Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Poll (sorta): What's your reach?

For what it's worth, walking 10ths in the left hand are pretty common in the jazz world. I can't play some without rolling, but not all.

I am a beginner at 64. I can do an octave and I think I am too old to stretch without breaking something. But as a beginner, I don't know what a roll is. What is rolling when you refer to an octave reach?

Michael -

A roll is when you quickly play the notes of the chord from the bottom up - without actually striking all the notes at the same time. Many folks use this approach when playing intervals larger than an octave.

First of all, 64 is not old and you are never too old to increase your reach. Just be gentle, relaxed and slow about it. When you roll a chord, it's like playing an arpeggio or broken chord. You play the lowest note, then the next lowest, etc. So, if you were rolling an octave, you would play the low note followed immediately by the high note.

I can reach an octave with my right and a 9th with my left. When I first returned to the piano at 65, I could barely reach an octave with my right hand and it was very uncomfortable. It can get better with practice. I am now playing chords that I had to either roll or leave the bottom note of the octave out.
Judy

I'm very lucky to have large hands for a woman. I can reach a 10th in both hands.

gooddog, I have read your post, here:

I am a beginner at 64. I can do an octave and I think I am too old to stretch without breaking something. But as a beginner, I don't know what a roll is. What is rolling when you refer to an octave reach?
First of all, 64 is not old and you are never too
old to increase your reach. Just be gentle, relaxed and slow about it. When you roll a chord, it's like playing an arpeggio or broken chord. You play the lowest note, then the next lowest, etc. So, if you were rolling an octave, you would play the low note followed immediately by the high note.

Deborah, too, funny.

You see, I have been stressing and fussing over John Thompson's piano Book 1, page 30, The fairies' Harp where I have to read and play broken chords written as sounding together. I have finally got the piece under my fingers but it has taken a while.

AS a beginner it is nice to learn the lingo. I may not play better, but I will sound better when I talk at coffee.

age is relative to age. If you are 10, 30 is old, and if you are 80, 65 is young. I like the feedback that those that are 65, can stretch without breaking something.

Ack! I'm not 65...yet...but close. I'm actually amazed at my hand and arm strength, the growth of my span, the wellness of my finger joints and increase in my skills since I re-started lessons 8 years ago. I'm trying to get my family to promise to shoot me when I get too old to play the piano. I can't get them to agree.

I am fortunate in that I can span a 10th with both hands (easier with the left), and believe me it comes in handy as an organist, particularly -though not confined to- in playing Franck's murderous works.

Otherwise, I can take the opening of Rachmaninov 2 without breaking, but just barely -the second chord in the right hand is dodgy- though I would not do so in performance.

I am also 64 years old with arthritis in my right hand and especially the fingers, so large spans are not easy. To make it worse, I have small hands and bad technique. My best reach is for the aspirin bottle or a cup of coffee, but when warmed up, I can reach a 9th in a major key.

Same here. Although a few months ago, my hands grew again, so now I can reach tenths semi-comfortably! Weird..

I can reach a ninth in both without trouble, and in my left hand I can reach a tenth (barely). Not sure if my hands are different sizes or my left hand has just gotten more flexible or what. I am a lady. My fingers are super long, which I think doesn't particularly come in handy. My palms/handspan isn't particularly long if you measure across, though compared to other women I suppose it's on the bigger side.

I was sort of curious about my hand physiology and I looked on some human body charts that said my hand size is apparently in the 90th percentile for women. I have very big feet too (11 US) so maybe it's related.

Chopin's hands really were small for a guy, but very flexible. I've got a cast of his hand and it's the same size as mine except for the fifth finger. I've got an unusually short one, Chopin's was unusually long. I've got a solid nine and an "ify" ten. Chopin should've had a solid ten. That extra long fifth finger would've made all the difference. This would've been with the fingers spread at a 180 degree angle, his hands open like the "jaws of a snake" as one of his fans described.

Chopin once enviously wrote about another pianist -I think it was Thalberg- "He can take a ten the way I take an eight." Apparently meaning without having to get in touch with his inner anaconda.

One of Chopn's pupils also noted the he frequently rolled chords and did so so skillfully that you'd never know he'd done it.

I have to correct myself...yesterday I noticed that I can play a 9th with my left without too much trouble! Don't even know when this happened.

Not that it matters much, I never need it, it's the lack of span in the right hand that gives me problems...But it proves that one can still grow when over 40

I can play a 10th comfortably, but I can't reach an 11th.

Comfortable tenths in both hands personally, great webbing between thumbs and second fingers, but every time this topic resurfaces I note to the forum that Ashkenazy supposedly could only reach an octave, so that narrows down the excuses for the rest of us mortals!

Michael 99 and Chopinlover49, I can relate to everything you've both said and you crack me up!!

A ninth in both hands.

11th both hands, never needed though, it's more about spreading/stretching than just flat-out big chords, they hardly occur, only by clumsy composers.

I practiced Chopin 10/1 by playing quarter note chords up and down the piano CGCE, CACF, and so on.