So how does one do it then?
I have in mind a piece on the new TG Grade 6 syllabus - The Private Detective. But I've got to learn proper glissando techniques before I can teach it to a pupil!

(That's one that Violinia forgot to put on her list of criteria for requirements to teach... I did one in my Grade 8 exam myself, but it was a short one; this is a longer one!)

Didn't realise the new syllabus was out already, just placed my order for them all, what are the pieces like? Have they changed the exercises much?

Re the glissando, use the back of the fingers (I use 2 and 3), relax and go for it. I am doing a duet at the mo. Debussy 6 epigraphs antique, where I have a glissando and my partner has to come in with a chord on the last note - timing it is not easy, think we've got it sussed now though.

Are you talking about a chromatic glissando?

If so, you practise it by descending in augmented thirds, using the third finger. Then you take your thumb away from the neck and do the same thing but with vibrato all the way down. As long as you time it in exactly the same way, the vibrato should miraculously add the missing semitones in between and you'll end up with a lovely chromatic glissando that makes people go: 'wow - how did you do that?!?'

Aren't pizz glisses great fun?
I did an "alternative" improv workshop with a chamber orchestra and we had a section of pizz gliss rhythm, with cellos doing a full arco gliss.... weird but interesting.


There's a ricochet gliss somewhere in Shchedrin's Carmen *shudder*

No, it's a piano glissando - all white notes! And I'm darned glad it's not a violin one!

I'll try 2 and 3, Digby; I'd have used a thumbnail for my easier one in the past. This one has to land on a chord too, so I guess it will have to just be cut short a bit!

The exercises haven't changed in the new syllabus, and the alternative pieces are the same. I've only seen Grade 6 so far, and I think at a quick play-through that the A list seems harder than before. A pupil left me in a book last night , but has taken it home again tonight, and I can't remember exact titles, but the Mozart is lovely - but not an easy option to play well.

Private Detective is great! (List B.) And despite my admissions that I'm really not sure how to advise on glissando he's determined he's doing that one!

apologies... violin ones are actually easier: my fingers alwys go too slowly on piano glisses and get stuck...

I would just like to know how to really go for it without having to say "Ouch!"

Sorry, by the way - I should have said piano.

I try to avoid them at all costs! I don't think that they are a good thing to inflict upon a piano as the keys get pushed to the side a little as you slide rather than downwards as nature intended. If they have to be played I would use my thumb pad holding it on its side as if about to make a thumb print. I find that I bruise my nail bed if I use my thumb nail. If it is a downward slide for the right hand I would use a couple of finger pads. Good luck.

I think it is far harder for a youngster to do glissando as their skin is much softer and easier to scag, so ouch will be common. Much easier for an old turtle skin like me!

Well, I imagine it'll be the glissando bit that will be practised first! So I'll know if he arrives in bandages next week that we can't tackle this piece! But I might just perfect it myself for the next pupil concert! (That is, if I can... )

What would happen in an exam if you actually avoided a glissando? would you lose a lot of marks?

I don't think that would be a good idea! In this piece, the gliisando is pretty central; it sort of moves the piece on to a new level of excitement - louder, more vibrant, and with a change to a major key - as if the detective has had a Eureka moment. To avoid it would just not be an option! I would hope that an examiner might be understanding if it didn't come off terribly well, as long as everything else was okay, but if I was an examiner (which I'm not, I hasten to add!) I would find it 'disappointing', to say the least, for it to be avoided altogether.

I've seen loads of people do glissando's quite effortlessly on the piano, but I really don't understand them - they absolutely KILL!! Is it supposed to hurt that much?! And then my finger keeps getting 'caught' on a key which slows everything down - not that it's particularly fast in the first place!! I can't even do a glissando on a keyboard without it really hurting - let alone on a piano!!

Good luck with your glissando-ing!!

Laura

Wear gloves???
This is what one of the younger teachers at the local music school gets her beginners to do when they are exploring all the different sounds a piano can make.

It shouldn't hurt! Slight reddening maybe. If you curve your fingers slightly and don't dig it too deep then even on a heavy action Borsendorfer (say) it should be fine. Long nails are a no no. I do it with my hand at a slight angle too; I find it reduces the resistance from the keys somewhat.

It could be because I am a guy and have tougher skin but I don't even do it deep enough to have it caught in the first place. Usually the point of a gliss is get as many notes in as short a time or to imitate a harp, so the idea is usually fast, swift and light.

Do loads of glisses in Stravinsky's Petrouchka piano reduction; great fun!

I agree - I don't know the piece but is using the thumbnail an option? (OK, OK, don't throw things at me, I never said I was a purist.) I have seen one performer do the octave scales at the prestissimo of the Waldstein sonata as glissandi. Now that has *got* to hurt!

Got my books today, I would definitely play the downward gliss with fingers 2/3 you will be able to escape from it quicker to get the chord than using the thumb.


I would be really reluctant to give that Mozart to a G6 - (it's the middle movement of the K330 sonata) but I can imagine loads of them will like it. My daughter wants to do it because it's one she's heard me play recently but she will murder it.

Having seen the book again tonight, I agree about 2 and 3, with a twist of the wrist at the end. Aforementioned pupil is doing really well with the first page in a week, but the glissando is pretty sad!

The Berceuse on the alternative list is lovely, by the way. I had one do this a few sessions ago.