I've got a girl who scored a distinction for Grade 1 and I'm letting her skip to Grade 3. I know that she'll be fine taking Grade 3 exam next year but her hands are so tiny to even reach an octave. How should I help her for certain pieces that require octave chords? Is playing the lower then higher note immediately after accepted in the exam or can she just play one note of the octave? She's 10 btw.

If you cannot stretch a chord - whether its a tenth, an octave, 5 notes with one hand or whatever, then it is acceptable to either break it, or miss out notes (whichever is the better musically) ... at any grade and at any age!

I have a pupil with very small hands taking Grade 3 this time. When she did Prep Test, she found the 6ths in the Hopping exercise very difficult to stretch and in Grade 1 she played a piece with a 7th in the left hand, which I changed to a 5th, sending a note in to the examiner to explain why.
For grade 3, she struggles a lot with arpeggios, but is managing her pieces. She doesn't have any octaves in them, but if she did, I would tell her to play just one note. Examiners are quite used to this sort of problem, and won't comment, as long as any changes made are done musically.

I once complained to my mum that some pieces were harder for me (and therefore I could legitimately make more mistakes...) because my hands were small. She told me to look at Joseph Cooper's hands and that was the last time I was allowed to use small hands as an excuse!

Whilst I agree with Mad Tom, in that you can happily miss out notes or arpeggiate where necessary (have done it myself many times) Sometimes it is worth simply picking and chosing the pieces according to her hand size - particularly when it is for an exam, just be honest and say - if you like this one, we can learn it together at some point but until your hands are a bit bigger it's not the best choice for an exam at the moment. Having said that, these pieces are often worth learning to develop techniques for coping with large stretches and developing a good wrist to comfortably cope with the stretches.

I adore Rachmaninov but rarely play much of his music because my hands are too small.

Omg, this was SO me!!! I played violin.
Did my grade 1 on Summer Term 2005 (I was 10), and did my grade 3 on Spring Term 2006 (I was 11).
I'm sure she'll be fine.
^ I got distinction in both (136 and 134), so I'm sure your pupil will, too!

What would an examiner do, if you went for the piano sticks option?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nWzC19Iq_c
Especially useful for Rachmaninov when you can't reach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w

I am doing something similar with a piano student who got a distinction in his grade 1 as grades are not hurdles nor are they stepping stones. As for pupils with small hands. My hands are tiny. Work on wrist rolling for arpeggios so if decessary chords can be arpeggiated if necessary or an approprate not ommited.

Small hands did not prevent me getting piano grades up to 6 until I was 18. I haven't taken an examination since then and enjoy playing a varied repertoire including Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Albeniz. Most of the music I play for pleasure now exceeds Grade 8, and I teach Piano, and accompany my singing pupils, plus one or two other musicians that I accompany for pleasure.

haha this is amazing. i've never seen such things

My daughter's hands are very small. She is 19 and can still wear gloves designed for 10 - 12 year olds, so you can imagine that her hands were very small as a child. She could certainly not have done the 6ths in the current prep test - she did the old one which was just about to be phased out.

When it came to grade pieces, I used to look through all the pieces including the alternatives and she would play whichever piece suited her hands. This led to some interesting choices, but she always got good marks for them, partly I'm sure, because the examiner was pleased to hear some of the more obscure pieces in the selections. But also because she was an able pianist - she got to grade 6 before she went to uni and piano was her 3rd study.

I have a delightful seven year old pupil with tiny hands who had already picked out her AB Grade 4 Piano exam pieces for her exam last month before I had a chance to realise that the pieces had octave chords and stretches in them.

We proceeded with her chosen pieces that had octaves but then because of the difficulty of the particular pieces the 2009-2010 AB Grade 4 Piano syllabus, decided to change to different pieces a few months before her exam.

One of her choice pieces were the 'two' Schubert Waltzes. We tried dropping some of the left handnotes in the big chords but as those notes were necessary for the 'harmony' and 'clout' it did not sound quite right.

It was quite a hard piece and better suited to teenagers and adults simply because of the big chords and hand stretch needed, so we changed to the Kabalevsky Sonatina. She got a Distinction, so the changes paid off.

For her Grade 5 next year (she has chosen) we are only picking pieces that don't have octave stretches in them! Her hands are still small and still can't comfortably reach an octave.

Yes you can drop a note or appegiate, but its just does not sound as good with too many notes dropped for many pieces, as those notes are often really needed in the piece. And especially if the notes needing to be dropped are on almost every beat!

I have some younger pupils with very small hands. Years ago I used to quite happily let them drop a note, but nowadays with there being so much more choice for each list I feel there is purposely something there for all ages and sizes, and am less inclined to take the risk, and tend to guide them towards a piece that fits their hands. I notice that very rarely do they now state underneath the piece that smaller hands may drop an octave or chord note.