Any Adult Learner Doing Grade 8 Piano?, My first post - hello everyone Options

[heartbeat]

I'm very restricted in what I can play because my stretch, particularly in the RH, is very small.

Can I ask if there is a particular reason that your stretch is very small? Is it just because you have small hands or do you have difficulty in stretching? I only ask (and I hope you don't think I'm being rude!) because I have quite small hands, but they are still a lot bigger than my piano teachers - she has tiny hands! - but she can stretch comfortably 10 notes! She is constantly saying when I can't reach jumps and stretches that if she can do it, why can't I, because my hands are so much bigger than hers!

It's really frustrating, because I know my hands are bigger, but I just don't have the stretch (or I'm just not as good a player as her, which is also true!) But as I'm interested in yoga, I have been doing the exercises in a new book about "piano-yoga" and it is really helpful. The whole thing is basically the principle of yoga and movement applied to piano playing and I'm only on the first level and I can reach bigger jumps already. Plus I've really found that I can play better from reading things from the book. So I thought I would suggest it to you, because I was doing piano-yoga this morning and then I saw your post so nI had it on my mind. My teacher was saying that everyone can make their hand stretch like hers, they just need to know how to practice and now I think I might believe her! (don't tell her though!)

This is the website: www.piano-yoga.com
Or I did a search for "piano and yoga" and it gave me the same thing.

[andante_in_c]

I'm very restricted in what I can play because my stretch, particularly in the RH, is very small.

Can I ask if there is a particular reason that your stretch is very small? Is it just because you have small hands or do you have difficulty in stretching?

I have a much smaller stretch between fingers 4 and 5 in my RH than I do in my LH. To play an octave on the white keys I have to use the edges of the keys, and some 4-note chords that lie within an octave are impossible for me (eg ACFA).

Thanks for the link; I'll check it out.

[meavy]

Thanks for the piano yoga link. My main problem in the longer pieces is keeping up concentration. I was good at this when I was a student, but motherhood has wrecked my attention span, although I'm now excellent at multiskilling.

When I'm playing a longer piece, it goes along swimmingly for a bit and then out of nowhere I ask myself what I've planned for the next meal, for example. I then make mistakes. It's very frustrating.

Maybe when child number 2 goes to Uni in 18 months time, I'll regain some tranquility up top?