Bandoneón Tutorial: The Inicial 1

In this bandoneón tutorial I explain the first of a series of preparatory exercises.

After having dedicated a series of videos to the fundamental aspects of the technique, with this bandoneón tutorial we begin the practical exercises. In particular we start with the series of Iniciales, which are the first exercises of technique I studied at the Conservatory Manuel de Falla, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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“The ‘Iniciales’ are a series of 12 exercises created by bandoneon player, composer  and pedagogue Rodolfo Daluisio to introduce the fundamentals of bandoneon playing. You can freely download the sheet music for the Iniciales from the maestro’s page or from the ‘Learning Resources’ section on my website.

The ‘Iniciales’ can be divided into two groups of six exercises each. The first group focuses on maintaining a continuous sound stream, the “sound Column”, without pauses or accents. The second group introduces pauses and accents, helping you maintain the continuous Column of Sound even when the music becomes more varied.

In this article and in the video below, I’ll explain the purpose and how to practice ‘Inicial I’. The goal of this first exercise is to help you get comfortable with controlling the airflow and producing sound by managing the air column inside the bellows, as well as becoming familiar with the key of C Major.

This exercise involves playing long notes, and we need to control the bellows so that the volume mantains steady and consistent. I’ve already talked about the pulling line, or linea de tiro, in another video article, and I recommend watching it if you haven’t already.

The exercise can be divided into three phases.

Bandoneón Tutorial – Phase 1

The first phase covers measures 1 to 8. Here, the hand applies the principle of the ‘quiet hand‘, or “mano quieta”. During the first two measures, the hand is already positioned to press the necessary keys without shifting its center on the keyboard. The same goes for the next two measures in closing, where the hand remains in the same position because the notes in closing are produced by the same keys pressed in the opening.

Bandoneón Tutorial – Phase 2

The second phase goes from measures 9 to 16. Here, the hand moves from its initial position to different areas of the keyboard. From measures 9 to 12, the hand moves upwards, and from measures 13 to 16, it moves downwards. These movements follow the C Major scale.

Phase 3 of the Tutorial

Finally, in the last phase, the ‘quiet hand’ formula returns.
Whatch the video below where I play a demo version of ‘Inicial I’. Remember: It should be played at a slow tempo and with forte or fortissimo intensity.

That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this article and the video for this bandoneón tutorial and, most importantly, found it helpful for your musical studies. Remember to subscribe to the Youtube channel, share the video if you found it useful and subscribe to the newsletter.

Best wishes, and a estudiar y a tocar!