Small handed pianists and higher grades. There must be a way round it.

[Helenluvsrob]

Both my girls are little 5foot 1 or 2 little dots.
Eldest didn't do grade 8 as really there were no pieces she coukd get her hands round well enough and dd2 is likely to be the same.

They aren't career musicians so it's not real problem, just an annoyance . I guess there are techniques they should be learning that their teacher hasn't noticed ( 6 foot plus with " man hands"!)

Anyone know? The little 11-12yr old chinese piano stars can do it ...

It's a long time since I played the piano but I did manage grade 8 distinction when I was 17 and, yes, my hands are large. However, hands are never large enough really. There's a lot of jumping around regardless. Are you talking about the chords?

Apparently the secret is to 'break' the chord very quickly using the pedal to skim over the tiny break. He says this is something many pianists have to do.

I was able to choose pieces that had smaller stretches, and adapt some if needed. I could reach an octave, just, as long as there were no notes in the middle, and black note octaves were I think easier as I could get my hands around them kind of, but repeated octaves were still a problem, and I did end up with some tendonitis or similar problems as a result, so I wouldn't recommend overstretching!

I was able to get special concessions not to do some of the technical requirements like octave scales (not in the UK, but similar exam system).

I don't play the piano these days, but other instruments where I also struggle with small hands and stretches, and have ended up with injuries. I have found that Alexander technique has helped, since before, I was really tensing up in order to try to reach the big stretches; now I'm learning to use less tension, and I am finding that my span is increasing. It has needed a lot of gradual work, however. But I would recommend someone struggling with stretches not to just push forward, as I did, to things that were almost within my reach, without careful work and really checking for tension and other things that might cause injuries. It's probably better to adapt pieces or to take longer before doing the exam, wait for a new syllabus, or look at other boards.

DD is 5'2 with small hands and feet and has been taught to pedal to overcome large stretches. Her teacher last year was a man, but his own teacher at uni was a titchy Japanese pianist so he is sensitive to this issue.

She also adapts pieces where there is a hand-health risk (usually where there are repeated octaves). But she doesn't sit exams so this isn't an issue for her.

Dh's piano teacher had tiny hands, dh said she couldn't stretch more than 6 white notes, and he said she was concert pianist level-she certainly could play the grade 8 pieces he did easily. I'm sure it can be done.