Trills

-_- I'm absolutely horrible on the piano with 'em--- anybody know a way to get them faster, and... more consistent? I keep both my fingers on the keys for them...

Practice?

Practice?

exactement, the answer to all performence issues, play it really slowly and gradually work it up to a decent speed

Practice?

i agree...you need to practice...practice makes perfect

nobody is perfect

but you will be able to work at it and work it into shape

trills are hard on any instrument........i know on the french horn it is extremely hard but you gotta work to get it right:toothygrin:

-(_/)

-(o.o)

.(> <) This is Bunny. Copy Bunny into your signature to help him on his way to world domination.

~*~alyssa~*~

trills are hard on any instrument........

Except for mallets. Trills are easy on pitched percussion...

On piano, you play trills with your index and middle finger, right? Try playing alternating 16th notes with them on a desk or something, then try going faster and faster.

~Kal

I would love to make a suggestion on how to practice trills, however I'm not exactly sure how to articulate it clearly. I suppose then that the simplest method is to start by playing them slowly and EVENLY, and then gradually increasing your tempo. You won't get it right away, but then again, such is the way of most things related to piano technique. As the others have stated, it really comes down to frequent and disciplined practice.

Trills are easy on pitched percussion...

~Kal

I seriously doubt trills with mallets are any easier than piano, or any other instrument... perhaps easier for you...

Being rather proficient at both piano and percussion instruments (pitched and non-pitched alike) I can offer some help here.

First off, K, on piano you do not play trills only with your index and middle finger...trills can end up played by almost any combination of fingers depending on the piece.

As for trills on mallets, they are in fact much easier than on the piano because they do not require the precise dexterity of alternating just your fingers quickly, rather your entire hand is used and so it's simpler to execute.

:P

As for trills on mallets, they are in fact much easier than on the piano because they do not require the precise dexterity of alternating just your fingers quickly, rather your entire hand is used and so it's simpler to execute.

I suppose...I figure two hands, both sides of the brain, wider motions - more room for timing errors....

I suppose...I figure two hands, both sides of the brain, wider motions - more room for timing errors....

You'd think, yes, but I'm just saying that in my experience it was easier to perfect my trills on mallet percussion than it was on the piano.

we could get into that evil thing they call the double trill...

As for practicing trills, you could try the exercise mozart learned his trills by (in fact, the exercise most musicians probably learned back then, you know... bach, beethoven, haydn...)

Start alternating between any two notes by each other (either a half-step or whole step), I usually just pick C and D, and play 16th notes D-C-D-C-D-C-D-C. Start with the 5th and 4th fingers, then when a measure's done, switch to 5th and 3rd fingers, then 4th and 3rd fingers, then 4th and 2nd fingers, then 3rd and 2nd fingers (does this make any sense), then 3rd and thumb, then 2nd and thumb, and then go back the other way.

Start that slowly, then get faster (but keep it even). In performance, you can vary the speed and articulation of the trill, for instance by leaning on the first note of the trill, or such, but in practice, it's best to keep it even.

Hope I was helpful.

Well, I rarely play piano, so when I play trills, I just use those two fingers. I can't really do anything trill-wise (new word!) with my other fingers, they're not strong enough.

Call me an idiot, but what's a double trill?

~Kal

Mallet players sometimes (like me) play snare or whatnot, and they can play fast on snare, so its the same on mallets.

trills are hard on any instrument........i know on the french horn it is extremely hard but you gotta work to get it right:toothygrin:

They're quite easy on the clarinet- for every note there's about a million "shortcut" keys, so you can pretty much press a key and wish for a trill :P

And yeah, I agree. Practice. And find a point on the keys where the balance is light enough to trill without breaking your hand...

Maybe try relaxing your hand when you play trills. I rememeber when i first started to try playing trills, my hand would tense up and make it hard to play. When I relaxed my hand a bit it became easier to play.

The good thing about trills is that you can practice the motion to get the necessary finger independence on any surface.

Use only slight pressure;

try to relax your hand absolutely, aside from the fingers in use;

if you find unused ones wiggling about, WILL them to stop and take it a bit slower. Don't count on stopping them completely but watch for unnecessary tensions.

support your arm from the upper arm and just tap whatever surface you're on lightly.

Try to keep unused fingers still and relaxed.

You won't learn trilling on a tabletop but it helps getting independence and evenness.

Hard? Well, yes but you wanted to know!

On a keyboard or table, do a slow trill with 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 (eg on C-D-C-D) then 2-3-2-3-2-3-2-3 (on D-E-D-E etc), then 3-4-3-4-3-4-3-4, then 4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5.

You need to do it RH and LH in both directions. 1-2-1-2 etc, then 2-1-2-1.

The idea is to 'pulse' in 4s at first, like: 1-2-1-2....1-2-1-2...

then 6s until you get some sort of evenness, then give a long one a go.

As Marius says, you'll need other combinations, like 1-3-1-3; (for tremolo-ing 3rds) 2-4-2-4

It's as much an act of will as anything, triggering off a trill in your mind and just doing it once you've got your fingers independent.

There are exercises you can do away from the keyboard without tapping tables but they should be supervised. Ask your teacher.

Well... this is something used in harpsichord technique, but it should work on the piano....

Try practicing fast, repeated notes, without tensing or moving the hand too much. Sometimes it is easy to forget that a trill can be separated into two fingers, each repeating the same note over and over. It is interesting to notice that trills can only ever be twice as fast as the fastest you can repeat notes.

Double trills are trills by thirds... there's some weird way to practice them... it's like- thumb and 5th finger, then 2nd and 4th finger, then thumb and 5th finger, and so on... but they're not that common (I've only heard them in Scarlatti's K450).

They're used quite frequently (well, they're not rare, at least :shifty:) in orchestral or chamber music, though (tremolos).

How about in Pathetique when you have to trill with thirds?

I was thinking in terms of the keyboard, and unfortunately my experience with the keyboard isn't much past the early classical composers, so I wouldn't know about beethoven's... sorry about that.

There's a nice bit in the Hammerklavier 1st movement (I think) with a RH trill while playing a melody over the top.

Third movement of the Waldstein sonata has that as well at some point, if I'm not mistaken. He must have been pretty fond of doing it.

Trills are not as difficult to play. In fact, I play them like if they were a faster mordent.

The Air of the 14th suite of H

I have a question about trills. Is the wrist supposed to be still or can i sometimes "cheat" by rotating my wrist?