Trills

[jmao]

OH I can't do it. WHy is it so difficult for me?? This is sooooo frustrating, I just can't get how everyone I've heard can play trills really fast and as long as they want and it sounds beautiful, and my trills are just horrible. I can alternate two notes quickly but for a really short time and then my fingers won't move, my hand gets really tense and it sounds terrible. Please help me Is there anything I can do to solve this problem?? Any tips are highly appreciated!!!!

[faulty_damper]

Do a forum search about trills.

The main reason you cannot rapidly alternate two adjacent notes is because you are using your fingers to perform the alternation.  This is NOT how to play trills.

[nightingale11]

parallel set exercises?

[jmao]

The main reason you cannot rapidly alternate two adjacent notes is because you are using your fingers to perform the alternation.  This is NOT how to play trills.

Sorry, but what does that mean? How can I perform an alternation without using my fingers??

[timothy42b]

Sorry, but what does that mean? How can I perform an alternation without using my fingers??

You can hold your hand motionless and have your fingers go up and down independently.  that would be using your fingers.

You can hold your fingers motionless relative to your hand, and rotate your forearm, causing your fingers to seem to go up and down.  That would be not using your fingers.

Or there could combinations, or other movements.

Like you I'm struggling with them, especially in the left hand.  Have you tried reading chang's book? 

[moi69]

I'd like to help U, but i'm french, so it's very difficult for me to explain U how to perform trills. But i agree with jmao who said "U can hold your fingers motionless relative ti your hand, and rotate your forearm". As he said, there are two schools for trills. U can also do exercises, as different rythm or play the same note two times, once staccato and the other long! i don't think u understand me, but i lack so much vocabulary to explain this exercise!  Ciao!

[faulty_damper]

Sorry, but what does that mean? How can I perform an alternation without using my fingers??

What Timothy said is what I mean but adding more to it:

To get the results with only your fingers will require lots of time conditioning and building your muscles to get the desired trill.

However, if you distribute the motions to other relative parts of your body, it becomes easy.  What this means is that you must use the fingers and forearm in the process to trill.  The fingers must move the way you are currently moving it and the forearm must rotate instead of being stationary.  The balance of the two movements will become obvious when you are able to coordinate them. 

[barnowl]

I'm very interested in this thread. I can't wait to to try Timothy's advice because something tells me that's the fast track to trills. I don't even have a piece requiring trills, but that isn't going to stop me from a little advance practicing.

Jmao, now when you look at all those other folks who play trills beautifully, do you see the rotation of the forearm and hand, plus the work of the fingers, perhaps. It's probably very slight since apparently didn't pick up on it to begin with. But now that you know what to look for...

We have a storm brewing so I disconnected my piano. But later, I expect to be in trill city. Thank you Timothy, Faulty Damper, Moi. And you, too NightinGale. I'll do that forum search as you suggested.

[persona]

Here's another question about trills: should they be played as fast as one can, or is it ok to just make them 16th notes?

[moi69]

Cela dépend du compositeur, chacun à un trille particulier!
It depends of the compositor, each one has his own trills!

[faulty_damper]

Yes, it depends on the piece.  There are too many variables to describe exactly which subdivision a trill gets.  It is incorrect to play one too fast or too slow as either disrupts the character of the piece.

One guideline I read from some famous pianist (I can't remember her name) said a trill should be twice the fastest notated rhythm.  But this is a really bad guideline as it doesn't work in many cases.   But she might have meant that twice the notated rhythm in a particular section because a piece can have many sections each with varying tempi.  But it's just a guideline.

Use your own judgement.