Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen for small hands

[christreigns]

I have an advanced student learning Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. In measures 39-41 (and again 145-147) she has to reach an interval of a 9th (Eb to F).  She has small hands and cannot reach the span.  What are your suggestions for handling this?  The 16th notes from hand to hand are pretty rapid through that section so it's not that she has to linger on it nor do I think she can roll the chord.  Could she just play an octave?

[perfect_pitch]

Okay - I have fairly small hands for a guy - I can barely reach a 10th and when I learnt this piece I was in Year 11 and certainly couldn't reach the Eb to F...

Back then i tried to roll it as fast as I could. That's all I did. You do need the F sound so I wouldn't omit it.

Roll the LH notes as fast as the student can. Technically she should be able to roll the chord - it's not that hard - Just keep a very loose and flexible wrist.

[kelly_kelly]

How far can your student reach? The chord really should be rolled, which should be possible unless she has REALLY small hands. I can just about grab ninths between white keys and I would have no problem rolling that chord (though I certainly couldn't reach it), so I'd say as long as your student can reach an octave it should be fine.