For all of those of you familiar with Rachmaninoff, it's no surprise to you then that the famous and fabled Russian composer had monstrous hands capable of reaching things on the piano considered impossible by most 'mere human beings'.
To put it in perspective, from the tip of his thumb to the tip of his pinky, he could stretch a bit over 12 inches, able to play 10ths and even 12ths easily on the piano when most people have trouble playing simply octaves.
This is just such a demonstration.
12ths?!!!! That's pretty insane.
ReplyDeletefascinating, and what really comes across in this video is that being able to REACH a chord is an entirely different (and much easier) thing from being able to PLAY a wide chord. They say R could play a chord C E Flat G C G with his left hand, which is amazing -- what is that, 13 keys or something?
ReplyDeleteBeethoven had stubby fingers.
wonderful video.
I wonder where I can get some of those chord-reacher thingies?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll stick to Chopin - he had small hands, which was why he was able to do all those crazy trills and runs.