03.06.2026
Pianos for Everyone
A musical family is testing the C. Bechstein A-192 Concert grand piano with narrower keys.
A musical family: Christine Gerwig and Efraín González form a successful piano duo. Their children, Alejandro (19) and Valeria (17), are both studying piano. Together, they recently visited the C. Bechstein Centrum Nürnberg, where they tested the first C. Bechstein Concert Grand A-192 equipped with a 6.0 keyboard—that is, with narrower keys—and matching MIDI sensor technology. Efraín González sent us the following moving report:
Only a few seconds after she began playing Chopin’s Étude Op. 25 No. 1, concert pianist Christine Gerwig burst into tears. It was a shock. The effect of the new C. Bechstein Concert Grand A-192, with its narrower keys, was overwhelming. But let me start from the beginning.
All four members of our family have small hands, yet we are all pianists. Christine and I both studied piano at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. The issue of small hands, however, has accompanied us since childhood. Playing the piano has always been difficult for us. Now our children suffer from the same problem. In fact, my wife and I decided to form a piano duo instead of pursuing careers as soloists: the key one of us cannot reach, the other plays.
Christine was the first to sit at the piano. It is very difficult to put this feeling into words. As she effortlessly played a Chopin étude on this keyboard - something that would not be possible for her on a standard-sized keyboard - forty-two years of struggle and pain came flooding back: from learning piano as a child, through her university studies, to her years as a professional concert pianist. All because of one thing: her small hands. She had to stop playing so she could cry. I had tears in my eyes as well. It was heartbreaking.
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“It could have been so easy...”
And indeed, learning the piano and perhaps even building an international career could have been so much easier for her. With her talent, she might have achieved it. But around 1880, the patriarchy, entrepreneurs, and piano builders decided that the standard width of an octave should be 6.5 inches. The dimensions established then have caused frustration for hundreds of thousands of people around the world over the past 140 years.
In the time of Mozart, Beethoven, and even Chopin, keyboards were narrower, and pianists did not have to overstretch their hands to reach an octave with the first and fifth fingers - for example from C to C. This wonderful, narrower 6.0 keyboard builds on that and finally enabled Christine to play as she had always wanted. At last she could interpret what was actually written in the score; at last without fatigue; at last without pain.
For those of us with small hands, playing on a keyboard with “normal” dimensions is always a challenge and a strain. Painfully stretching the hand to reach octaves and chords is terrible. Pianists with large hands do not know these problems. They reach an octave the way we reach a seventh (and sometimes even a sixth). They can hardly imagine what we endure. Hours upon hours of practice are required to achieve results that pianists with large hands can attain much more quickly. And as if that were not enough, pianists with small hands have often been regarded with pity, as though we suffered from a physical disability.
Of course, one must still be a good pianist and musician and possess solid technique, but hand size has always mattered in piano playing. With almost every other instrument, different sizes are available. Children can begin with a small violin and move to larger instruments as they grow. With the piano, this has been practically impossible because of production costs, transportation difficulties, and perhaps manufacturers’ concerns that there would be no market for keyboards of different widths.
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It's time for a change!
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And now there are early signs - thanks in part to Bechstein - that it is beginning to change. It is time for a shift in thinking within the piano industry. From a purely economic perspective, there are more people with small hands than with large hands. If keyboards were narrower, more people would enjoy playing the piano. Perhaps manufacturers would have earned considerably more money if a different decision had been made in 1880. I am convinced that the future of the piano lies in the 6.0 keyboard, which is far more comfortable for the majority of people.
I should also mention that women and children are particularly disadvantaged by the current dimensions. In international piano competitions, most finalists are men, and most famous pianists are men with large hands. How many talented women throughout history have gone unnoticed simply because their hands were too small for the standardized keyboard dimensions?
Then it was my turn to sit at the piano, and I played Chopin’s Barcarolle. After holding back my tears, I too felt that piano playing should always have felt this way. Just as I have always wished I were taller and could see the world from above, simply grasping the handrail on a bus by raising my arm - instead of, as here in Germany, having to stand on tiptoe just to reach it, practically hanging during the ride.
Then Valeria played. She had just turned seventeen. At fourteen, she had chosen the violin because her small hands would not be sufficient for professional piano studies. We had suspected since she was six years old that she would never have large hands, and after everything we ourselves had experienced, we wanted to spare her stress and frustration. So we supported her when she said she wanted to learn another instrument in addition to the piano.
Valeria had played piano since the age of three, and by four she was already performing demanding works. At thirteen she won several competitions in Germany. But then came the age when one must perform virtuoso repertoire to win competitions - and that is when the nightmare began. Years of tears followed until the decision was made to continue piano only as a hobby and pursue the violin professionally.
Valeria played Chopin’s Third Ballade. She was overjoyed to finally play every note at the desired speed and without mistakes, fatigue, or pain. At the same time, she knew this was possible only on that one day and on that one instrument. Like Christine, she cried bitterly, and the two embraced. It is like accepting that an impossible love will never become reality- and being allowed to see it again for only one day. How wonderful it would have been ...
Alejandro, who had just turned nineteen, sat down at the piano next. He also has small hands - about the same size as mine - but not as small as Valeria’s or Christine’s, and his hands are stronger. He played Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto. Although the issue of small hands is not a matter of life and death for Alejandro, the difficult passages came so effortlessly on this narrower keyboard that one would expect such ease only from pianists with large hands.
On a “normal” 6.5 keyboard, much more effort is required. He himself said that the concerto is still difficult and still demands excellent playing, but fatigue is significantly reduced and the work could have been learned in much less time.
Incidentally, Rachmaninoff dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to pianist Josef Hofmann, who never performed it publicly. Hofmann had small hands and even commissioned narrower keyboards, taking his own instrument on concert tours. Pianist Daniel Barenboim has also performed on a keyboard specially built for his relatively small hands.
The four of us returned home wishing never again to have to play a piano with a “normal” keyboard. But of course we cannot stop being pianists. We have no choice but to wait for the industry to change and for the day when 6.0 instruments are available in every concert hall - or at least when there is a choice between a 6.5 and a 6.0 keyboard.
It may take five years or fifty. I do not know whether I will live to see it. But one thing is certain: there is an opportunity to question and change the current standard. To do so, we need support from public funding programs, institutions willing to acquire such instruments, and manufacturers willing to create a market. International competitions must support this change as well.
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There are thousands of piano students struggling and enduring pain to achieve a high level
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It is not only concert halls and music conservatories that must change. The private sector must open up too. Amateur pianists would love to have such an instrument at home. Not everyone wants to give concerts. Not every child will become a pianist, and not all parents seek a professional career for their children. Most people simply want to enjoy music at home. For that purpose, it does not matter how wide or narrow the keys are. If children had access to narrower keyboards, they would progress technically and musically much faster—just as violinists do with instruments adapted to their size.
There are thousands of piano students struggling and enduring pain to achieve a high level. And as if that were not enough, social media now encourages everyone to aspire to the level of Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, or Martha Argerich—pianists with large hands, especially rare among women. Many children do this out of love for music; many others because of parental wishes or pressure. This may vary from country to country, but in the end they all face the same reality: children have small hands, and reaching the highest levels of pianism with small hands is nearly impossible.
In essence, there are only two options: either they practice excessively, risking their health and ignoring pain, or the children who succeed are primarily those with exceptionally large hands. Such as pianist Evgeny Kissin, who began his international career at age twelve and for whom hand size was never an issue.
How wonderful it is to focus exclusively on the music rather than constantly worrying about how to execute a particular scale, chord, or difficult octave passage. Thousands of pianists are in the same situation as we are and have accepted for generations that the world is simply this way.
And this is not only about the pianist’s feelings or physical comfort. It is also about the audience. Whether the listener is a grandmother at home or a full concert hall, the better the pianist can play, the higher the quality of music everyone experiences.
I sincerely hope this article reaches the right people and helps us gain support of every kind. When I was a teenager, I was told that I did not have the right fingers to become a pianist. But who the hell decides what fingers should look like in order to be a pianist? The piano should be adapted to me - not I to the piano. The instrument should be designed according to my needs so that I can express the highest possible level of artistry.
Even if the symbol of power may still be the large, strong man with large hands, the world is changing, and the invention of the piano is one of humanity’s most wonderful creations. It is time to make it more accessible to everyone.
We would be delighted to hear from pianists, teachers, institutions, students, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in this wonderful project: pianoduo@gerwig-gonzalez.com
Efraín González, 3.6.2026
Fotos © Alex Marc und picturepeople bonn
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