Author: oboedrew
Date: 2008-07-23 13:46
Attachment: Drew's Ultimate Trill Exercise.jpg (1k)
MDunn, I'm attaching a plain text file describing "Drew's Ultimate Trill Exercise." This is one of my favorite exercises... though probably my students' least favorite. I spend no less than an hour daily with this exercise (and many variants thereof). It is a most excellent way to build lip strength, breath control, rhythmic precision, and finger dexterity. The attachment gives an example of the exercise as applied to a G-A trill (that pesky left hand ring finger), but it can just as easily be applied to any other trill, or to any problem interval like A-C. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Drew
Edit: Oops, that attachment didn't work. Here, I'll copy and paste:
Drew's Ultimate Trill Exercise:
Set metronome to 80. Play one bar (4/4 time) of quarter notes, alternating G and A. End with an A on the downbeat of the next bar. Slur everything.
Leave metronome at 80. Increase speed gradually by changing subdivisions of the beat. Bar two will be 8th notes, bar three triplets, bar four 16th notes, bar five quintuplets, bar six sextuplets, bar seven septuplets, bar eight 32nd notes.
Bar 1: G - A - G - A - G
Bar 2: GA - GA - GA - GA - G
Bar 3: GAG - AGA - GAG - AGA - G
Bar 4: GAGA - GAGA - GAGA - GAGA - G
Bar 5: GAGAG - AGAGA - GAGAG - AGAGA - G
Bar 6: GAGAGA - GAGAGA - GAGAGA - GAGAGA - G
Bar 7: GAGAGAG - AGAGAGA - GAGAGAG - AGAGAGA - G
Bar 8: GAGAGAGA - GAGAGAGA - GAGAGAGA - GAGAGAGA - G
Now start stringing these bars together, two at a time, in order to master the transitions from one subdivision to another.
The ultimate goal is to string them all together, to play a bar of quarter notes all the way up to a bar of 32nd notes, and then back down. Again, slur everything. Do this in one breath. Don't resort to circular breathing, even if you're able.
Now invert the exercise, so that you're starting on A - G instead of G - A.
Cheers,
Drew
www.oboedrew.com
Post Edited (2008-07-23 13:51)
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