Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Can the conventional piano keyboard ergonomically suit all

Well my fingers have trained long and hard to play 'Bumblebee" at lightening speed. ( Just to show off in seedy bars late at night ... ) And the Paradisi "Toccata" took considerable time to reach an acceptable tempo with balanced tonal clarity. I have no doubt that changing my keyboard by even a nano-inch would result in catastrophe. I'd be back to "Fur Elise" ... a lovely piece but not what I feel compelled to play right now.

But apparently you haven't actually tried it. And pianists who have tried different-width keyboards have not reported catastrophes: on the contrary, most of them were surprised how easy it was to adapt.

Also depends on which keyboard size your adapting to, the universal 15/16 is the quickest and easiest size to adapt and the smaller 7/8 size takes a bit longer cause of the octave difference (equivalent to a 7th on conventional keyboard).

I'm waiting eagerly for the incarnation of this thread on the Tuners and Techs Forum.

And ABF too.

On ABF, many of us would try anything if it seemed like it might help!

A pianist can normally adjust from one size key to the next as long as the largest span does not exceed what they are capable of. This may take more or less time depending on the person. But I am not sure why the question of whether someone who is able to play of larger keys would have issue going back and forth between larger and smaller keys.

The real question is if someone who is not able to play on larger keys (say they have a span less than an octave), is able to play on a full-size keyboard for performing. I can't imagine it would not present some problems. They'd no longer be able to play octaves and would have to make adjustments, drop notes, redistribute, etc. - the things that they do right now to be able to play on full-size keys.

I'm thinking again how this might work out from a teacher's point of view, because this is in the teacher's forum, so I am assuming that teachers are being asked how they feel about this on behalf of their students.

Ok, so you have a student with small hands playing a piece with a large span. I'm thinking that you would be teaching a particular technique for approaching that part in the music - some physical way of playing it. Now the student has one of these smaller size pianos at home, but plays your full size piano in the studio. Does that work for you? Or - you have a smaller size piano in the studio in addition to your regular one so you can do this. Will this student be able to play that repertoire if she goes somewhere else, using the technique they use on their small piano?

Does this work in terms of teaching students?

I'm also thinking that most students start as children, so by definition they all start with small hands. Is there a problem with that? Is there an advantage, such as maybe stretching and ending up having wide flexible hands? Or conversely, injury?

Actually that might be an interesting place, since we would get the technical side of it.

Well, with my large fingers I already have trouble playing in between black keys on a standard keyboard and can't imagine doing that on a smaller keyboard.

Here are two possible cases:

1. The hands of the student are too small to play this particular piece on a standard-size keyboard. In this case, the reduced-size keyboard is giving the student the opportunity to play repertoire they would otherwise never be able to tackle. OK, they can only play this repertoire when they can get their hands on a suitable keyboard, but that's better than never being able to play it at all.

2. The hands of the student are large enough to tackle the piece on a standard-size keyboard, but the piece is easier for the student on the reduced-size keyboard. Students and teachers who have experience of this situation report that "Learning a piece on the 7/8 prior to playing on the conventional can help the learning process and result in less tension after making the transition." Many small-handed pianists report that practicing pieces on narrower keyboards can help facilitate the playing of these pieces on normal-sized keyboards, even if they will still prefer playing on the narrower keyboard if they have the choice.

(see the article I already linked to, Hand Size and the Piano Keyboard.


Smaller hands are more likely to suffer injury through playing (see many studies referenced in the article I already quoted). A narrower keyboard gives a gifted child the possibility of tackling certain repertoire earlier than they could on a standard keyboard without risk of injury.

More details on these questions can be found in this FAQ page.

Usually, when teaching a child, they are learning how to read music, how to build connections to coordinate individual finger movements and LH/RH stuff. So playing advanced repertoire requiring an octave is really not a problem. Even playing Anna Magdalena Bach notebook stuff does not require the student to play an octave (In Musetta, it alternates between playing the top note and then the bottom note of an octave, which one can do easily with a small hand and it's an excellent way to teach a student to make large leaps without tension).

For the average to even talented student, they won't encounter a problem with this. I think I've only ever had one student whose hands were particularly small for the repertoire she was working on (she was by no means done growing, either). I selected rep that allowed her to continue to progress that did not encounter octaves.

When I've had students who have smaller hands and they're grown, we redistribute the notes or drop doubled notes to allow for them to be able to play the rep they want. I personally see nothing wrong with this: you make the best with what you have. I certainly have had to do this for myself once in a while and I don't feel bad about it. I can do this on any piano I encounter then, and not have to worry about performing.

So while I don't think there's anything wrong with smaller keyed pianos, I think it does limit a person to personal playing only - which may be fine for some. But for the vast majority of students taking piano, this would not be a good solution.

I also think most teachers would not be able to afford to buy a separate instrument for the one student that can't play octaves that may be in their studio. So I think there is a very limited audience for this kind of product. Not to say it shouldn't be out there as an option, but I do not think it would start appearing in teacher's studios.

Sorry for the double-post:

Regarding those with smaller hands more likely to suffer injuries from playing, I think this is the fault of the teacher not addressing this. Even with little kids I work with them on technique from the start and continue to do so as their hands grow. The problem is that when they play the easy beginning rep they can play it with terrible technique and not suffer, but when they get into late elementary or early intermediate, then it can become a problem.

If a teacher is addressing this as a part of lessons, then an additional instrument int he studio is unnecessary.

Seems like the answer to a seriously small (or otherwise limited) adult hand might be something like Wicki-Hayden.

Take harpsichord or clavier lessons instead of piano! Smaller keys, two registers, lots of fun!

Hard to find, but smaller keys have already been invented!

If only the harpsichords didn't sound so terribly annoying

I wouldn't mind a clavichord in my living room though...but the prices on those things...

I built a clavichord from a Zuckermann kit - cost under $1000 (but of course lots of hours and hair-tearing ). That was over 30 years ago, though. I guess the price has gone up a bit.

The keyboard is much smaller, certainly, and the keys are narrower and shorter. But the whole technique of playing is different too - you simply don't play it like you play a piano.

Interesting reduced size 7/8 piano keyboard video on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBfDN9DBsnk - Part 1

Currawong, I have only played on cheap keyboards that are tiny, and they sound absolutely awful.

That said, I don't ever see acoustic pianos of various sizes being common, or cost effective, or easily available for performance. Someone mentioned Josef Hofmann having played on a smaller keyboard.

But I also know that for me playing has been very easy because I have stretch of about an 11th in both hands, and the tips of my fingers are tapered so that they fit easily between black keys.

If electronic keyboards are ever perfected to the extent that they can compete with acoustic pianos in many styles of music (pop, jazz, etc.) I can easily see a point at which people who can only stretch an octave could suddenly play a 10th or so, and that would change everything.

It would also allow people with gigantic hands to play on a bigger keyboard.

So why not have keyboards of different sizes? It could be a good thing.

Have you ever heard Landowska?

I thought the harpsichord was an annoying, old-fashioned instrument when I was young, until I heard her, and bear in mind this is a mono recording with a VERY primitive sound due to the recording going back to 1935:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxPDiInNseY

But recommended this to a 13 year-old student, and he said:

Wow. That is REALLY cool.

To me some of the most fascinating works by Bach totally come alive when we hear the instrument he wrote for.

(But Landowska's harpsichord was no normal instrument...)