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How far do your hands stretch?

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i can finally reach a 9th with ease now!!!!! FINALLY! time to celebrate......

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Hmm, I can only reach an octave comfortably and a 9th takes a lot of effort.

Is there any chance that this will impede me from becoming a professional pianist?

of course theres a chance. :) but the chance is probably lower for you than for other people. :(

I have a hand width of a 12th.

I can play a 10th with little strain, which is nice, because blocked 10th minor chords just make me melt.

of course theres a chance. :) but the chance is probably lower for you than for other people. :(

Well, that really isn't encouraging... The only instrument I'm decent at is the piano and I was planning on going into a career involving it.

Well, that really isn't encouraging... The only instrument I'm decent at is the piano and I was planning on going into a career involving it.

You will be fine...

My piano teacher can only just reach the octave, and she's given concerts all over the place. Sure having bigger hands helps...but it's not everything :)

Just have confidence in your abilities.

It will certainly influence your chance, but there are many, many factors which will influence it way more, so I wouldn't worry.

If an eighteen-year-old Django Reinhardt had asked you for advice and said, "I have only two fingers on my left hand--will it impede my chance of becoming a professional guitarist?" What would you say? Or Thomas Quasthoff, who has no arms or legs.

But they both succeeded because they're awesome musicians. And they were (are) actually missing body parts--you just have smallish hands. Think of all the people with huge hands who are not pianists...

11th comfortably in the left hand; 12th if I can set it up. 10th in the right hand, though.

My son is 4 weeks old and already has bigger hands than I do...

11th comfortably in the left hand; 12th if I can set it up. 10th in the right hand, though.

My son is 4 weeks old and already has bigger hands than I do...

4 weeks! :horrified:.... and he can reach an 11th....

how big is this child?

Surely, you must mean 4 years...

4 weeks!:horrified: .... and he can reach an 11th....

how big is this child?

Maybe he just has freakishly huge hands.

I can't even reach an 11th in my wildest dreams. A 10th is a stretch for me.

Maybe he means an 11th of an octave. Or of a whole step :P

4 weeks! :horrified:.... and he can reach an 11th....

how big is this child?

Surely, you must mean 4 years...

:P Y'all are hilarious.

He's 4 weeks old (5 weeks old now).

Of course his hands aren't literally bigger than mine. But in terms of proportion to the rest of his body, he wil be able to reach a 12th by 4th grade.

:thumbsup:

OH! wow, that scared me......0.o

Of course his hands aren't literally bigger than mine. But in terms of proportion to the rest of his body, he wil be able to reach a 12th by 4th grade.

:thumbsup:

Wow, a span of a 12th by a 4th grader... and all I can reach at my age is a damn octave :angry:

10th over here. And quite content with it. :-)

  • 2 months later...

i can stretch a 10th (maximum) for my left hand, and a 9th on my right hand...

oh wow my hands are so small...

i guess my hands werent meant for playing piano...

10th, both hands. And that does me just fine.

I can hit an 11th in my left and 10th in my right without setting it up. If I stretch and have plenty of time, I can hit a 12th in my left, but still only 10th in my right. Of course this is white to white keys. White/black key combinations are different, and I haven't actually tried. Even if I can hit a large interval, I will often roll them slightly anyway. No use killing my hands at my young age.

  • 1 month later...

I can stretch a 10th on left hand... an 11th on my right hand

All of my hands? Maybe 8 octaves or so...

Comfortably

Right hand: a 9th

Left hand: a 10th

Stretching

Right hand: a 10th

Left hand: a 11th

I can do a 10th fairly easily in both hands on my Yamaha Grand. No hand stretches any further than the other. I can stretch to an 11th in both hands but that is pushing it. I can definitely not do any 12ths.

Apparently I have pretty big hands... both my hands can stretch 11ths on the keys (comfortably) and 12ths off the keys, and my left hand can stretch a bit further and nearly reach a 13th........but that's just 2 notes.. I can do 10th chords with a bit of a stretch (never tried 11th chords but don't think I could)

I have TINY HANDS. Yeargh. So frustrating. About an octave on each, that's it. I discovered how annoying it is this morning when I was trying to play a chorale on piano and realized that there was a chord I just couldn't play...

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