Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Help--Tiny Hands not big enough to play chord!

How do any of you (who have small hands/fingers) play chords that stretch out WAY beyond your hands' capacities?

The left-hand chord I am trying to play (from top to bottom) in the bass clef is:

D-flat 4 (just above Middle C)
G-flat 3 (just below Middle C)
E-flat 3 (just below Middle C)
B-flat 2 (two b-flats below Middle C)

I've been playing the top note (d-flat) with my right-hand, which gets tricky when the right-hand is required to play a High B-flat at the same time!

Any and all advice/help is needed. Thanks guys!

(btw - The chord in question is from Cyrill Scott's "Lotus Land," Op. 47, No. 1 -- 1st measure.)

when that happens i just roll my chord. theres really not much you can do about your hand-span except increasing its flexibility (i have a small hand and i can only stretch 10 keys, but i cant hit it all the time)

I would think arpeggiating the chord would be your only hope, or just not playing all the notes.
You call that small? I can only reliably stretch 9 (maybe ten if I really push it, but I bump the other notes pretty easily. I can theoretically manage 10 and a half, but the last note must be a black one for that to work) and I'm 6 feet tall with moderately large hands.

On a related note, Rachmaninoff could manage a stretch of 12 keys.

"On a related note, Rachmaninoff could manage a stretch of 12 keys."

YIKES!

Thanks so much to both of you, that's pretty much what I was guessing. Have an awesome rest of the weekend!

10 keys? Are you counting the black keys too?

I have big hands for a girl -like a roofer's and I can stretch 9 keys. I don't think I can stretch them any wider because that's with my thumb and pinky pretty much at right angles to my palms. My fingers are not super long but I do have big square palms. Kinda like playing piano with a pair of hams.

In my experience the chords that are "just awkward" will get "comfortable" with practice as long as you make a good effort to reach them, the "really difficult" ones will become "just awkward" and the "impossible ones" may just become "really awkward." The truly impossible ones you just have to roll. When I was 17, my one good teacher made me put my hand over a cast of Chopin's hand when I was whining about how small mine was. It was exactly the same size. (Which made Chopin's hands really tiny for a 5'7" man.) One of his fans said Chopin's hands were very small but could stretch out like the "jaws of a snake." I loved that analogy and decided it was just a matter of getting in touch with my "inner Anaconda." The trick is to be reluctant to rule out a chord as impossible and to continually make an effort to reach it. My comfortable range is 9 and I can usually manage a 10 though I have to be ready for it, like a horse gathering itself up for a jump. I read someplace that around 75% of professional adult piano players have a range of 9 or less, which makes 10 a luxury and any more than that just gravy.

If you can't stretch the lt. hand chord,
Bb to Db, while playing a high Bb, you
could roll it, but I think it sounds better if
you "grace it," that is, play the bottom
Bb like a grace note and hit the other notes
of the chord, Eb to Db together. There
are several possible fingerings for this:
5-3-2-1 (ie: the Bb "grace" with 5, and the
Eb-Gb-Db chord with 3-2-1) would be ideal,
but if you can't manage that, then 5-4-2-1,
or even 5-5-2-1, would do.

Quick question -- when you say, "9" or "10" keys, do you mean 9/10 white keys, or 9/10 keys including black keys?

(I'm trying to figure out if I have relatively small hands, or average hands.0

Thanks,

Joe

***I'll 2nd Joe G's Question ^ !

8 means one octave (8 white keys), 9 an octave + 1 white key, etc

Actually, I have to disagree with Frycek. Put Joe G.'s question in terms of a tenth interval, just to keep it simple.

If you are playing what would be a tenth interval if both keys were white keys, BUT if the lower is flatted down to a black key, or the upper is sharped onto a black key, it is still considered just a tenth interval.

It is really a reach of slightly more than a 10th, physically, but it is still considered a tenth.

I went over this with my piano teacher, and what I have here is what she told me.

i have small hands myself, and i hated it, and almost got depressed over it, but with time my hands have gotten more flexible, and they go just a little beyond an octave. i was really dedicated to piano, so i didn't let that small limitation stop me.

Something I have done, that probably you are not supposed to do. But think about this.

Try playing that B flat one octave higher, thus putting it well within reach. It now falls in among the other notes.

I had this happen where I had to stretch more than a tenth to pick up a low G#. I moved it up an octave. That made the entire chord more reasonable. It may be preferable to just leaving out out note, which is an alternative mentioned in the replies.

I'm not too good on theory, but I believe the harmonies for moving your B flat up an octave would be about the same. You wouldn't get the bass resonance, of course.

Before dismissing this idea out of hand, try my suggestion and see if it sounds like it fits.

Just in the couple weeks I've been playing(after a hiatus of 20 years) my 'easy and comfortable 9' has stretched to a comfortable 10. Dunno how it happened but it did. I also notice better flexibility and stronger pinky and third fingers. I try not to overstretch or strain my hands. I would hate to hurt myself and not be able to play!

My comfortable stretch is 7 white keys. I'm hoping that over time this stretch will reach 10 keys.

I do this kind of thing all the time, where rolling a chord would sound funny. You can experiment to figure out which chord sounds the best. I can barely reach an octave--I am envious of all you folks who can play 9ths and 10ths and things!

just play the chord and stop the cryin'. This is what my old teacher would say. Could you play it if your life depended on it? That's what I thought. roll it or omit the notes that are not needed.

Bravo John! As Lord Nelson said, "Never mind tactics, always go straight at 'em."

I don't know if this applies in your situation, but you can often play the higher LH chord note with your right hand.