Can you play the piano with small hands?
So you want to start learning the piano but have some doubts in your mind that are preventing you from starting such as having small hands. You might be wondering if it is even worth starting the piano if your hands are small.
Or, you may be a piano player starting to think that your small hands are actually a disadvantage and hindering your progress.
The truth is, you can play the piano with small hands as well as anyone with large hands. Most of the easy and intermediate piano music repertoire is suitable for hands of any size, so you won’t have any problem learning most of the piano pieces.
However, there are some differences between what small and large hands are better at accomplishing, which I will elaborate on in this article to clear any doubt you might have because of your small hands.
Does your hand size even matter?
Whenever I tell someone that I’m a piano player, I hear very similar things.
“I’ve always wanted to play the piano but I have never started because I have small hands.”
I always get quite surprised when I hear this, because I never thought about it before starting piano lessons, and I have insanely small hands. However, it is not to say that I have never experienced any drawback of having small hands, but it was never a big issue. As I told you, most of the easy and intermediate piano music repertoire is suitable for hand in any size.
What are the disadvantages of having small hands when playing the piano?
Let’s get a little bit deeper and see in which cases your small hands may cause difficulty and restriction to your piano playing.
Right now I’m thinking, and I couldn’t even find disadvantages except one, which is playing octaves and larger chords.
If you have small hands, it might be a little bit tricky to stretch your hand to play large chords like octaves, ninths, and tenths. If you don’t know what a ninth chord is, you may find this video helpful:
Can you be good at the piano with small hands?
So far we’ve talked about the challenges you might have with small hands, but do those challenges actually prevent you from becoming a good pianist?
The answer is no, because if you constantly practice while following the tips above, having small hands won’t be an issue for you anymore.
In fact, there are many professional concert pianists with small hands such as Alicia de Larrrocha, who is known to have extremely small hands. Look at how she rocks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOa390LUG8
Also, when you think about the child prodigies who can play the most difficult songs with ease, you might get convinced that having small hands is indeed not a barrier to better piano technique and playing.
Conclusion
Having small hands isn’t something that should stop you from playing the piano. Though there are some challenges playing the piano with small hands, they are not difficult to overcome.
Both having small and large hands have disadvantages and advantages to them. The best thing you can do is to follow the tips in this article, and focus on your improving your weaknesses!
