The Fingering Techniques

Thumb Glissando

When a single hand is busy playing two or three moving parts, it would seem useful to have a sixth finger. A thumb glissando achieves a perfect legato by rocking (or, in a sense, sliding) between the base and tip of the thumb from one key to another. Because the base and tip do the work of two fingers, the thumb acts somewhat like a sixth finger.

Thumb glissando is the most unique organ fingering technique of all. Like finger glissando, it is notated with a straight line between finger numbers.

See the first Thumb Glissando video examples.