Narrower piano keys mean bigger possibilities: The revolution in piano keyboard design that is levelling the playing field.

For about 140 years, piano keys have been available in just one size – a size that best suits adult men with large hands. This ‘one size fits all’ paradigm is now being disrupted through a grass roots global campaign involving pianists, teachers, health professionals and manufacturers offering narrower keys. The standardisation of ‘wide’ keys has meant that those with smaller hands, particularly women and children, face a significant disadvantage musically and suffer pain and injury from having to play a keyboard that does not fit their hands. 

Rhonda will present an overview of the evidence for the pressing need for pianos and keyboards with narrow (or ‘stretto’) keys, the challenges and progress being made through the efforts of many volunteers around the world.

Website link: https://flindersvillage.com.au/flinders-probus-inc/

BIO

Rhonda Boyle studied piano as a child but her small hands discouraged her from pursuing a career in music. She has tertiary qualifications in science, environmental science and urban planning and her career was mostly in the Victorian State Government. 

Rhonda returned to the piano in 1999 as a student of Robert Chamberlain. She stumbled across Steinbuhler keyboards on the Internet at the start of 2007 and acquired a DS5.5® keyboard for her piano in 2009. She has since been involved in research relating to hand size and piano playing, presenting at conferences in Australia, USA and Europe and contributing articles to various journals. 

In 2011 she set up a website devoted to sharing information on research and developments relating to alternatively sized piano keyboards. In 2013 she co-founded the world-wide advocacy group PASK (Pianists for Alternatively Sized Keyboards) with Erica Booker (Sydney Suzuki teacher) and Professor Carol Leone (Southern Methodist University, Texas). She now oversees PASK activities, which encompass a website (paskpiano.org), mailing list, social media and YouTube channel. She is also a director of the US-based DS® Standard Foundation and International Liaison for the International Stretto Piano Festival.