God-darn Major 10th's

[persona]

I can play with a fair amount of effort almost all 10th's that show up, but the problem appears when I come across one of those that include a black key and a white one, for example A flat - C. I know this has been discussed a lot of times, but still all I found where comparisons of who could reach the largest interval, rather than explainations of what one should do in such a case. Am I supposed to just play those intervals always detached, relaying on the pedal, and forget about it, or what? I know for a fact that there are a lot of professional pianists with hands my size, and smaller too. I'd like to know how they work this out.

[guendola]

You can't change your maximum span. Normal 10ths like c - e are a nice span already, many pianists can't do that. You have to detach one note or even leave one out, depending on the piece. It also depends a lot on the piece which note you should play first. Even if both notes are played together, there is always a - perhaps very tiny - delay between them and playing notes one after the other can come quite close to that, it requires practice only.