Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Brand new! Tall and handspan

Hi all!!

Brand new here! I am extremely tall. I am almost 6’10” and always get told I should try and learn the piano because I have incredible big hands.

Does this really help? I measured my handspan is about 9.5”

Can we post pics of our handspans to make
Sure I did it right!

Rachmaninoff certainly found it useful. He could play the chord C E♭ G C G with his left hand. He was only 6'6" (or a foot taller than me).

I met a guy, when I was in China, who once reached and changed light bulbs above the centre of a snooker table! I suggested he would play snooker easily with his reach. He said he had tried and asked how I would manage on a knee high table.

Welcome to Piano World, John32!

I would imagine big hands, with a wide finger spread/span would definitely help when playing the piano.

My hands are probably average size for a man, or maybe even a little below average, but I can easily span an octave, and maybe stretch it out to another note or two past the octave.

On the other hand, (same size, of course:-) big hands could be a blessing and a curse, especially when trying to squeeze the big fingers between the black keys. Of course, small hands can be a blessing and curse as well, I suppose.

On the other, other hand, (again the same size:-) I've seen very small children with tiny hands, play a piano better than most adults. It is quite amazing to watch.

My take-away from that is that you work with what you have, and make the best of it.

Give learning to play the piano a try. I'll bet it would be one of the best experiences of your life!

Rick

True, Rachmaninoff had enormous hands, and he was a great pianist. On the other hand, Alicia de Larrocha had very small hands, and she was also a great pianist. Try your luck, no matter what size hands you have!

Big hands might be helpful but I’ve also known people with tiny hands who are amazing pianists. So I don’t think it matters. Work with what you’ve got, let the music flow! 🙂

Have you got a good ear ? Do you love music ? If the answer is yes , find a piano and give it a try. You could end up playing Brahms, Scriabin and Rachmanihoff who knows ?

John
I’m missing something: do you enjoy music? If you didn’t have large hands, would you want to play the piano? If you can answer yes to both, wonderful! Big hands are great but it will not make learning to play quicker or easier... it will just make big reaches easier.

I am a woman, I can reach an octave, and I won't even measure. My only consolation is that I can easily play the white keys between the black keys, which some men are not able to.

This is important. I can only barely fit my fingers between the black keys, which makes certain things take a lot of precision and training. If your hands are too big and you can't fit your fingers between the black keys at all, it's a major problem.

So the key(!) seems to be to have long AND skinny fingers. It must be super handy for Rachmoninoff. 😁 Puns aside, no matter your hand span, give a piano a try if you are intrigued!

Some pianos have more space between the black keys than others.

A concern for someone who is 6'-10" tall would be fitting legs under the keyboard. But there have been some pretty tall pianists. Randy Weston comes to mind.

An octave is about 6.5 inches. White keys are about 0.93 inches wide. So it means you can reach an 11th ( C to F octave above).

You should give it a try and see if you like playing the piano.

John
What kind of music do you like ?

It doesn't necessarily work that way. The only way to really tell is to sit at the keyboard and see how far apart are the farthest keys you can comfortably play together.

But even that is not exactly informative, because in the context of real music, there are time when you can get away with rolling two keys, moving notes around between the two hands etc....

So, handspan is far from the most important issue with regard to whether someone will "succeed" at learning piano...

Pianists also "stretch"their hands when playing an interval. I am 6'4" and have a 9'5" spread. I think you could have more than that.

Well I'm 5'10" with short fingers. My span which I have just measured is 9", so I guess if I had been 6' 10" my span would cover the whole keyboard
Ian

Good one, Ian!

You are just a little taller than me. I'm 5'9" (except where I shrunk from age:-). Just measured my hand span on the keyboard, and it is 8.5". So, you got me there too.

Dang, this measuring body parts seems awkward.

Rick

These might be useful:
https://media1.giphy.com/media/cwLs...mc39iyp4zvjivnmfxi6sfc&rid=giphy.gif
Ian

I'm 5' 10" and my hand span is just under 10". I would image you could probably reach much more than 9.5"

The overwhelming majority of pieces don't require large hands.