Short Fingers!

Mr. Fraser, I am an upper-intermediate level piano player trying break into a more advanced virtuoso level playing. I've been practicing some Chopin's scherzos, but it's very difficult to play because of my small hand size. When I stretch out my hands as wide as I can, my hands barely reach an octave with the tips of my thumb and the little finger. So I've been playing octaves by positioning my fingers at the outer edge of the white keys to avoid creating dissonance. This hand position is really problematic because I cannot move fast between white and black keys and I cannot create a smooth transition using thumb and the 4th finger for an octave. How can I get the maximum length out of my small hands? And how can I avoid injury when straining my hands is necessary to play an octave, which obviously collapses the arch? Thank you for helping me. I'd look forward to your answer.

Dear Abby, a pertinent and frequent question! Many have written me saying, "It's all fine and well for you with your huge paws, but how does someone with small hands do the techniques shown in your film?" I've written the answer elsewhere, and there are also lengthy answers to the question in both my film and book, so I'll just try to give the most succinct answer possible here. The problem lies in stretching the hand into extension because of its smallness, thus making it tight. The solution is to learn how to get your hand into full extension but keeping it completely loose. Flop your hand down on a table or desktop. Leave it totally limp and begin to use your other hand to pull the fingers gently in one direction, your thumb in another. If yo go slowly and gently, finally you will give yourself the strange sensation of being in maximum extension with no effort. This gives an interesting and useful new image of your hand to the neuromotor system. The next step is to transfer this to the keyboard. Notice that when you go to play any large interval, even before you get to the key your hand has virtually gone into spasm in preparation. Use this new image of your relaxed extended hand to neutralize that reflex, and try to get to the board with your hand in its newly learned state. That is the short answer to your question. I have seen many students's hands literally grow a size or two from doing this simple exercise carefully and repeatedly until the required neurological change takes place. At , there's a page on my experiences teaching in Wuhan, China. Chen Yuan, The first student I describe on that page could barely reach an octave. Her playing of Dante Sonata proves that a year's intense work in this direction can yield amazing results. Li Jai Dai's B flat minor Scherzo recording should also be of interest to you; she had a similar problem. One more quick note: when your arch is fallen, it does not need to be collapsed. What I mean is, if your hand is completely mashed down and you squeeze slightly with your thumb and fifth, you will see the center of your hand rise slightly. This effort is all it takes to make your arch functional - it doesn't have to be sky high, it just needs to have its inner workings active! I wish you luck in your own investigations, and do keep us posted! All the best, AFF

Hey Abby, I lament over your situation with small hands; but a woman having small hands is nice, except for playing piano. I'm a man and have hands like my mom--small. My normal stretch is about 7.8," which is the normal for most women (lay your hand on a ruler and measure from tip of thumb to tip of little finger). But like Alan says, you can get a great more if you get full extension. With that, my reach goes from 7.8 to 8.9. That gives me another inch and I can play those octaves, sometimes even a tenth! But that's really stretching it and having to play as you say, on the front of the white keys. Hopefully Alan's books will help with loosening the inside of the hand and not just doing full extension. I have to laugh at the one example on the DVD of how to play 8va, so easily. To do as he does, I need an extra 1.3 inches of finger. I don't think that's ever going to happen. But who knows? Another thing to help with small hands is a smaller key board. You can get (buy) a 7/8 size keyboard, which helps emmensly. I have a friend who can just barely reach an 8va on a regular size keyboard, but she has an easy 9th on the other. It takes the normal size of 48" down to 40". that makes a big dif. I'd say, get as much out of Alan's methods as possible. And if that still isn't enough and you have the money, look at a smaller keyboard. Bob