Barbara Arens

Small Hand Piano

Having a small hand span on the piano is frustrating. So much piano literature contains octaves or big chords making it difficult or impossible to play.

It is a problem for piano teachers to find playable yet engaging, motivating, fun literature for their small-handed students. One such teacher asked Barbara Arens to write some pieces without octaves and chords that are hard to play specially for her small-handed pupils - and the idea for Small Hand Piano was born.

Being an experienced teacher for all age groups herself, the author of One Hand Piano, 21 Amazingly Easy Pieces, Piano Misterioso, Piano Vivace - Piano Tranquillo and Piano Exotico composed 20 pieces in a large variety of styles without a single octave. And to ensure that the collection is as varied as possible, she not only chose tried-and-tested pieces by Massenet, Gurlitt, Sibelius, and Heller, but also unknown works of Marcello, Koželuch, Schytte, and Rebikov as well as arrangements of film music by Howard Shore and Barbra Streisand.