Outer-finger trills

[allchopin]

Should these mostly be avoided in music if possible?  I have met some trills to be done with fingers 4 and 5, and those fingers are very weak.  It doesnt sound as clean as thumb and middle...

[xenon]

If the 4th and 5th fingers are your only choice, then it is advisable to use them .  I played a piece once, Chopin's Grande Valse Brillante in Ab Major, and it required trills (or mordents, to be exact) with the 4th and 5th fingers.  Depending on the type of embellishment, you could move your hand back and forth (parallel to the keys) to help keep the fingers in a semi-natural feel.  Brahm's accents and other technical excercises are helpful for drilling those passages too.

[pskim]

I use 3 and 5.  Needs some getting used to but it is as firm as the thumb and the third finger trilling.

[NetherMagic]

I agree with pskim's 3 and 5, it should be fine for many pianists provided that you don't havta play another melody with the same hand at the same time.  But just remember to keep it clean.

[xenon]

Well...you can use 3 and 5, but if there's no other choice...

[meiting]

4-5 finger trills: practice practice practice!

[Wired]

I agree.. they suck, but you get used to them after practice. I haven't done a lot myself, but while working on the Polonaise, I ran into this problem as well. My first thoughts were to call up my old piano teacher and see if she had any suggestions. But instead, I just practiced a lot, and now those passages aren't hard anymore.

[Hmoll]

It is worth it to practice 4-5 trills because they are encountered in the repertoire. Pskim is correct, though, 3-5 is preferable when possible.

The menuet of Beetoven's op. 10#3 has a 4-5 trill that lasts for one measure. I practiced and practiced it, and it still sounded awkward. I knew there was a "work-around" - pedal the whole measure, play the other right hand notes with the left hand, and trill using 3-4. Actually, Tovey's edition of the sonatas approves of this. It wasn't until I say Daniel Barenboim perform this piece at Carnegie hall this past spring using the "work-around" fingering that I finally gave up and used it.