One essential skill for the creative modern-styles keyboard player could be described as "spotting a pattern and sticking with it". Like "picking up the ball and running with it"!

Playing alternating Hanon exercise patterns up and down the keyboard is one such challenge. You play one bar of, say, the Exercise 1 pattern, then one bar of the Exercise 2 pattern on the next note up, and so on, alternating, up and down.

Here are some examples. Download the music for the Hanon Combined Patterns set of variations here.

These are essentially exercises for alertness - maintaining concentration on what you're doing. This is often lacking in technical practice. Score yourself on how far you get without a mistake or any hesitation.

Not all adjacent pairs work together. Exercises 5 and 6 do not - try it and see!

Would any of these pairings sound more musical in the other order? For example, with a bar of No.9 first, then a bar of No.8?

Try it out, listening carefully, and make up your own mind. A lot of would-be music ends up 'on the cutting room floor'!

Go on to the second page of this set and vary your practice with four more pairings.