Author: kdrew922
Date: 2007-11-26 15:16
I can empathize with the trill frustration. When I'm preparing the Mozart concerto or a Handel sonata or just about anything else with a lot of trills, I can easily spend 75% of my practice time just working the trills. After all, the scales and arpeggios are easy enough. I mean, who CAN'T play those? It's the trills that often distinguish a truly accomplished performance of such a work.
So, here's my "Ultimate Trill Exercise."
Say you're working on a C#-D# trill. Set the metronome to 80 beats per minute. Play one bar (4/4 time) alternating between the two notes of the trill as 8th notes, followed without break by one bar of triplets (such that beats 2 and 4 begin with the upper note of the trill), one bar of 16th notes, one bar of quintuplets, one bar of sextuplets, one bar of septuplets, one bar of 32nd notes, then back down, septuplets, sextuplets, quintuplets, 16ths, triplets, and finally 8ths. All of this combined ends up being a 40+ second long tone that demands control of subtle variations in the speed of the trill. Also, leave the tuner on the whole time so that you can be sure your pitch doesn't wander toward the end of the exercise.
When I can pull this off perfectly with every trill in the piece, then I know that the listener won't be able to hear any difference between the easy trills and the difficult trills.
Cheers,
Drew
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