Hey all! I'm playing the piano and I'm one of those people with relatively small hands (well, not too small since I can easily stretch an octave) Still, 10ths on the left or right hands make me crazy. It really puts a strain on my hands to play a 9th, let alone a 10th. I'm well past my growth spurt by now still... Anyone know a remedy to make your hands bigger?

Make your hands bigger? Aside from steroids, no. Help them strech more so you can reach that elusive tenth? Yes, that's possible.

I have two suggestions - buy the Hanon Virtuoso Pianist excercise book. It might annoy the crap out of your family, but it helps with all manner of things, not just stretching.

Second, just play lots of Chopin - there's some big chords in them, but not too big most of the time. Or, really anything that makes you stretch.

I'm playing one of his Polonaises right now, and I initially could not play solid one of the chords - an A maj tenth in the left hand - but it gets easier if you isolate it and play it over and over. Your hands will want to murder you, but it's worth it.

I guess my hands are smaller than yours. ^_^ 7ths are comfortable for me (which is good, since they're common) and 8ths are rather easy, as well. But, 9ths are pretty difficult and I usually accidently hit 2 keys in an attempt to make a 9th. 10ths are almost impossible for me at relatively fast speeds.

All I can say is reach your hands as far as you can (so, maybe start with 8ths) and perhaps just play around. Perhaps develop a pattern. Then, try to stretch it out to 9. Then, go faster and faster until it's easier.

This probably isn't the best suggestion, but it has helped me to stretch my hands further when playing. When I first began, I couldn't really even hit 6ths well. :heh:

Hahaha, get used to rolling and usuing flat-finger techniques there buddy. ;)

i dont know if there even is a way?

i suppose if you practise it a lot you may be able to increase your stretch

but ive been playing stuff like Brahms and Rachmaninoff (both had a near 2 octave hand span) for ages and my stretch hasnt increased

Well, if you've been playing Rach, there's not much left to worry about as far as stretching goes. <_<

there's and saying that goes "there's more than one way to skin a cat"... what i'm trying to say is that's one of the fun in piano looking for a fingering that is well easy for you.. cause all hands are not the same in size as you might notice some have small hands and some have big hands but i don't think it matters.. i've seen children around 4~7 playing well and i'm sure they have small hands... it's in the practice.. what makes you comfy during play.. :) good luck

I just play a bunch of octave intervals (or higher, if you could). Because of this, I have been able to play 9th/10th intervals :) .

I don't know but I have a friend with small hands, and to play chords that are far apart she uses the pedal and sort of hit the lower note and jump to the upper note really fast. But I don't know how to do it.

^ lol

well what I used to do when practicing with octaves was that I would just play at the tip of the keys, so that the tip of my thumb can hit the 8th key, then I practiced octaves the correct way, and now I can play octaves. I did the same with 9 keys, and I was able to do it. I'm still working on ten.

^^I'm having to do that in some of the Liszt stuff I'm working on, but it's more like 14ths and 15ths I'm having to jump. Not too many people can hit that solid...
It just takes a fast hand and a little coordination, easy enough to get the hang of.

Small hands have an advantage. Your fingers can move faster than big hands and you could use it for very fast songs such as Paganini-Lizt-La Campanela.Don't strain your hands it can lead to problems. My friend is a pianist and he practices all the time.WEll,during the summer the humidity made the piano strings tighten up and he strained his hands. he couldn't play the piano for 2 whole weeks!(and he was calling me every day moping about it..) Everything has an advantage. And are better for different things.^^ hope this helped......

Small hands have an advantage. Your fingers can move faster than big hands and you could use it for very fast songs such as Paganini-Lizt-La Campanela.Don't strain your hands it can lead to problems. My friend is a pianist and he practices all the time.WEll,during the summer the humidity made the piano strings tighten up and he strained his hands. he couldn't play the piano for 2 whole weeks!(and he was calling me every day moping about it..) Everything has an advantage. And are better for different things.^^ hope this helped......

i agree, but i dont think La Campanella is the best example to use. the secret of this piece is co-ordination. the only disadvantage larger handed pianists have is they tend to stretch towards the upper notes rather than moving their whole hand like they are meant to. smaller handed pianists have no choice; they know they wouldnt have a chance of stretching that far anyway.

a better example would be something like Liszt's Feux Follets. apparently Rachmaninoff couldn't play this piece because his large hands made it even more fiddly and he had to try and re-finger the whole piece to suit his hands.

i think thats the key really- if you cant play something, finger it yourself- try different things out. move notes in a larger chord about (as long as doesn't change the harmony)

try lilium too.. it has some wierd stretches along the way.. but i know it's possible cause i've seen it in action..

the technique you have to use is just playing the notes separately very fast in a roll for the big 10th chords. For smaller chords, play the bottom note, the 2nd bottom note and the top note. My old piano teacher had that problem and that's how you're meant to do it apparently.

Rachmoninoff had some HUGE hands.

I've got small hands too. But I just give up and either roll the chord or bring some notes to the appropirate range.