Tag: Trills

In our guest post this week, Penelope Roskell provides some tips for practising and playing trills. Penelope will also be presenting an online workshop on this subject on 14th June (please click here for further details).

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The thought of a troublesome trill looming at the end of a phrase sends many a pianist into a panic!  However, if well prepared, trills can be a joy to play. Here are some tips which will help you feel more confident as you prepare your trills.

Think of the trill in context 

The first question to ask is: which period is the piece from and what is the style? Is the trill intended to be an elegant decoration of a cantabile melody, should it sound flashy or virtuosic or is its purpose just to prolong the sounding of the note? Some research into performance practice of the time will help you decide how to interpret the trill: how long it should last, which note to start on, whether to include a final turn, and whether to play it fast or quite steadily. 

Become familiar with the underlying melody notes

Many trills are just decorations of an underlying melody, so it is always helpful to play the melody as written several times before adding in the trill. 

Plan the best fingering

Fingering is crucial and needs to match the type of trill. For a loud trill, I tend to use 1/3 which allows for some rotational movement for added power. For a more delicate trill, 2/3 is sensitive and neat. For a trill that needs to be very fast a combination of both these fingerings is very effective 1323 1323 etc. For those tricky trills that need to be played with the outer fingers, the golden rule is to avoid consecutive fingers: trills with 3/5 or 2/4 are both much easier than 3/4 or 4/5.

Think of a number and subtract two

I always tell my students to think how many notes they think they can play, then reduce that number by 2! This is not at all an exact science, but it does discourage students from trying to play beyond their current technical ability (running the risk of tripping up in the process). It also reminds them that we need to feel at ease for a trill to sound expressive.

Go slow

Plan the number of notes you intend to play then practise the trill slowly initially. This will help to keep your hand and fingers relaxed – your mind will stay calm as well – and there will be less tendency for tension to creep in as you increase the tempo. 

Parachute with a light arm

It is very important to keep the arm as light as possible and to avoid pressing into the keys as you play trills. Practise starting the trill with a very gentle ‘Parachute touch’ as I show in the video. This will keep the arm light and buoyant and avoid any tension in the wrist. The finger touch is also light – the keys do not have to descend right to the keybed. 

Practise from the end

Messy trills often result from anxiety about the trill ending. I find it very helpful to practise a trill from the end. Play the last 4 or 5 notes alone several times until the ending feels rounded and expressive. Then work your way back to the beginning of the trill, adding just two notes at a time, until you can play the whole trill. Working in this way, the ending feels like the most familiar part, so you will head towards it with confidence. 

Think about how the trills fits with the other hand

Finally add in the other hand. You may have to think carefully about how the hands coordinate. Will you, for instance, play a regular number of trill notes to each left hand note, or will the relationship between the hands be quite free?

Prepare thoroughly, but play as if improvising

Paradoxically, most pianists find that they can only make a trill sound beautifully improvised if they have prepared it very thoroughly first. Start by reflecting on all of the above points, then try to forget about all those conscious thoughts and just listen to how the trill decorates the underlying melody. Do you perhaps feel you want to linger on the first note a little? Would you like to take a little more time at the end? Doing whatever feels natural to you will help you to enjoy trouble-free trills!

I’ll conclude with a video demonstration on how to practise a trill, incorporating some of these tips: