Piano Forum



Enfant Terrible or Childishly Innocent? – Prokofiev’s Complete Piano Works Now on Piano Street
In our ongoing quest to provide you with a complete library of classical piano sheet music, the works of Sergey Prokofiev have been our most recent focus. As one of the most distinctive and original musical voices from the first half of the 20th century, Prokofiev has an obvious spot on the list of top piano composers. Welcome to the intense, humorous, and lyrical universe of his complete Sonatas, Concertos, character pieces, and transcriptions! Read more >>

Topic: G minor ballade octaves with small hands  (Read 973 times)

Offline judiciary

  • PS Silver Member
  • Newbie
  • ***
  • Posts: 7
G minor ballade octaves with small hands
on: August 16, 2022, 09:10:23 PM
I have been tinkering with the Chopin G minor ballade for the past year on and off. One of the things that prevents me from feeling fully comfortable with it is the eighth note RH octave scales in the middle of the piece. I have really small hands, can just barely reach a ninth at edge of keys, and fast octaves have always been hard for me (I played a harpsichord early this year and I was pissed off to discover how easy octaves were on a smaller keyboard...)

I'm working from Cortot's edition (screenshot attached), the 1-3 and 1-4 octaves that he suggests feel super duper tense in my hand. Right now I'm trying to do 1-4 on black keys and 1-5 on white keys, but it's still not the most comfortable. 1-5 for everything feels relaxed but I am doubtful about whether I can do that accurately at speed, with the 1-4/1-5 combo I can do it at full speed but it worries me bc I feel my hand stiffening at the end of the run. I am really not in favor of "powering through" on something that's uncomfortable, I don't want to injure myself. But I haven't figured this out after a lot of experimentation.

Anyone have ideas for things I could try?
Sign up for a Piano Street membership to download this piano score.
Sign up for FREE! >>

Offline lelle

  • PS Gold Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2210
Re: G minor ballade octaves with small hands
Reply #1 on: August 21, 2022, 12:05:35 AM
I have seen people with small hands do those octaves well with 1-5 all the way. If you feel relaxed doing that fingering it might be the way to go. It's possible that you won't play the passage as fast as someone who can use 3-4-5 but hey, what can you do? I think you can make a valid and moving interpretation of the piece without Horowitz octaves. I'm personally a fan of those people who are trying to promote the sale of instruments with more narrow keyboards just because of this type of thing.
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert