Klarinet Archive - Posting 000279.txt from 1998/04

From: SDSCHWAEG <SDSCHWAEG@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Off-topic messages PLUS an actual clarinet comment: legato technique
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 23:46:38 -0400

The technique I was taught for legato fingering involved lifting the fingers
high off the instrument, then "squeezing" them down - as if the clarinet were
made of foam rubber. Obviously, it has to be practiced very slowly - the
first of the Rose 40 Studies is good for this, taken way under tempo. And, of
course, you first have to have good breath support and be "blowing through"
the phrase. There's another description of this technique in Bonade's "The
Clarinetist's Compendium."