Small hand?

[kliewe]

Anybody have any specific guidelines on what constitutes a "small" hand?

I've often read warnings about pieces being "difficult for a small hand", but I'm not entirely sure what is considered small.   Does it have to do with the span between fingers 1-5? 

[gn622]

I "think" that most people can stretch an octave plus one more key , so that could be the average hand size.

[keyboardkat]

I think if you can't stretch a tenth, then you are likely to have some problems.   Jorge Bolet said that anything less than that is a big hassle.

[pianoplayjl]

Quite frankly I don't care about hand size as long as you have a wonderful technique. I'd say a small hand really is a span between an octave and a ninth. But just because your hands are small doesn't mean your hands are flexible. I read in another thread a few months ago where Henselt had a small hand but was really flexible. And also another thread mentioned Rachmaninoff practiced 10s of hours a day to keep up with Hoffman. Don't know if info is accurate though. I'd rather have a ninth stretch but with an exceptional technique rather than a twelfth span and with clumsy hands. So if you have small hands it doesn't mean you can't play the piano well.

JL