If you are an adult with smaller hands, you may have looked at a page of Rachmaninoff and quietly decided that he is not for you. Chords that spread wider than your hand can comfortably reach. I want to offer a different view: Rachmaninoff is more playable than he looks, and learning to approach him sensibly teaches you things that will help with every composer you ever play.
A Russian pianist who composed
Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of the finest pianists of his day, and he was also a composer, and a conductor. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included Nikolai Zverev, and later his cousin Alexander Siloti, a pupil of Liszt. He is famous for his piano concertos, his preludes, and his Etudes-Tableaux, among much else. He was known, too, for having remarkably large hands, which is part of why his music seems to demand so much reach.
This matters for the reader with smaller hands. Rachmaninoff wrote for the piano as a great pianist whose own hands could do things most hands cannot. So his writing is not a test you have failed if you cannot reach a chord. It is the music of one man’s unusual anatomy, and pianists the world over have found sensible ways to play it anyway.
How I came to him
At the Gnesin Academy in Moscow my teacher was Yuri Vladimirovich Ponizovkin, a pupil of Maria Yudina and a Rachmaninoff scholar. Studying with someone who knew that world deeply made me think about this music less as a field of difficulty and more as a field of singing lines, long phrases, bell-like sonorities. When you think of it that way, hand size becomes a practical question to be solved rather than a verdict on your ability.
The first rule: no pain, ever
Before any technique, this: if a stretch hurts, stop. Pain in the hand, wrist or forearm is a signal, not a hurdle. Pushing through it is how adults injure themselves. Reaching for a chord should feel like a gentle opening of the hand, not a strain. If it strains, the answer is a different solution, not more force. If you have persistent pain, see a medical professional who works with musicians.
Practical ways to play wide chords with a smaller hand
- Roll the chord. Spread it from the bottom note to the top, quickly and smoothly, so the notes sound almost together. Pianists with very large hands roll chords too, for expressive reasons, so rolling is a respected choice and not a cheat. The key is to arrive at the top note on the beat or very close to it, as the music requires.
- Share the chord between the hands. If the left hand has a very wide chord and the right hand has a moment free, you may be able to take a note with the other hand. Mark it clearly in your score.
- Keep the arm loose and let it travel. A wide stretch is rarely a finger problem. It is an arm and wrist problem. Keep the wrist flexible, let the forearm lead, and shift the hand slightly instead of freezing it in an extended position.
- Use the edge of the hand wisely. Place the thumb and fifth finger on their sides, near the key edge, so you gain a little reach without tension.
- Check your edition. Some editions offer alternatives for very large stretches. Look for an editor’s note or alternative notation, and ask a teacher before you leave out a note on your own.
Rolling a chord well
Many adults roll chords and make them sound hesitant, as if they were apologizing. A good roll sounds intentional. Practice it in three steps:
- Play the chord slowly, one note at a time from the bottom, listening for an even, gentle weight on each note.
- Speed up gradually until the notes blur into one rich sound with a slight upward shape.
- Put it into the phrase and decide: does the music want the roll to start before the beat, or on it? Let your ear choose.
Start with the music, not the stretch
If you are new to Rachmaninoff, do not begin with the big concertos. Choose a shorter, lyrical piece and learn it for the line first. Hear the melody, understand the harmony, and find the places where a stretch is truly required. Often you will discover that only a few chords cause the difficulty, and that the rest lies comfortably under the hand.
Approach it as I teach everything, from Alexander Alexandrovich Nikolaev’s School of Piano Playing: see it, hear it, then play it. Judge the result by sound, not by whether your hand looks like a textbook picture. If the chord sings, the solution is right.
What small hands can offer
There is a quiet advantage to smaller hands: you must think about economy of movement, about weight rather than reach, and about what the music truly needs. Those habits make better musicians. A player who rolls a chord beautifully has understood something about phrasing that a player who simply grabs it has not.
So do not close the book on Rachmaninoff. Open it, choose gently, protect your hands, and let your ear decide what works.
If you are teaching yourself and want a guide who learned this way, start with my free course. And when you are ready, record a short piece on your phone and send it to me for free written feedback. I read and listen to every recording myself.