Working on/Playing trills

[Chris_Repertoire]

I am working on a piece of music with several extended trills (along with motion in the other hand) and they are the hardest parts in the music for me to play.

Is there any single preference for fingering? Using 1,2 or 1,3?

When I asked my teacher about developing strong trills he said it came in time as your finger strength/dexterity developed. Are there any exercises or methods for trills alone to play them easier and clearer?

Thanks for the help

[thierry13]

Well it depends on the piece... wich piece it is?

[alvaro_galvez]

try playing chromatic scales, maybe that´ll help.

[in_love_with_liszt]

Trills are one of the single greatest exercizes for an aspiring virtuoso. Your teacher is correct in that development of a beautiful trill motion takes practice and building endurance. It is most beneficial to develop trills between adjacent fingers, so between 1&2, 2&3, 3&4, and 4&5, as this promotes incredible independance between all the fingers. The trills between 3&4 and 4&5 are much harder, but the result of dedicated work is an incredible reward. Although for your piece, it sounds like the trill is the only thing ocupying one of the hands, so the trill between 2&3 is most practical. Very difficult pieces that involve two parts on one hand (one voice being a trill, the other being the melody, or one voice being a chord and the other a trill), or even trills(tremolos) in thirds on one hand will require carefull mastery of all trills. I hope you take this opportunity to study the trill, as your technique and overall pianism will benefit from it. Try rotating the fingering you use for the trill sections every time you play it, and you will be able to work on technique at the same time you are working on getting the piece down pat.

[xvimbi]

One thing to add: some trills are better played with more than just two fingers. For example, instead of playing 232, one could also play 231. All kinds of combinations and fingers are possible, even using fingers 1 through 4, like when playing fast repeated notes. It depends on what was played before the trill and what comes afterwards. That's why it would be good to know what the piece is that you are learning.

[janice]

It is most beneficial to develop trills between adjacent fingers, so between 1&2, 2&3, 3&4, and 4&5, as this promotes incredible independance between all the fingers.

I seem to trill best by using fingers 1 and 3 on adjacent white notes.  Don't know why, but it sounds more "powerful" and I am able to keep rhythm better, oddly.

[in_love_with_liszt]

Really? I've never used that fingering, for me the strongest is definitely 2&3, and I suppose 1&2, although I don't seem to use the latter much. Surprisingly my 4&5 trill is probabally stonger than my 3&4 trill because of some Rach and Alkan pieces I've done. Does anyone really use Thalberg's fingering for the trill? I haven't found a practical application for it.

[Chris_Repertoire]

I'm working on the Mendellsohn Song without words Op. 30 no.6.

I've managed to get a reasonable trill going by just working and working at it hands seperate for a long time. ... It seems far beyond my ability though to control the loudness/softness of the trills

[in_love_with_liszt]

It seems far beyond my ability though to control the loudness/softness of the trills

You will need to learn to do this...

[abe]

It sounds to me like you are playing the 3rd movement of the Waldstein sonata? Is this so? Because there's one part (the main recurring theme i guess) that seems to fit your description...

[in_love_with_liszt]

It sounds to me like you are playing the 3rd movement of the Waldstein sonata? Is this so? Because there's one part (the main recurring theme i guess) that seems to fit your description...  

...look at reply #7 to this post and that should answer your question....

[willcowskitz]

I trill best with 1+3 and 2+4. Most powerful and fast, maybe because of using the wrist in the former and having the direct collision from the directly positioned fingers in the latter.

[in_love_with_liszt]

I trill best with 1+3 and 2+4. Most powerful and fast, maybe because of using the wrist in the former and having the direct collision from the directly positioned fingers in the latter.

Well I guess I'm just the ugly duckling of the bunch. Isn't there anyone else that uses the 2-3 trill or the 4-5 trill?

[thierry13]

I always use 2-3 trill when it's possible. 4-5 Trill is usefull with pieces you must trill and have a voice down a octave lower. Like in La Campanella, or things like that. 4-5(and 3-4) trill is usefull to play in thirds, since when you play legato thirds(trills), all you do is trill with your 2-3 and 4-5 at the same time, or 1-2 and 3-4, or other combinations. It also help to develop complete indepence of finger. When you have this, it's almost impossible that you have technical problem with a piece(liszt was like this).

[m1469]

Hello, here's a link to a previous post discussing this...

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1025555269