Bela Hartmann
BIG PIECES FOR SMALL HANDS for piano
Goodmusic GM453
Six piano pieces for intermediate to advanced players with small hands.
1. Introduction (Grade 6/7) - 2. Etude (Grade 8) - 3. Scherzo (Grade 5) - 4. Little Prelude (Grade 5) - 5. Lied ohne Worte (Grade 5/6) - 6. Etude No.2 (Grade 8) (Grades shown are an approximate guide only.)
While accompanying my daughter Eliska's journey on the piano from a young beginner to a still young advanced player it became increasingly apparent that her fairly small hands were limiting the repertoire she could learn - not only the specific pieces but also the type of piano writing accessible to her. If an octave is not comfortably in reach there is a fairly small range of pieces that do not require too many notes to be left out, i.e. too many compromises that would make the piece less effective. There are certainly a fair number of baroque or earlier classical pieces that are feasible, although polyphonic writing can be very stretchy even without exceeding an octave. However the romantic, virtuoso type of piece that can utilize the huge tonal range of the modern piano is largely out of bounds.
The pieces in this volume were written specifically to help younger players with small hands enjoy those exciting pianistic effects that would otherwise elude them - the big crashing chords, the huge bass sonorities, the virtuoso style that normally comes with larger hand sizes. When a young player has spent years improving technique, speeding up those scales and getting a good grasp of the keyboard they deserve to be rewarded with pieces that are hard to learn but exciting, pieces that make the most of the instrument. The pieces in this book aim to help bridge that gap until Chopin and Liszt, or Rachmaninov and Ravel become achievable. Bela Hartmann
Total duration c.10 minutes
The YouTube video is a performance by the composer.
1. Introduction (Grade 6/7) - 2. Etude (Grade 8) - 3. Scherzo (Grade 5) - 4. Little Prelude (Grade 5) - 5. Lied ohne Worte (Grade 5/6) - 6. Etude No.2 (Grade 8) (Grades shown are an approximate guide only.)
While accompanying my daughter Eliska's journey on the piano from a young beginner to a still young advanced player it became increasingly apparent that her fairly small hands were limiting the repertoire she could learn - not only the specific pieces but also the type of piano writing accessible to her. If an octave is not comfortably in reach there is a fairly small range of pieces that do not require too many notes to be left out, i.e. too many compromises that would make the piece less effective. There are certainly a fair number of baroque or earlier classical pieces that are feasible, although polyphonic writing can be very stretchy even without exceeding an octave. However the romantic, virtuoso type of piece that can utilize the huge tonal range of the modern piano is largely out of bounds.
The pieces in this volume were written specifically to help younger players with small hands enjoy those exciting pianistic effects that would otherwise elude them - the big crashing chords, the huge bass sonorities, the virtuoso style that normally comes with larger hand sizes. When a young player has spent years improving technique, speeding up those scales and getting a good grasp of the keyboard they deserve to be rewarded with pieces that are hard to learn but exciting, pieces that make the most of the instrument. The pieces in this book aim to help bridge that gap until Chopin and Liszt, or Rachmaninov and Ravel become achievable. Bela Hartmann
Total duration c.10 minutes
The YouTube video is a performance by the composer.
