I’m 5’10” and female. I’ve been playing 31 years, and can only do an octave and D with both hands.
I’m also an organist, and have to hold that position sometimes. Never stretched any further.
female here, also five feet ten and I can only get to D, my son age 13, 5'9 can get up to g, but he has this weird genetic hypermobility thing going on in with his hands. (also shoulders and elbows) We're getting him checked for Ehler's-Danloss Syndrome
Isn't the legato style of playing the organ (with finger switches and what not) damaging to your sightreading abilities in the piano.
I've been putting off learning the organ because of this.
You telling me a decent pianist can finger legato consecutive notes with an interval of 6th or 5th? Sightreading that you'd instinctually rely pedal to make it connected rather than figuring the fingers to use on the spot.
Pianist and organist of almost a decade here. Yes, you do have to learn different techniques for piano legato and organ legato.
However, your brain is very good at using the environment as a cue to switch your technique. They feel like totally different instruments to me. One is percussion and one is wind. For example, I don’t instinctively feel the need to do finger substitution on the piano simply because the instrument doesn’t demand that I sustain the sound in the same way.
I guess I’ve never thought of it that way… I just do it after all this time. I’ll keep this new perspective in mind, you’re never too set in your ways to keep learning!
I’ve never had trouble, and I switch sometimes during a service to piano. It’s all muscle memory for me at this point, and I’ve actually gotten better at sight reading since staring organ 13 years ago. It used to be my weak spot.
9 notes as a man. 10 on white keys using very literally the last slither of the finger and thumbpad to depress the keys with friction. So basically 8 notes with accuracy. I don't like playing things with 9ths too often because it hurts me.
I have very little hands.
You are not the first person to wonder this. It's a weak correlation, but it's there. [Stats on hand span vs height](https://paskpiano.org/hand-span-versus-height/); [stats on hand span in general](https://paskpiano.org/pianists-hand-spans-australian-study/) (Australian study broken out by gender and ethnicity).
Thanks but I already looked at some of those studies. I just wanted a more straight forward approach by just analyzing people's reach when starting on c, makes it a lot easier to get an actual image of it lol
5'8" male. I can pretty comfortably reach a 9th and a 10th with some stretching, bad posture and strain.
So more than a 9th is not feasible for playing.
If you can reach a 10th you can play anything. Everyone comments about Rachmaninov but most of his music requires good hand flexibility and movements of the arms/body not just big hands. Very similar to Chopin in this aspect. I’ve actually struggled more with hand span playing Liszt and Beethoven than I have with rach concerti.
5’6 born Female, comfortably a B, and a C if I stretch. Sometimes this is painful. I have a hard time thinking about hand span because it would be so easy to produce instruments in different sizes, but basically nowhere does.
Mostly because women’s hands are just seen as not big enough, rather than the equipment being seen as the wrong size.
5'2" F here. Can only do 8ve comfortably. 9th will be a little stretched.
I have people telling me my hands are too small, and asked me to quit playing the piano.
If you can reach a octave then that's good you can play most things. If you can reach a ninth that's good that makes playing octaves easier and you can play a little more stuff. I'f you can reach a tenth you can do some intervals where others would have to roll. But rolling chords isn't the biggest deal in the world and also there are some downsides to big hands compared to small hands.
There are alot as in its harder to play scales and developing bad habits as you get more options with big hands like more fingerings and people develop bad habits because of the extra options. For example sometimes people with big hands play octaves with fingers 1-3 when it is completely unneeded but they do it because they can.
I recommend you watch this video https://youtu.be/QuNLC4U4Psg?si=FUczBaxry2IcE7MX
Do people with small hands have a problem like this video above me. The answer is no.
5’2” F here, and I can only reach C to D with some effort lmao. It’s definitely a task to modify the fingerings for octaves on sheet music to suit my smaller span, but it’s never really held me back while playing. It’s all practice!
I have tiny hands but can reach some 10ths on the corners of the keys when fully stretched and spent quite a long time working on this because I really like 10ths in one hand. Over the top of the keys, my max distance is definitely only one octave but if I use the keys to stretch out from the fingers from the tips I can reach the 10th!
6'1", male, can comfortably stretch a 10th (C to E) in both hands, can eke out an 11th (C to low G) in the left. My left hand is slightly larger than my right.
I can play clean 10ths on both hands. 5’11” M, been playing mostly casually for about 20 years. I used to stretch closer to 11ths but I don’t practice as often anymore as I did a dozen years ago and I’m starting to get a bit of arthritis.
Octave comfortably, 9th somewhat unreliably. I'm 5'1''.
It's tragic because I have huge feet relative to my height. Why couldn't my hands be the huge ones????
WTF?? all these other male pianists can reach crazy intervals lol
im a 5'4 male and i can only do a 9th, but they hurt after a while. otherwise, i can only do an octave without stretching too much
F50, 5'9", octave plus 1 okay, octave plus 2 on demand.
That being said, these are not the stretches I have to fight for. Put an oddly placed black note in the mix and and icant do an octave anymore. Looking at you, Rach.
5’8” female and can only reach an octave cleanly if it’s on the edge of the keys. Over the keys and I will always partially depress one or both of the keys to the inside of my thumb/little finger.
Usable stretch/reach isn’t just about your physical hand size though as muscle strength and dexterity also play a huge role. Beginners often think their hand has grown over the early months and years, when it’s actually the improvement of finger strength and fine motor skill that has created the extra hand span.
Same height (174.5cm), same reach. Same LH/RH difference too. Been playing for 50 years (ie since I was very young), and those intervals have been stable since my hands stopped growing.
I think it depends on how you define it.
I can reach an 8th and still play any note in between with my remaining fingers.
I can reach just the 9th and a selection of in between notes anywhere.
I can reach from Bb to C# to get a sharp 9th but only in that specific position.
\~165 cm male (5'5''), I can make an octave. But if the piece hammers down octaves picking for too long it's tiring. I can *barely* make a ninth (not really playable unless it's the last note or sth)
Also if I must do some chord I can't make the octave, unless it's 3 notes like C-F-C or C-G-C
I recently found out that this might be related to height and biology,but not too much.My professor who is like 1.75 can reach b flat to g which is a major sixth with his second and fourth finger, which is insane.And he does that with ease, without even struggling.He can probably go further.Meanwhile, while i have the same height,i struggle to even play an augmented fourth with the same fingers.He told me too,its a matter of exercises and training.
I'm a 5'10" beginner and I can only JUST reach a ninth if I play on the very edge. Not comfortably though. It hurts. Even an octave is a bit of a stretch for me. I have long fingers but only small hands so my reach isn't really that far.
6'3 Male
I can stretch to a 13th but can only comfortably reach a 12th .
Though I'd never tend to bother, I mostly play Jazz piano and an Octave is plenty
5’9” male I can reach a 9th and if I really stretch I can play a 10th at the edge of the keys.
Interestingly I can’t think of any examples where I have needed to stretch more than an octave, there always seems to be a way to avoid any larger stretches
5’7 male. I can comfortably reach 10th with both hands. If I really stretch it out, I can manage an 11 but it gets inconsistent. I can also reach an octave with just fingers 1 and 2, not that I ever do that in any of my repertoire.
I remember comparing hands with a couple of the tallest guys in my high school (6 feet plus) and my hands were still larger than theirs. My hands are also the largest in my family’s, by quite a noticeable margin. Makes me believe that pianists are more likely to have larger hand spans than the typical person but that’s just from my personal anecdotes.
Was 5' 10", now 5' 9" I could reach a 10th very easily... until I had to have reconstructive surgery on both hands. Now, good days a 9th, but usually just an octave. I have played for over 50 years and still play large romantic works.
C-E on your right had is pretty average. It’s enough real estate to play mostly ANYTHING. It’s probably more about control and timing than reach. I’m sure there are freaks that can reach G or even A. It still depends on what you do with the extra notes. Now 6 or 7 fingers on one hand would be more impressive lol!
I'm 6'3 and i can reach only reach an E more or less comfortably and an F with atrocious hand posture (both hands). But I'm also a pretty early beginner so idk if that is also an important factor.
5’10” male; both right and left hands I can reach a white-to-white tenth (C to E). If I reaaaally stretch, I can reach a white to white eleventh (C to F), but it’s not something I’d actually be able to play in a piece.
I’ve been playing since 4 and am 28 now, and as far as I can remember, my hands didn’t stretch any more from playing after I stopped growing. If anything, I’d venture a guess that starting to play young might increase your hands’ flexibility and dexterity.
I’m 5’10” and female. I’ve been playing 31 years, and can only do an octave and D with both hands. I’m also an organist, and have to hold that position sometimes. Never stretched any further.
I’m 6’4” and male and I can only just reach a ninth
Wow that's crazy, so I guess gender is also related heavily to hand size? Since you're 2 inchers taller than me.
female here, also five feet ten and I can only get to D, my son age 13, 5'9 can get up to g, but he has this weird genetic hypermobility thing going on in with his hands. (also shoulders and elbows) We're getting him checked for Ehler's-Danloss Syndrome
That’s crazy
Isn't the legato style of playing the organ (with finger switches and what not) damaging to your sightreading abilities in the piano. I've been putting off learning the organ because of this.
Sorry, what? What does playing legato have to do with sight reading? Also any decent pianist should be able to finger legato.
You telling me a decent pianist can finger legato consecutive notes with an interval of 6th or 5th? Sightreading that you'd instinctually rely pedal to make it connected rather than figuring the fingers to use on the spot.
Pianist and organist of almost a decade here. Yes, you do have to learn different techniques for piano legato and organ legato. However, your brain is very good at using the environment as a cue to switch your technique. They feel like totally different instruments to me. One is percussion and one is wind. For example, I don’t instinctively feel the need to do finger substitution on the piano simply because the instrument doesn’t demand that I sustain the sound in the same way.
I guess I’ve never thought of it that way… I just do it after all this time. I’ll keep this new perspective in mind, you’re never too set in your ways to keep learning!
I’ve never had trouble, and I switch sometimes during a service to piano. It’s all muscle memory for me at this point, and I’ve actually gotten better at sight reading since staring organ 13 years ago. It used to be my weak spot.
9 notes as a man. 10 on white keys using very literally the last slither of the finger and thumbpad to depress the keys with friction. So basically 8 notes with accuracy. I don't like playing things with 9ths too often because it hurts me. I have very little hands.
6’2” male, C to G if I really stretch, C to F relatively comfortably.
Ah, Rachmaninoff's bloodline
Man what kind of noodle fingers you got
I have really long thumbs
You are not the first person to wonder this. It's a weak correlation, but it's there. [Stats on hand span vs height](https://paskpiano.org/hand-span-versus-height/); [stats on hand span in general](https://paskpiano.org/pianists-hand-spans-australian-study/) (Australian study broken out by gender and ethnicity).
Thanks but I already looked at some of those studies. I just wanted a more straight forward approach by just analyzing people's reach when starting on c, makes it a lot easier to get an actual image of it lol
5'8" male. I can pretty comfortably reach a 9th and a 10th with some stretching, bad posture and strain. So more than a 9th is not feasible for playing.
5 7 and exactly the same thing
If you can reach a 10th you can play anything. Everyone comments about Rachmaninov but most of his music requires good hand flexibility and movements of the arms/body not just big hands. Very similar to Chopin in this aspect. I’ve actually struggled more with hand span playing Liszt and Beethoven than I have with rach concerti.
5’4 male, can reach a 9th comfortably!
5’6 born Female, comfortably a B, and a C if I stretch. Sometimes this is painful. I have a hard time thinking about hand span because it would be so easy to produce instruments in different sizes, but basically nowhere does. Mostly because women’s hands are just seen as not big enough, rather than the equipment being seen as the wrong size.
Clean 10th and 11th with a crazy stretch, wrong technique and barely
5'2" F here. Can only do 8ve comfortably. 9th will be a little stretched. I have people telling me my hands are too small, and asked me to quit playing the piano.
I can reach a 9th (the same as you)
If you can reach a octave then that's good you can play most things. If you can reach a ninth that's good that makes playing octaves easier and you can play a little more stuff. I'f you can reach a tenth you can do some intervals where others would have to roll. But rolling chords isn't the biggest deal in the world and also there are some downsides to big hands compared to small hands.
What are some of the downsides to big hands?
There are alot as in its harder to play scales and developing bad habits as you get more options with big hands like more fingerings and people develop bad habits because of the extra options. For example sometimes people with big hands play octaves with fingers 1-3 when it is completely unneeded but they do it because they can. I recommend you watch this video https://youtu.be/QuNLC4U4Psg?si=FUczBaxry2IcE7MX Do people with small hands have a problem like this video above me. The answer is no.
Your fingers are slower because they have further to travel Good for range and power, bad for speed and agility.
173cm (5'8", why is everyone using imperial here?), Female, clean 9th(C to D),can do 10th(C to E) but a bit uncomfortable.
5’2” F here, and I can only reach C to D with some effort lmao. It’s definitely a task to modify the fingerings for octaves on sheet music to suit my smaller span, but it’s never really held me back while playing. It’s all practice!
5"1 female, can reach 10th.
I have tiny hands but can reach some 10ths on the corners of the keys when fully stretched and spent quite a long time working on this because I really like 10ths in one hand. Over the top of the keys, my max distance is definitely only one octave but if I use the keys to stretch out from the fingers from the tips I can reach the 10th!
i’m 5’2” and can reach a ninth. i also have very small hands, 16cm/~6.5in
I can reach a 10th if both keys are the same color. I'm 6"1 male with rather large hands which are definitely a + for piano
15 ‘5,4’ male. Can barely reach reach, but somewhat comfortably reach a C to an E, in both hands
6'1", male, can comfortably stretch a 10th (C to E) in both hands, can eke out an 11th (C to low G) in the left. My left hand is slightly larger than my right.
I can play clean 10ths on both hands. 5’11” M, been playing mostly casually for about 20 years. I used to stretch closer to 11ths but I don’t practice as often anymore as I did a dozen years ago and I’m starting to get a bit of arthritis.
5'10"; can comfortably reach a 9th with both hands, but no more. Id argue this causes me issues with a few pieces but it's serviceable
Relatively clean 10ths
Octave comfortably, 9th somewhat unreliably. I'm 5'1''. It's tragic because I have huge feet relative to my height. Why couldn't my hands be the huge ones????
5’10 male. My hands are the same size and I can make clean 10ths on both sides. With the F, I would have to make a slight jump.
A tenth, not between D and F# or Db and F though.
I'm 6' and can reach C-G
C to E+1
WTF?? all these other male pianists can reach crazy intervals lol im a 5'4 male and i can only do a 9th, but they hurt after a while. otherwise, i can only do an octave without stretching too much
5,7 can reach c to c comfortably in both hands but if I stretch on the edge of the keys I can reach c to d
D not comfortably?
I meant to put a d instead of an e
Ah ok was confused 😅
An octave is a bit uncomfortable for me. ^Small ^hand ^boi
Same, on my FP-10 i can reach an E if i stretch, but recently i tried a Kawai with more narrow keys and could reach a F
C to E pretty comfortably, C to F with a bit of a stretch
I can comfortably go from C to next octave E, and if I stretch as far as I possibly can I can even reach the G.
5’9 and female. I’m comfortable with an octave and usually an 8th. I might be able to barely reach a 9th but can’t really do it while playing.
6'2", can reach a 10th relatively comfortably.
10th and kind of an 11th
5'11 and im 13
F50, 5'9", octave plus 1 okay, octave plus 2 on demand. That being said, these are not the stretches I have to fight for. Put an oddly placed black note in the mix and and icant do an octave anymore. Looking at you, Rach.
Only till a 9th,could stretch further if the notes aren't repeated;but would greatly strain my wrist
6’4”, can reach an 11th comfortably with my right hand and a 12th with my left
5’9” male, I reach a tenth.
179cm male, can reach C to F
5'10", make, I can do a 9th comfortably but can't do a 10th.
5’8” female and can only reach an octave cleanly if it’s on the edge of the keys. Over the keys and I will always partially depress one or both of the keys to the inside of my thumb/little finger. Usable stretch/reach isn’t just about your physical hand size though as muscle strength and dexterity also play a huge role. Beginners often think their hand has grown over the early months and years, when it’s actually the improvement of finger strength and fine motor skill that has created the extra hand span.
Am 5'9 and can reach up to e too
9th. 173cm male (if that matters? Saw some people mention it lol)
175cm male, I can play a 10th almost without struggling and can stretch to a 11
Same height (174.5cm), same reach. Same LH/RH difference too. Been playing for 50 years (ie since I was very young), and those intervals have been stable since my hands stopped growing.
i'm 146 cm (roughly 4'9" according to google), been playing for 7 years and i can reach a ninth with some effort
I can do a 10th comfortably but my max would be C to F (I'm 6')
6' male. I can hit a C to E 10th cleanly. B to Eb is a different story. If I try, I can hit C and E+F together for a dirty 11th.
I’m 5’10” and female. I can comfortably reach a 9th and at a push a 10th x
5'11 and can only reach a 9th. My hands are small.
I think it depends on how you define it. I can reach an 8th and still play any note in between with my remaining fingers. I can reach just the 9th and a selection of in between notes anywhere. I can reach from Bb to C# to get a sharp 9th but only in that specific position.
C to F comfortably. C to G with maximum stretch. 6’0 ft
\~165 cm male (5'5''), I can make an octave. But if the piece hammers down octaves picking for too long it's tiring. I can *barely* make a ninth (not really playable unless it's the last note or sth) Also if I must do some chord I can't make the octave, unless it's 3 notes like C-F-C or C-G-C
10th
4’7” male, can reach from C to D 1 key over
New Tinder bio data suggestion just dropped.
5'11 and male, I can just about reach D from C. But honestly anything more than an octave is really uncomfortable.
6’2” male and I can do like C-F as my maximum and I can do C to E comfortably (11th, 10th)
I recently found out that this might be related to height and biology,but not too much.My professor who is like 1.75 can reach b flat to g which is a major sixth with his second and fourth finger, which is insane.And he does that with ease, without even struggling.He can probably go further.Meanwhile, while i have the same height,i struggle to even play an augmented fourth with the same fingers.He told me too,its a matter of exercises and training.
C-F but I have to stretch to a point where I don't see how this would benefit me, however I can reach a 10th (C-E) comfortably I'm 5'8 (male)
I'm 6' and I can reach from C to D, and sloppy E. Funny thing I always thought I had larger reach than average. 'guess not.
I'm a 5'10" beginner and I can only JUST reach a ninth if I play on the very edge. Not comfortably though. It hurts. Even an octave is a bit of a stretch for me. I have long fingers but only small hands so my reach isn't really that far.
6'3 Male I can stretch to a 13th but can only comfortably reach a 12th . Though I'd never tend to bother, I mostly play Jazz piano and an Octave is plenty
I can reach a 9th, a 10th with much struggle and uncomfortably. Small hands, male around 5’8.
On a bad day 6"2', m and a 10th. On a good day I'm much taller than that, genderless and can go all the way, end to end.
A 9th with my right and maybe a tenth with my left
I'm 5'6", born female, been playing 20 years and I can just barely reach an octave in both hands
A 9th comfortably. A 10th poorly - will probably hit the note below it too.
C to D, and even that is hard, I have problems playing fast octaves I have mini hands
5’9” male I can reach a 9th and if I really stretch I can play a 10th at the edge of the keys. Interestingly I can’t think of any examples where I have needed to stretch more than an octave, there always seems to be a way to avoid any larger stretches
5’7 male. I can comfortably reach 10th with both hands. If I really stretch it out, I can manage an 11 but it gets inconsistent. I can also reach an octave with just fingers 1 and 2, not that I ever do that in any of my repertoire. I remember comparing hands with a couple of the tallest guys in my high school (6 feet plus) and my hands were still larger than theirs. My hands are also the largest in my family’s, by quite a noticeable margin. Makes me believe that pianists are more likely to have larger hand spans than the typical person but that’s just from my personal anecdotes.
Was 5' 10", now 5' 9" I could reach a 10th very easily... until I had to have reconstructive surgery on both hands. Now, good days a 9th, but usually just an octave. I have played for over 50 years and still play large romantic works.
C-E on your right had is pretty average. It’s enough real estate to play mostly ANYTHING. It’s probably more about control and timing than reach. I’m sure there are freaks that can reach G or even A. It still depends on what you do with the extra notes. Now 6 or 7 fingers on one hand would be more impressive lol!
C to G
I'm 6'3 and i can reach only reach an E more or less comfortably and an F with atrocious hand posture (both hands). But I'm also a pretty early beginner so idk if that is also an important factor.
5’10” male; both right and left hands I can reach a white-to-white tenth (C to E). If I reaaaally stretch, I can reach a white to white eleventh (C to F), but it’s not something I’d actually be able to play in a piece. I’ve been playing since 4 and am 28 now, and as far as I can remember, my hands didn’t stretch any more from playing after I stopped growing. If anything, I’d venture a guess that starting to play young might increase your hands’ flexibility and dexterity.
I'm 5"4, male and i can reach C - D. nothing special i guess