Pianists with small hands?

[Jack Pine]

I don't have much of a reach on piano- I can hit some 9ths, but an octave is about all I can do comfortably. I try to think of this as a blessing rather than a curse, but I admit I'm jealous of those with larger hands.

A thread on Johnny Guarnieri was just bumped and it was mentioned he had small hands. Patrice Rushen was called 'baby fingers' so I assume she also has a small reach. I read that Monk had small hands for a man of his stature, but it seems he could hit 10ths with his left so I don't consider that small.

Are there any other notable players that had small hands?

[Rooster_Ties]

Michel Petrucciani? 

[mhatta]

I read somewhere that Dodo Marmarosa's hands were quite small.  But he still could play Bach's Inventions at double speed.

[Jack Pine]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Michel Petrucciani? 

Yes, he should have been obvious to me. I just came across a list of mostly classical concert pianists that included Michel: https://wanderingtunes.com/pianists-with-small-hands

Also Vince Guaraldi.

49 minutes ago, mhatta said:

I read somewhere that Dodo Marmarosa's hands were quite small.  But he still could play Bach's Inventions at double speed.

Interesting, I'm not as familiar with him as I ought to be.

[Gheorghe]

I also have quite small hands, well I can play decimes easily , but I think my hands are quite small for my length (1,87 meter). In any case I always played with flat fingers. 

[Teasing the Korean]

I can reach a major tenth if I am on all black or or all white keys, but if it is a mix of the two, it is hard.

[Jack Pine]

2 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I also have quite small hands, well I can play decimes easily , but I think my hands are quite small for my length (1,87 meter). In any case I always played with flat fingers. 

Man, if your hands are small for your height and you can reach a 10th I must some kind of really special case: I'm just over 6ft myself! 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I've always thought Renee Rosnes had small hands for a pianist but what she does with them makes me forget pretty quickly.

[Larry Kart]

She's a GOOD one.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

On the opposite side of this, I always wondered how Harold Mabern could play a single key. His fingers were huge.

[Peter Friedman]

There are also the jazz pianists who had a disability that did not allow them the use of ten fingers.

The two that immediately come to mind are Horace Parlan and Carl Perkins.

[Stonewall15]

What kind of disability did Carl Perkins have? I thought he just chose to play his left hand that way.

[Daniel A]

2 minutes ago, Stonewall15 said:

What kind of disability did Carl Perkins have? I thought he just chose to play his left hand that way.

Crippled left hand from childhood polio.

[Joe]

From what I can tell, Keith Jarrett does not have particularly large hands. Is that the impression others who have seen him play have?

[jazzbo]

As I've always said with a sigh of relief. . . "It's not the size that matters. . . "

Edited March 24, 2023 by jazzbo

[Jack Pine]

1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

As I've always said with a sigh of relief. . . "It's not the size that matters. . . "

Here, here!

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Joe said:

From what I can tell, Keith Jarrett does not have particularly large hands. 

That's OK.  He has a loud voice.  

[HutchFan]

I've read that Richie Beirach has small hands.  His fingers certainly appear to be stubby in the photo below.  But I guess he's found ways to work around it -- because one would never know from listening to his music.  It seems like he can play just about anything.

Edited March 24, 2023 by HutchFan

[T.D.]

22 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

I've read that Richie Beirach has small hands.  His fingers certainly appear to be stubby in the photo below.  But I guess he's found ways to work around it -- because one would never know from listening to his music.  It seems like he can play just about anything.

Could be a Roland Hanna situation.

From the liner notes to Sir Roland Hanna's Duke Ellington Piano Solos:

He laughed when asked about the size of his hands. "Bigger than I am," he answered. "They're not long, but they're wide. With my thumb and little finger, I can make an eleventh, from C to F."

 

[HutchFan]

18 minutes ago, T.D. said:

Could be a Roland Hanna situation.

From the liner notes to Sir Roland Hanna's Duke Ellington Piano Solos:

He laughed when asked about the size of his hands. "Bigger than I am," he answered. "They're not long, but they're wide. With my thumb and little finger, I can make an eleventh, from C to F."

Beirach and Hanna are two of my all-time favorite pianists.   WHATEVER they're doing, it works!!!   

 

 

 

Another favorite pianist, whose hands are at the OTHER END of the spectrum size-wise:

 

To quote Fats Waller (yet another terrific pianist), it just goes to show: "T'Aint What You Do (It's the Way That You Do it)"

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by HutchFan

[Gheorghe]

17 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I can reach a major tenth if I am on all black or or all white keys, but if it is a mix of the two, it is hard.

I don´t see a difference in my case. It depends on the key I´m playin´ in. I let the music tell my fingers what is to do. 

14 hours ago, Jack Pine said:

Man, if your hands are small for your height and you can reach a 10th I must some kind of really special case: I'm just over 6ft myself! 

I had to think over what you said: Maybe my statement was a subiective one, since it´s me myself who thinks or thought that my hands is small. I look to the beautiful hands of my wife, who is 175cm  (me is 187cm ) and her fingers is longer and thinner, and the long nails makes it even look longer. Those are really delicate fingers so that mine look somehow short and blunt in comparation. She has them "double limbs" or (how you say to it) and always say why can´t I also be blessed with such fingers, since I´m the piano player. 

[Joe]

14 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

That's OK.  He has a loud voice.  

Matched only by his pelvic thrusts.

[Hardbopjazz]

 

On 3/24/2023 at 1:42 PM, Peter Friedman said:

There are also the jazz pianists who had a disability that did not allow them the use of ten fingers.

The two that immediately come to mind are Horace Parlan and Carl Perkins.

The flip side of small hands, Roland Hanna once said during a concert I was at, that Eubie Blake had the biggest hands he ever saw. He could easily reach a 5th above an octave with his pinky still curved, meaning he could have played the next note.   

[Ken Dryden]

I saw Dave Brubeck demonstrate a stretching exercise before a concert that he did to increase his reach. I forget how far he could reach on the piano, but he had large hands and when he stretched his thumb and forefinger, the skin between them almost touched the table.

[hopkins]

On 3/28/2023 at 2:11 AM, Ken Dryden said:

I saw Dave Brubeck demonstrate a stretching exercise before a concert that he did to increase his reach. I forget how far he could reach on the piano, but he had large hands and when he stretched his thumb and forefinger, the skin between them almost touched the table.

In "Superstride" Derek Coller explains that Guarnieri had also developed a stretching exercises for his left hand, putting his thumb and pinkie on the side of a table and pushing his palm toward the table until "he developed a perfectly straight line running down his thumb from the right, lining up with his outstretched pinkie on the left. This enabled him to reach most wide intervals, despite his small hands."