small hands

[asianpianoer]

hey guys
I have like really small hands... i can reach an octave but hardly a ninth and sometimes I can't reach certain chords depending on which black keys are being used.

Does this mean i can't be a professional pianist??
Because like I know I'm never going to be able to play some pieces properley and as have to work harder to play them than people with big hands

[stelle]

Thats a good question, I wonder if there is anything you can do to stretch your hands (without hurting them of course)? because i have small hands too, although i can reach an octave, but not comfortably...

Hope someone can help

[lostinidlewonder]

I think you are restricted in playing pieces as they should sound but who is to say that you can't roll impossible reaches as fast as you can? You can become very proficient in this and fool many people in thinking you are playing the chord.

[indianajo]

The five or ten professional classical pianists in the world have russian type hands, octave and a fifth.  I have native american hands.  I could have never been a classical professional pianist. However, jazz,  popular, and religious music don't have such strict requirements and have a lot more jobs available.  I've never run into anything over an octave in Elton John, for example.  Don't see any big hand spans on Leonard Skynard's pianist, just a lot of warbles and glissandos.  They make a ton of money.  This forum tends to lean to classical training, and that is fine for training, but there is not much money in it.  Talk to an ergonomics specialist before doing any weird stretching described above, not all of us were meant to be russians.   When I play russian music (picture at an exhibition) for pleasure, I cheat, and don't feel guilty about it.    I'm probably the only person in the county that can play this, that is what I think about. 

[quantum]

It is absolutely possible to become a professional pianist with small hands.  There is a whole lot of repertoire in Western Art Music that does not require large hand spans.  Even if you do seek to play pieces needing large spans, there are musical solutions such as rolling chords.

Scriabin was noted to have small hands, but that didn't scare him away from large chords in the music he wrote. 

[birba]

I think I've said this before: small hands can get around the liszt sonata just as well as big hands.  Might take more work and imagination, but it CAN be done.  Believe me.  I've seen it.  If you can hit an octave, that's the minimum requirement.  Chords can be rolled, notes left out, notes played with your nose, whatever.  But it CAN be done.  It's all in the mind.

[asianpianoer]

Chords can be rolled, notes left out, notes played with your nose, whatever.  But it CAN be done.  It's all in the mind.

i like the nose bit. Good idea.
might i add toe. but it's not nice if you're in a dress.

[prongated]

Alicia de Larrocha and Josef Hoffmann had even smaller hands than yours, and they did magnificently And personally I have friends who have handspan like yours and they play Scarbo, Mazeppa, Dante, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, Chopin Ballade 4, Prokofiev 7...

For people with small hands, I believe that the important thing is strong fingers/fingertips. All these friends of mine did heaps of finger exercises (Hanon, Czerny, Pischna, and then Brahms) when they were young.

[amelialw]

you can barely reach a ninth....i can barely reach an octave....so your hands are not small. I have to spend more then an hour everyday on technical exercises like Hanon,Chopin& Liszt etudes to help my hands stretch and have to be careful not to overdo it either

like people have suggested...there's always ways to get around like omitting notes, rolling chords, broken chords etc.

[gyzzzmo]

Having small hands has its advantages and disadvantages, just as having large hands.
And being able to hit a ninth means you can do fast octaves wich is the biggest disadvantage of people with really small hands.

[i_am_joey_jo]

You could buy a Clavichord instead and be a Harp/Clavichordist.  They keyboards are smaller and meant for small hands as in that time the height of people was a foot less than today and so their hands were also smaller because of that.

[rmbarbosa]

I dont know how old you are, but there are some exercises to stretch your hands. Sometimes, instead of stretch your fingers. For example: in order to to play wide chords you must use mainly the set of muscles that open the palm. You may try this: place the right palm over the left palm, with the right arm pointing  left and left arm pointing right, with your hands in front of your chest. Now, with the thumb meeting de pinkies, interlock thumbs and pinkies; fingers 2,3,4 stay on the palm side, 1 and 5 on the back side. Push the hands towards each other - 1 and 5 pushes  each other back, spreading the palm. this motion must be quick and short, then relax. Also, you mat try to stretch your palms without without "open" your fingers: this action lies only in the palms.
But we can play everything with small hands. For harps, for example, we may "Cartwheel": put your hand between vertical and horizontal position with your fingers only slightly curved, then rotate your hand without moving your fingers. As the circle is > than the diameter, with this position you may reach <> twice, i.e. 2 octaves, without any dificulty, you see? Try it and best wishes. Rui