Well-known composers or piano pieces generally suitable for someone with small hands?

Question

One of my struggles with playing the piano is that I have small hands. I can reach an octave - mostly. I can reach it, I just can't maneuver between octaves quickly. Often times a piece will have a running stretch of octaves that I am unable to play. I am completely unable to reach a ninth and above.Are there any well-known composers (classical, baroque, romantic, jazz, etc) who generally wrote pieces suitable for someone with a smaller reach? It is so very frustrating to look at a piece and have to attempt to make concessions in the piece just to be able to play it.

Answer 1

I’m a big fan of the 60 Exercises for the Virtuoso Pianist by Hanon. They generally get more difficult as you progress in the exercises, and I don’t play all of them—I have my favorites! But there are exercises that tackle problems that Classical pianists face, like parallel 3rds, parallel 6ths, and parallel octaves. All of the correct fingerings are written in, which is quite helpful. The exercises include all 24 major and minor scales, arpeggios, and scales in octaves for both hands. My favorite exercise in the whole book is #31, which is the only exercise written in parallel 10ths, which makes it sound like a Bach Prelude, in my opinion, and it’s impressive to hear someone play it.

As to the difficulty you are experiencing in stretching the octaves…I have found that muscle memory can help with time and practice. After awhile, your brain just ‘remembers’ how to feel for the octaves. You won’t even have to look at your hands. Also, you can widen the arc a bit to roll a 10th, for instance. You pretty much have to do that in the Chopin Nocturnes with how much the left hand has to move around. Just let the fingers lightly hover over the keys, never being too heavy. You’ll be amazed how this will free up your hand movements. And keep the wrists light and supple, never with tension. Excess tension will just slow you down.

Finally, as to Composers and compositions I would recommend…the Bach Prelude in C major is one of the easiest and prettiest pieces to play. Your right hand mostly just plays a triad pattern through the entire piece. Also, the famous Fur Elise by Beethoven has octaves that mostly flow in broken left hand chords, so that would be a good one to practice floating over the keys like I mentioned above. Also, play the original version, because part 2 and 3 are really fun to play. You can also learn most pop and modern songs by just playing a melody on the top of chord inversions in the right hand while playing a perfect 5th or broken octaves with the 5th for left hand bass. I can show you how to do that in a lesson if you want! ;)

Hope this helps you, and best of luck in your piano studies!

Answer 2

Try the arabesque by Beurgmueller in a minor

Answer 3

You could take a look at Joseff Hofmann! He was known to have smaller hands.