Fast Ocataves With Small Hands

I have a problem with playing fast octaves or large chords is quick progression; while I can maintain the structure of my hand, the mere act of spaying my fingers activates the muscles and creates tension in my arm and locks it up. Any ideas on how to overcome this? (BTW, my fingers reach a ninth).

Something that I realised recently is that if your feel you are stretching outwards, your hand will never function well. You need to feel as though you're actually squeezing inwards, if anything. I've recently been doing a lot of slow practise, resting on every key and literally squeezing inwards against the side of the keys. This is definitely helping to improve what had been a rather woeful lack of support on my r.h. 5th finger. The more you squeeze inwards, the more the return force will help to push your fingers outwards. Despite having an easy 10th/11th, I've suffered very poor stretch from 2 to 5. I still can't easily strike a C minor chords in my right hand, except for when I allow the knuckle of my 5th to sag. However, squeezing inwards in slow practise is definitely improving my stretch and starting to improve the weak knuckle.

hey, have you guys watched the beginning of my DVD chapter on Octaves, especially the small hands section? That is REALLY IMPORTANT and it gives the answer to the problem of how to EXTEND the hand without STRETCHING it... if you have the book, it's the chapter called Big Sound from a Small Hand.... I am not going to explain it all again here because I get tired of repeating myself! Please go and review that material and then give me some feedback. Is it clear, do you understand it, does it really solve the problem for you (as I believe it should)? Or not? All the best, AFF

I analyzed this a little bit, I think I have a problem when I have to hit notes between the high and low notes of the octave, although fast octaves by themselves aren't so bad. For example, I might be using 1,2,4, and 5 fingers to play a chord. I can maintain the arch on fingers 1 and 5, but then 2 and 4 will have to curl up, which collapses the structure. I was therefore stiffening my 2 and 4 fingers to try to get more strength in them. I seem to have an easier time maintaining the arch in my fingers if I take high wrist position.

of course the high wrist makes it easier. But study that part of the film/book again in more detail, you are not "getting" it completely. 1) Mash the hand to collapse the arch completely, discover how your hand can achieve even greater extension when it is free from tension. 2) In the mashed position, raise your 2nd metacarpal-pahalangeal joint just a millimeter or two. Notice how even this tiny intention ACTIVATES the arch-generating muscles. You can feel the action of rendering the arch potent, even at this tiny degree of movement. In fact, this small degree of movement is very educational in refining that whole function. 3) Bring some middle fingers in (just one at first), IN THIS CONTEXT. The arch doesn't have to be high, it has to be functional. So use (2) to teach yourself the functional arch even at very low knuckle heights. Then you use this feeling to keep your interior fingers functional even if the arch appears collapsed visually. Let me know how it works out! AFF