Simple question really. I have bigger hands I'd presume, and I've been told I have bigger hands by many people.

I can reach up to the 10th of a scale with one hand (I don't know if that's worded right, but I can reach an octave up above C, plus 2 more notes.)

How many keys can YOU reach? Is there any exercises that you know of that are PROVEN to increase finger length? Or by first hand experience?

* I forgot to add that i'm starting from middle C -

I can do a 10th fairly comfortably. But no more.

mr Rachmaninoff probably could do a 13 using his pinky and ring finger. But seriously, he probably could do a at least a 12.

10th more or less comfortably, 11th at the very edge. I'm 19 though so I still hope for some growth =P

One octave exactly. I don't expect any improvement, I'm 38 and this is already a big improvement from when I started 2 years ago. My favorite pianists are Elton John, Billy Joel and Ben Folds and none of them can reach a very wide span that I know of, in fact Elton has stated he can only reach one octave and that's it. I should be OK for most of what I want to play.

Man

Mr. Abraham Lincoln needed to play the piano!

Look at the size of those hands!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abelincoln1846.jpeg


is it just me or are those hands just irregularly large!?!

10th comfortably, 11th barely and 12th, well, I can just barely hold the keys down after warming up, but I doubt I'd be able to play them.

Of course, I suffer from another problem, I can only place my fingers between the black keys before my second knuckle. I am at a size right before it would become a serious handicap.

He could, by accounts that I have read, take an octave and a sixth easily with one hand.

I have an octave and a third or thereabouts.

An octive at maximum stretch.

and a third? big hands!

Only around or a bit larger than average.

Hmm... 10th easily, 11th with some strain.

In my younger day, since I am built like a baboon, I could reach from middle C to upper G (when my fingernails were long.) Since I broke my hand, though, and had a plate put on my pinkie (boxer's fracture, open reduction), I can make an octave but no more. My pinkie sticks up like I'm drinking a cup of proper tea.

So far I'm not very impressed with the results: I can easily reach over a two octaves range, at least when using two hands

An octave plus a second... a third, but I'd play some notes in between

I'm playing a piece with some octave+third (g-b) where I sometimes accidentally hit octave+fourth (g-c)... but I guess much further it won't go

I wonder what hands debussy had, for instance bar 6 of 'fille aux cheveux de lin' I see a chord es2-bes3.

Yes that part in in Fille aux Cheveux is one thing that ruins me from playing the song through well.

I am just rolling it up at the moment.

I can do an 8th with ease, a 9th with a bit more trouble. So far this hasn't proven to be a limitation in anyway, but it would be nice if I somehow got a bigger span. :þ

I'm turning 20 next week and have been playing for 5/6 months, any chance of my fingerspan still growing? I think not, but I can still hope!



Pffuu, get good! I can span over the entire clavier!

10. I can maybe get 11, but it's not useable.

According to this article Lang Lang can reach twelve.

I can reach an octave with the RH and lost the pinkie in an accident. LH can do 9.

i can just reach ten...damn my small hands, it makes everything so difficult

An octave and a key!

If I stretch, I can reach a perfect eleventh (octave plus a fourth) but that wouldn't be practical for performance. The most I would dare try to play without risking a serious cramp is a ninth, or perhaps occasionally a tenth.

As far as I know, there are no ways of increasing your finger stretch, since it is largely dependent upon your hand size. I think you'll probably just hurt your hand before you increase the stretch!

Scales in 10ths no problem...
Scales in 11ths? .... would be do-able
Scales in 12th?.. no chance (but I can JUST stretch it in a one off).

I can comfortably play C-C-E (8va with ring finger +10th with pinkie) in my RH - which comes in handy from time to time.

A tenth at most, if in the white keys by "cheating" by playing from the edge, putting the thumb and little finger completely under the level of the unpressed keys (hopefully you can understand), or a minor 10th from C to Eb at MOST, quite uncomfortably.

I can comfortably play a ninth. This is where men have the adavantage: bigger hands.

Nine ten-ish, it's kinda cool when you think about it.

10th white-white on the edge of the keys

i can do all 9ths comfortably, as well as 1-4 and 1-3 octaves.

I can reach a 9th if I stretch, but only on the white keys. When I first started piano I could only do an octave, but doing finger stretches and stuff I guess widened my span after several years. I will never be able to reach a 10th, but that's ok I guess.