Beethoven's hands

[KyleC]

i was going over a piano piece by Beethoven when i came across a reach that i could hardly make. this leads me to the question of how big where Beethoven's hands? they must have been a decent size. i am supposively the same height as he was and i can reach from c to e, however c to e is quite a reach and i can only use the reach by facing my 2 3 4 fingers up in the air so obviously i can not do this reach very fast or with much power, so how far could Beethoven reach? and does he use a large reaches often in his music? and is my reach with the parameters i explained good or not?

[Chris]

If you cannot comfortably span an octave, you're in trouble. If you can span C to E comfortably, you should be fine for most Beethoven. If C to E is a struggle for you, you may have some difficulties, I think.

[ruudp]

Originally posted by Chris:
If you cannot comfortably span an octave, you're in trouble. If you can span C to E comfortably, you should be fine for most Beethoven. If C to E is a struggle for you, you may have some difficulties, I think.

Chris,
Wasn't it also so that in beethovens time the keys were smaller I read about that in post from a while back..Because neither beethoven nor mozart f.e had really big hands Perrhaps this also explains the big leaps..I can take for example c-e without much effort but the final movement of the moonlight-sonata is too much for me *just before the end the little notes*vorschlage*

Regards,
Ruud


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Music is like Blood...vital too ones well-being

[Chris]

I don't know. That could be, but if they were too much smaller, it would have been pretty easy to strike keys you didn't mean to along with the right ones.

[Rod]

Originally posted by ruudp:
Chris,
Wasn't it also so that in beethovens time the keys were smaller I read about that in post from a while back..

From what I have seen personally, the keys look smaller on the old pianos. More noticeably shorter in length rather than width, but I think smaller in both instances.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[KyleC]

so why would they be made smaller? this makes no sense. like i said i can reach an octave easily yes and c to e sort of. but im expecting to grow another inch or two and hopefull my fingers will lengthen than. im only 16 i have plenty of time to grow left in me.

[Peter]

Originally posted by KyleC:
so why would they be made smaller? this makes no sense. like i said i can reach an octave easily yes and c to e sort of. but im expecting to grow another inch or two and hopefull my fingers will lengthen than. im only 16 i have plenty of time to grow left in me.

The octave span varied - a 1867 Streicher grand 166mm, Graf 1826 grand 160mm, the average was around 163mm. The modern octave span is wider.




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'Man know thyself'

[ruudp]

Originally posted by KyleC:
so why would they be made smaller? this makes no sense. like i said i can reach an octave easily yes and c to e sort of. but im expecting to grow another inch or two and hopefull my fingers will lengthen than. im only 16 i have plenty of time to grow left in me.

I don't know why aswell but it does clarify some of the jumps composers make..Plus you should realise that length of the fingers isn't everything aswell it's the flexibility and strength of the fingers which matter..My pianoteacher *female* has got quite small hands but can play everything except some pieces of liszt...

Regards,
Ruud

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Music is like Blood...vital too ones well-being

[KyleC]

yes i know that the strength and flexibility is very imnportant. that is why i do a lot of hanon and other finger excersizes beleive me they help. however i would think the bigger the hand the bigger the fingers and the stronger the fingers. like if you see a short man and a very tall man you would naturally assume the tall man is stronger. and why cant she play lizst songs? sorry for my ignorance.

[ruudp]

Originally posted by KyleC:
yes i know that the strength and flexibility is very imnportant. that is why i do a lot of hanon and other finger excersizes beleive me they help. however i would think the bigger the hand the bigger the fingers and the stronger the fingers. like if you see a short man and a very tall man you would naturally assume the tall man is stronger. and why cant she play lizst songs? sorry for my ignorance.

ignorance is what people are when refusing too ask...Liszt DOES require big hands too play, Liszt himself had very big hands and some of his chords are too big too handle with smaller hands *just as some works of debussy* she can play almost every liszt work but she needs to cheat in order to play them, she just plays some chords slightly differently in order too make it work or something like that..I'll ask her again as soon as I've got my first lessons again,
btw..which piece was it??too be playing beethoven at 16 I find quite impressive
Greetz,
Ruud

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Music is like Blood...vital too ones well-being

[This message has been edited by ruudp (edited 08-30-2004).]

[KyleC]

i dont have the name of the piece unfortuneatly. . i really like Beethoven so my teacher lets me play some of his songs but she says that she lets me because i like him so much and because she thinks i can handle it. i havent worked on really hard pieces by Beethoven. but then again at 16 im not really expecting to. i just hope one day i could be up in front of a crowd of people in concert hall playing my heart out in front of everyone. that is what i want to be you know. a concert pianist. that would be really cool. and that is why i ask so many questions like hand size and the question i asked before about how i started late.

I'm just glad i stumbled upon a site like this with such helpful individuals.

[ruudp]

Originally posted by KyleC:
i dont have the name of the piece unfortuneatly. . i really like Beethoven so my teacher lets me play some of his songs but she says that she lets me because i like him so much and because she thinks i can handle it. i havent worked on really hard pieces by Beethoven. but then again at 16 im not really expecting to. i just hope one day i could be up in front of a crowd of people in concert hall playing my heart out in front of everyone. that is what i want to be you know. a concert pianist. that would be really cool. and that is why i ask so many questions like hand size and the question i asked before about how i started late.

I'm just glad i stumbled upon a site like this with such helpful individuals.

gosh...I'm 18 years old and started playing the piano 4 years ago aged 14...I once fostered the same ambition as you did *secretly I still do too some extent* but I now do realise that there's one thing I sadly miss DISCIPLINE...the iron-hard discipline of playing etudes day in and day out and ONLY play that which is required for lessons...I've recently *2 years ago* discovered my "talent" as a composer and am starting to focus onto that mainly now..but I still LOVE the piano..I'm busy working of etudes by bürgmuller op.109 and have finished the op.100 I've played the first movement of the moonlight sonata and the 2nd op.49 sonata in g major by beethoven...right now I'm playing mozart's kv330...I still hope too be able to play in front of a big audience one of these days...my first real concert experience was at school they held a musical soirree one might say and everybody was allowed too join..I improvised a piece for them on the piano..my heart THROBBED in my throat my breathing had never been so difficult and my leg kept on bugging me disabling me good use of the pedals...1 year later *april 11th this year* I had my 2nd experience once again at school and although my breath still was stocking and my heart stilkl throbbed the darned leg finally left me alone and it went loads better this time..I had too play at school also for a grade I decided too play the raindropsprelude by chopin which went luckily marvellous I got a 9 *highest possible was a 10*...

Regards,
Ruud.

P.s sorry for strolling of SOOO far off topic

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Music is like Blood...vital too ones well-being

[KyleC]

im acting as accompianist for the school choir to boost my skills. we have a talent show and im thinking that i might enter it this year. there are so many things that i do well but so many things i do wrong at the same time. do you ever have a problem completely perfecting a piece. it seems no matter how easy it is getting everything to work together with no mental slips or finger slips or whatever is nearly impossible.