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Ask HN: How many *playable* combinations of piano keys are there?

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Re: Ask HN: How many *playable* combinations of piano keys are there?

#11

Post by SamReidHughes »

You mean as a chord? It depends on the particular pianist's finger geometry, but also, the span of notes depends on the bottom note -- sometimes you can't reach that black or white key, and note that the black keys aren't exactly in the middle of the white keys, so the distance changes. The span from B to D flat is easier than that from C to E flat.

Also, one finger can press multiple keys. For example, this is necessary to play three FGDF/FGDG chords in Chopin Op. 10 No. 12.

Re: Ask HN: How many *playable* combinations of piano keys are there?

#12

Post by jacquesm »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #11

You mean as a chord? It depends on the particular pianist's finger geometry, but also, the span of notes depends on the bottom note -- sometimes you can't reach that black or white key, and note that the black keys aren't exactly in the middle of the white keys, so the distance changes. The span from B to D flat is easier than that from C to E flat. Also, one finger can press multiple keys. For example, this is neces…

I thought of that one but could not imagine any composer actually used it. Ugh, there goes my lowest bound.

Re: Ask HN: How many *playable* combinations of piano keys are there?

#13

Post by gshdg »

jacquesm wrote: post #10
gshdg wrote: post #9

Might also note that when the hand is stretched to its full range you can’t necessarily hit all possible combinations of notes within the range. (That is, the index finger can’t reach everything between the middle of the range and the thumb’s full extent.)

Yes, this is the complex bit that I can't get a handle (pun intended) on, the degree to which the geometry of the hand constrains the problem.

It’s also dependent on the hand. I can just barely reach a full octave. I know others who can easily do an octave plus a fifth.
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