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We haven't yet determined that the OP actually has particularly small hands, have we? The fact that he is worried about not having a two octave span suggests that hand size might not be his problem.

Regards,

Indeed! My earlier post was, I thought obviously, sarcastic.

I don't think he means what he seems to mean.

I am sure he doesn't. But does whatever he means make much more sense?

I have seen intervals bigger than the major 9th I can reach, especially in piano solo reductions of symphonies. I have even seen some where I have to play a note higher than a major 9th while playing arpeggios in the lower part of my right hand and the left hand is doing its own thing(possibly part of the melody).

However the arpeggios I am restricted to when I play a major 9th interval are things like C F Ab B and for a minor 9th it is a little less restricted(I can do minor and major arpeggios but often the minor 9th interval goes away leaving me with a very consonant octave and I can do a major minor minor 9th chord(Major triad, minor 7th interval, minor 9th interval) and a minor 9th chord(minor 7th chord + minor 9th interval))

You really don't have to. I assume you don't have a teacher to explain to you how those things are actually supposed to be played?

The trolling continues.

Gee, that's awfully rude. Have you bothered to read some of his 200+ posts prior to this thread?

No I don't have a teacher. Mainly because my momma hasn't found a good teacher and my previous teacher behaved worse and worse towards me as I got to more and more advanced pieces. So for several years I have self taught myself how to play certain pieces like Fur Elise by Beethoven and Blumenlied by Gustav Lange.

Similarly I am self teaching myself how to play the flute, with some help from my momma.

Almost all of the ones that I've seen involve trolling of some kind.

Polyphonist, read your posts. You'll see typical troll. caters is lesser troll than you.

Although your post would have been easier to comprehend had it been grammatically correct, I gather from it that you consider caters' incoherent rambling to be genuine. I fear I fail to understand this viewpoint.

Don't worry, no-one else can, either. What pieces are these? If I were playing something like you describe, I'd simply roll the chord, and so would most of us.You can't, so don't waste any of your time or risk injury by trying. People have asked you to tell us the bar number of this passage, but so far you haven't. I'm assuming you're not a troll, just a bit confused, so just tell us the bar number and someone here will be able to clear it up for you.

You also mention piano reductions (of orchestral works) which have huge stretches. These are either [1]reductions made by incompetent people who don't understand the piano, and think that all there is to writing a reduction is to put all the notes in somehow. Or: [2]reductions designed to show you everything in the score on two staves, to make it easier to study, but which are not designed to be performed as written, on the piano.

So if you just clear a few points up, people will be able to help, instead of accusing you of trolling.

Seriously??? You've completely lost me with this post.

Perhaps you need to stick to the stem cell research.

Do you self professed experts really believe any of the OP's statements? For once, Mark C. and I concur.

To be kind, ("my momma hasn't found a good teacher"). How could "momma" teach him how to 1) use the internet, and 2) lead him to post on PW.

The whole thing stinks!!!

Kreisleriana #2 has a legitimate 2-octave reach in several spots, and the other hand is playing an octave at the same time so it can't help. It's not indicated as rolled. The only reasonable conclusion is that Clara Schumann must have had three hands.

Isn't the nose the third hand?

Thought I believe that, because of its unique anatomical structure, it can only play one note at a time. Or possibly a glissando.

Aren't those "spans," rather than reaches?

Offhand I don't even know where you might mean. I've played the piece and never had any issue like that, and if there were such actual reaches, I would have noticed something.

There are some large-spanned rolled chords, as there are in a lot of Schumann, and the opening has those wide-spanned gaps between some of the notes. But none of those are what I'd consider "reaches."


I used that 'third hand' in a chord near the end of Ives' "The Alcotts."

I'm going to write a Glissando Etude which involves five simultaneous glissandi, all separated by an octave - the performer will have no choice but to use the nose for one of them.

Oh yeah, looks like there are a couple nose-spots in there:



Personally I prefer to use my tongue there on measure 24, and my big toe on measure 31.