Hanon Exercice No.20
Exercise Piano solo ~2 min
In brief

This little exercise feels like a dry, steady drill aimed at building finger agility rather than expressive nuance: it has a mechanical, relentless pulse useful for warming up and stabilizing joint control. You will notably face Gammes et arpèges (4.0/5), which here require precise fingering changes and a smooth forearm/wrist rotation to keep evenness of tone, and Passages rapides (4.0/5), which demand controlled finger relaxation and an incisive wrist push to secure clarity and continuity. It belongs to the composer's pedagogical output as a technical study commonly used to create automatism before tackling more musical repertoire. I do not provide a reference interpretation because such exercises are generally not linked to a single well-known recording identifiable with certainty.

MusicCoach difficulty
22/100
Beginner
Likely range : 13–32/100
Confidence : 60% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 2

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Difficulty sources
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 3
28/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
50%
Among Charles-Louis Hanon
11%
Era
23%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Scales and arpeggios
1
Technique
Fast passages
1
Technique
General technique
2
Rhythm
General rhythm
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression