Your Reach

[Chrysalis]

What is your reach

I'm only getting from c to f  (octave higher f ofcourse)
not that special

next...

[pianonut]

mine's c to d (octave of course)

[lostinidlewonder]

c to f nothing special? That would be like 1% of pianists. I can reach C to G on my very small toy keyboard does that count? hehe. On a real piano I am C to E. or FG to Bb

[pianonut]

i wonder if doctors can perform finger extensions?  would anyone know you had one?  basically, it would make my short thumb and little pinky as long as the rest of my fingers.  of course, then my hand might look a bit funny.

[Chrysalis]

it is special?

i mean with a bit stretch i can get from c to f

with easy i can hit c to e with both hands... a slight afford will be c to f :O

[SDL]

Mines comfortable 9th chords with 5 notes or 9ths and 10ths from C to E.  Its the gaps between the fingers that count though.

My teacher says hes got a pupil with the furthest reach hes ever seen - 15th!!

[Da Bachtopus]

My teacher says hes got a pupil with the furthest reach hes ever seen - 15th!!

Two octaves!  Are you serious?

Whoever this person is, it is their repsonsibility to outdo Dreyshock and learn Revolutionary Etude in 15ths.

[SDL]

It could have been 14ths  no less though.

[allchopin]

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1610.0.html (the survey)
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2220.0.html (the results)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3039.0.html

[BoliverAllmon]

here is my reach.

Thumb to pinky 11th
thumb to ring finger 11th
thumb to middle finger 10th
thumb to index 9th
index to pinky 9th
pinky to middle octave
pinky to ring 7th

pretty good I guess. still room for improvement though.

[Anton]

I play organ and piano and both my teachers can strech very far my organ teacher can strech to a f and he can play it comfortably ,i asked my teacher about this and she said the stronger u hands become the further u can strech cause the flesh/muscle between youre fingers gro smaller, my organ theachers thumb and pinky streches completly vericly in a straight line .there are exersises one can do do speed things up a pit and to make youre fingers stronger and by that i dont mean hanon orr stuff like that

[hodi]

What is your reach

I'm only getting from c to f  (octave higher f ofcourse)
not that special

next...

really? not that special?  from c to f, u must have very large hands. (and if u can play fast with reaching c and f.. that's great)


btw, i'm from c to e at max... (10)
i saw the survey, and i think it's bullshit!!, so many pianists with 12th? no way. 9th is usually the standart.. rachmaninov could "only" do with his extra large hands from c to g easily.

[anda]

normally a 9th, but i reach a minor 10th (stretch). all based on exercises (before doing this i couldn't reach more than an octave)

[SDL]

i saw the survey, and i think it's bullshit!!, so many pianists with 12th? no way. 9th is usually the standart.. rachmaninov could "only" do with his extra large hands from c to g easily.

So you think because you stretch 9th/10th and Rachmaninov stretches 12th that no-one could stretch more.  An arrogant assumption by you.  The guy is at the RNCM and taught by my teacher.  Are you calling us liars?

[hodi]

i didn't say that because i can reach 9-10 easily no one can do over 12th.. having a 12th span is rare (rachmaninov was said to be the pianist with the largest hands), so 30% of the pianists here are with rachmaninov's hands?

[BoliverAllmon]

I play organ and piano and both my teachers can strech very far my organ teacher can strech to a f and he can play it comfortably ,i asked my teacher about this and she said the stronger u hands become the further u can strech cause the flesh/muscle between youre fingers gro smaller, my organ theachers thumb and pinky streches completly vericly in a straight line .there are exersises one can do do speed things up a pit and to make youre fingers stronger and by that i dont mean hanon orr stuff like that

true it all comes down to stretching (well somewhat). I use to only reach a 10th, but through stretching I can now get the 11th.

[DarkWind]

i didn't say that because i can reach 9-10 easily no one can do over 12th.. having a 12th span is rare (rachmaninov was said to be the pianist with the largest hands), so 30% of the pianists here are with rachmaninov's hands?

Even though he died over 50 years ago and we don't have large people anymore and we are all small now. Hey, he had LARGE hands, but not THE largest.

[mikeyg]

C to F as well my friend.  It was once suspected that Paganini had Marfan's Syndrome or had tendons removed from between his fingers in order to play things like the 24 Caprices.

[ted]

Elevenths at an isolated stretch, but not comfortably enough to play them rapidly in all positions. Tenths are fine in general but even then I find rapid filled tenths a la Waller a bit taxing and break one in every few to keep things flowing. In particular the ones (left hand) of the type Ab,Eb,C are too much for me to manage rapidly.

I do not accord huge advantage to having big hands. The only style which really uses them is stride (for tenths), and I find that tenths broken in various ways are more interesting rhythmically anyway. 

[pianobabe56]

I've got a comfortable 10th (C to E). Score! Quick post count boost with minimal effort! ^_~

[abe]

An 11th (c to f). Its painful if I try for the 12, but i have done it. Not practical to try to reach for it while actually playing a peice though.

[lostinidlewonder]

Send me a photo of your hands, they must be like a basketball players!

[pseudopianist]

I can go from C to E but that isn't really comfortible and I wouldn't be able to play with it. I'll stick to my 9ths.

A friend of mine has a reach from C to G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[keys]

yeah I have the same reach as pseudopianist. I have fingers from my elbows but very narrow palms. If I could just reach one more note! sigh...

[jim_24601]

A 9th, comfortably; a 10th (C-E) at a stretch. Easier with left than with right.

[Chrysalis]

ugh.... c to g almost now... ugh ugh!!

[paris]

i can reach from c to f and i'm very proud of it