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Hi Felipe, I actually have all this massive volumes printed. This is a huge and impressive compendium of exercices and knowledge. Vol 1 and 2 are the most important IMHO, this were printed and you can buy from amazon. The others you can use a 13 inch tablet and work on the piano, but first master the vol 1 and 2 that is a lot of work. Good luck wilth your piano journey.
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I downloaded these with great hope, but like you I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material. I think it would be most useful not as a "programme" to follow, but as a resource to help with specific technical problems you are facing. I have printed out the complete index (v.7 131ff.) and the table of contents (v.6 p.259ff.). Then I can more easily find things in the PDFs. While I'm hardly an advanced student, and have been teacher-less for years, some of the v.1 material on "stretching" seems questionable, even in light of much that he says later about rapid scales and arpeggios. But whatever you think of the exercises, there are some very nice examples of all kinds of technical issues from "music you want to play".
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I assume most people acquire these as PDF files. Most PDF editors make it easy to print selected pages or page ranges, so you can have "hard copy" only of what you want. As you print more and more selections, you can keep them organized in a 3-ring binder (or equivalent).
Some PDF editors also make it easy to create new PDFs from pages you select in a larger file. So you might keep separate PDFs for things like musical examples. (The PDFs can always be in your computer, even if you can't find the paper copies.) -
When considering the technical relevance of piano exercises, it is crucial to take into account what Hofmann emphasized: it doesn't matter what you play but rather how you play. I genuinely believe that it isn't necessary to undertake a "tour de force" and tackle every single exercise with the intention of developing good pianistic technique. After the golden age of pianism, which was heavily focused on fingerwork and hand mechanism, culminating in Otto Ortmann's book, it became evident that spending countless hours on exercises without paying attention to other factors—such as the use of the motor apparatus, as Neuhaus observed, or the use of rotation in the Taubman approach—was of little benefit to the serious pianist. From the perspective of addressing a specific technical challenge or improving sight-reading and mastery of the keyboard, exercises do hold value. However, they should always be done in moderation, respecting the body's limits—remember Robert Schumann. This reinforces the notion that the true art of technique lies not in the quantity of exercises but in their thoughtful execution, with attention to ergonomics and musicality.
