The Ultimate Piano Workout

Not having a routine which is solid often result myself getting lost in an already not very musical to do Workouts. The Ultimate Piano Workout is making a streamline to achieve a step-by-step approach which is guaranteed by Mr David Hicken is quite promising me to achieve my goal of practicing piano. Thank you Mr David.

This is my second review of this book (same five stars) as I found a way to organize (package) the contents into a manageable daily routine that has a repeatable structure. For the background, I am an upper intermediate / early advanced pianist with most of my repertoir being David's. Hanon has been my go-to warm-ups however I noticed that I sort of stalled technique-wise, so wanted to layer more technical exercises to my daily practices. And David called it in this book: Hanon is great for finger strength and technical repetition skills but it is all white keys:) So, when I printed this book out, I played switch-e-roo with the pages and got all of the Major scales, their arpeggios (incl 1 and 2 inversions) together. Then after that I did the same with the harmonic minors and melodic minors (one set of arpeggios, for both, clearly, to follow) - which resulted in 3 main sections that you can either go through as a routine on the same day, or do all majors and their arpeggios together one day (till your household members cannot take it anymore) and the next day - same with the minors. When you master that, the next section could be the same things but a third and 6th apart (again, shuffle the pages) with broken cords to be added. That will give you section 3 and 4, etc. So ultimately, the book stops seeming overwhelming with you not knowing how to fit it logically into a limited amount of practice time you may have, and starts growing on you. Ultimately, you will memorize the routine in each section, and won't need the book - but at first, this is a great visual / logical organization option to make sure you move through the book and advance the skill with each following section being harder than the previous one. The scales in all thirds are my challenge right now. Again, David - thank you for putting this together and making it available for additional practice, I am getting the most out of it.

This is an excellent book containing credible and detailed advice, explanations and exercise regimes for anyone looking to enhance their 1) understanding of music and 2) piano-playing technique and experience!

Systematic, simple to follow, detailed and comprehensive. Great for honing my piano skills.

The Ultimate Piano Workout