How is your hand span/ratio compared to the national /world ?average

[johnmar78]

Gents and Ladies, I found this

My span is 8.27 inchs and hand ratio is 0.78, for male, I have a lower average male size hands. but higher compared to female. Check this out youself.

https://www.steinbuhler.com/html/handsizepage.html

Ps One  inch = 2.54cm. So if your span is 20cm so its 20/2.54 =7.87 inches.

Hand ratio is 2-4 span vs hand span.

So whats yours......

[jlh]

The site is not to scale? Bummer...

Best,
Josh

[johnmar78]

The site is not to scale? Bummer...

Best,
Josh

Josh, you need get a 30cm ruler and measure yours and caculate your results and compare your results to the scale mentioned above.

[perfect_pitch]

My span is 8.27 inchs and hand ratio is 0.78, for male, I have a lower average male size hands. but higher compared to female.

PFFFFFT... It's not the size that counts... it's how you USE IT!!!







Mine's 8.58 inches, so my hand seems to be rather small compared to the average size of some of the male hands.

[johnmar78]

PFFFFFT... It's not the size that counts... it's how you USE IT!!!


 100% correct Perfect Pitch, Confucious once said use your hand wisely when playing the piano...

[black_keys]

Mine is 9.45 its a little bit above the average of males  .

[black_keys]

Dont get me wrong , Im talking about my hand span 

[chadbrochill17]

I'm redoing my post since I can't read my damn ruler.
Hand span = 8.8 inches
Hand ratio = 0.818 (I can reach 7.2 inches with my fingers)

[iansinclair]

9.7 inches, .79 ratio.  Dang.  I should be able to play those octaves and such like better, then, shoudln't I?

[perfect_pitch]

9.7 inches,

Holy crap - you're span is 9.7 inches??? You should be able to play 10ths with no problem...

As for octaves - they should be childsplay for you.

[brianvds]

I'm too lazy to do calculations. Those crazy 'Murricans should start using proper units of measurements like the rest of the civilized world. :-)

I wonder where Rachmaninov fit on the scale - he had hands of legendary size.

[pytheamateur]

Gents and Ladies, I found this

My span is 8.27 inchs and hand ratio is 0.78, for male, I have a lower average male size hands. but higher compared to female. Check this out youself.

https://www.steinbuhler.com/html/handsizepage.html

Ps One  inch = 2.54cm. So if your span is 20cm so its 20/2.54 =7.87 inches.

Hand ratio is 2-4 span vs hand span.

So whats yours......

So how does that translate into how many white keys you can reach?

[johnmar78]

So how does that translate into how many white keys you can reach?

10 white keys unfortunately.....

[littletune]

Ok I needed a lot of time to figure out how you're supposed to measure this! and now I think I did figure it out but I'm not sure how you're supposed to hold your fingers when you're measuring... I mean do you hold your thumb as it is in that picture or do you hold your thumb as much as you can away from your hand, because I can move my thumb really far away from my hand...
... but if I hold my fingers the way it is in the picture than my hand span is 7.48 and I'm a student still growing I guess so it's kinda in the middle  I'm not really sure how you compare that...
but if I put my thumb as far away from my hand as possible than it would be almost an inch more... 

[johnmar78]

Little tune, ignore the picture, but just measure your hand span to its max, from thumb to your little pinky on a 30cm ruler on a flat table.

Then convert your result to inches by diving to 2.54. Once you done that , check your numbers vs the "colured dots " on the graph and you can compare yours(red dot) as vs male(blue)..

Cheers

[albertus_magnus]

10 white keys unfortunately.....

Nine white keys.

[scherzo123]

I'm too lazy to measure, but I know I can reach a 10th.

[piano_vs_science]

8 WHITE KEYS!!!!!!!!!!
 
my other 12 year old friends can reach 10ths...

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Mine is 7.5 inches, if I stretch really, really hard. 
A bit below the average.
But oh well... hasn't prevented me from enjoying piano. On the other hand, my height is above the national average (somewhere between 5'9 and 5'10)... but no, I don't play basketball...

I wonder when hands stop growing?

[mikeowski]

9,8, what do I win?
(Except the awesome ability to sometimes have a hard time to get my fingers in between black keys)

[davidjosepha]

I'm thinking there are some serious issues in the way people are measuring here. It seems like everyone says they can reach a tenth, yet their measurements are up to an inch different. You'd think someone with a hand span of 9.5 inches could reach at least one more white key than someone with 8.5...

As for my hand? I measured very quickly and got roughly 8.25 inches, although when I get home I'll try it again and see if I can find a more accurate measurement. EDIT: I checked, and my hand span is 8 7/8". I can reach a tenth, and can just barely "play" an eleventh (although I could never do it in the context of a piece). I'm 6'1" or 2" though...I've been kinda hoping my hand will continue to grow (I'm only 18) but it hasn't done much of anything in the past couple years, so I've kinda given up hope. Maybe I'll get another growth spurt in my early 20s like my dad (he's 6'3").

Also, a large part of your span (from what my teacher has said) is flexibility, not just hand size. The more you play, the more your hand should stretch out, theoretically, so you might be able to reach a little farther. My teacher's thumb and 5 make a straight line when he reaches as far as he can.

[david456103]

Mine is around 10.5 inches, I can reach 10ths and some 11ths(depends on the chord)

[chadbrochill17]

Mine is around 10.5 inches, I can reach 10ths and some 11ths(depends on the chord)

10.5 inches? And only barely an eleventh?

[david456103]

i was talking about 11 keys on a non-grand piano. On a grand piano, I can comfortably reach 11 keys.

[pytheamateur]

i was talking about 11 keys on a non-grand piano. On a grand piano, I can comfortably reach 11 keys.

Why?  Are the keys of different size?

[david456103]

yeah, in general non-grand pianos have slightly bigger keys(from what I've played on)

[nanabush]

9.8 haha
Didn't think I was that high up...

There are still little kids with hand spans of like 6 inches who can dominate Chopin etudes... alas

[piano_vs_science]

handspan:18.5cm

ratio:0.64

[emrysmerlin]

10.6 inches

[kotoko]

Geez, I'm jealous of pianists with larger hands ;A;

If I measure my hand without stretching, I get about 7.6 inches. If I stretch a bit without straining too hard, I can reach 8 inches.

When it comes to playing piano, I can reach octaves but it gets tiring if I'm doing a lot of them. If I stretch really, really hard, I technically can reach a 9th but not at a comfortable enough level to perform in a piece unless the tempo was really slow (like, the 1st movement of the Moonlight Sonata, for instance).