Piano World Home Page Forums Fun Stuff! - Parties, Tours, Projects & More... Just For The Fun of It How many keys across can you stretch?

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.