf because of my horrible playing