The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Bonade's " squeezing finger" legato

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-02-02 15:54

Bonade describes his legato fingering technique in "The Clarinetist's Compendium," which is, unfortunately, out of print. Larry Guy has done us all a tremendous service by putting this material and much more in "A Daniel Bonade Workbook," http://www.vcisinc.com/clarinet.htm, item C338.

Bonade's idea was that you must move your fingers slowly to get a perfect legato. The feeling is "squeezing" your fingers down on the keys, so that the pitch changes smoothly, with no pop or click. Bernard Portnoy, a Bonade student, showed it to me and had me practice by raising each finger slightly and then floating it down on the hole.

Bonade used the first etude of the Rose 40 Etudes to teach legato fingering. It's incredibly difficult to get a smooth legato on the wide leaps, and I'm told that Bonade used this to show young hotshots that they really couldn't play very well.

Ken Shaw

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics