im playing a piece by debussy called 'Serebande (from Pour le piano). now, my hands only have a range of eight white keys if it contains chords (at the most) or nine white keys (only if the notes are in the first and fifth fingers). but one of his chords have a wide spread of 9 1/2. should i not play one of the notes since im not able to do anything about it? or should i keep stretching for it and rip my fingers apart. please help, theres no point in having the lesson teacher i have either because even she says im too advanced for her

I have the same range as you and I can't play that properly either! I'd just leave it for a while and see if your hands grow... that's what I'm doing...

haha...i can play them properly up to a point

my hands are like dead tiny and can only stretch to an octave.

Rachmaninov has huge hands too and i cant reach some of the notes in his pieces, so i have to use another chord.

can u use another note?

i think so....i do play Rach's pieces...i love them sooo much...

yea i think ill have to change or leave a note rather than come back to it later.... my last resort is surgery (hmmm ..not a bad idea)

What about spreading the chord - starting at the bottom and moving your hand to get to the top - I know it is not strictly "done" but it's better than hurting yourself to do it. Also there are finger stretching exercises you can do - there is a thread on here about it

Cat

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yea i think ill have to change or leave a note rather than come back to it later.... my last resort is surgery  (hmmm ..not a bad idea)

Schumann built a device to strengthen his 4th finger. Think you know that he ended up injuring it.

I can reach a 10th, with much difficulty an 11th.

I can reach a 9th (from C to high D).

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~tremolololo~
Just done Grade 7 Piano (22nd Sept.) (done well except aurals!)

pianoplayer, you can reach a 10/11th??!!

wow you must have big hands....

my hands are so small...maybe i was only fit enough to play the flute lol!

Relating to Catrin's msg, you can sometimes do arpeggiation for the chords, instead of pressing them down all at once...

but in the end, if i cant reach it, i just change to another note of the same chord or i just leave it out and play the other notes

You have two choices - spread, or be selective.

I'm playing "La cathedral engloutie" which this has some whopping chords. I can do a 9th depending on what's in the middle, but this has 10ths and some octaves with a lot in-between.

A bit of research revealed that in a recording of Debussy himself playing the piece he spread the RH chords in one section (where the left hand is doing a broken chord accompaniment). This sounded "right" for that section of the piece but really didn't work in others. In that case you need to look at the chord and see what the essential bits are harmonically - many of Debussy's chords aren't spread further than an octave but contain some really difficult spreads between your 3rd and 4th fingers - there is generally a note that can be sacrificed...

NB - the recordings aren't sound recording as such, but made from the rolls of a recording piano.

Cecilia, you have the soul of an optimist My hands haven't really grown since I was 12/13, but my spread certainly has as the hands get used to it!