Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Who likes playing trills?

I have played trills before only on one or two pieces and on those pieces there were not many. For my next exam I am playing pieces with quite a lot of trills and I am really enjoying them.

So, do you play pieces with trills and do you enjoy it?

I dislike LH trills because I'm bad at them, but RH trills I am pretty good at and enjoy playing them.

What pieces did you play for your exam?

I had no idea there was any such thing as left hand trills. All the scores I have seen only have right hand trills. Furthermore whenever I watch professional pianists at concerts, I have never seen them play any trills with the left hand.

http://youtu.be/fUfehRmCmmg

There are only right handed trills in this professional piece

Don't mean to sound dumb, but what, exactly, is a trill? Is it sort of like an arpeggio?

Rick

trill
Rapid alternation of two notes that are close together in pitch.

If the notes are farther apart, it's called a tremolo.

I don't play pieces with trills in them. I enjoy trills. My pieces end up with trills in them. It's usually when I forget to take my medication. I try to tell my teacher I'm improvising. She doesn't believe me. I don't get a happy face on my piece.

Hope you enjoyed the humor.


Seriously.....I haven't gotten into trills yet.

Thanks...

I guess I could have Googled it, but figured I'd ask here.

Yes, I play trills frequently; now I know what I'm actually doing, by definition.

Of course, I think I play the tremolo more often; goes well with the boogie chops.

Rick

Bach Two-Part Invention no. 4, LH trill at 0:36:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0_MldtHSyE

Chopin Marche funebre, LH trills at 1:26:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0mAbw-niI8

There are many other examples of LH trills, but they do indeed exist.

I love trills, great fun to play once they're sorted out (which can take some doing).

I've even come to appreciate that LH trill in Bach invention #4, except for ending it (still a bit awkward).

Some of my favorite trills are in Mendelssohn Op. 30 no. 6 (Venetian Boat Song) and Chopin Mazurka 47 (op 68 no.2).

Last 4th of July another pianist, a trumpet, and I played Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. I got to do the piccolo part on the piano. That has a long trill at the end. That was fun

Cathy

How can you have been playing trills frequently without knowing what they were? Surely if you are following the music score you will see tr above the notes and you play trils

I will answer for my buddy Rick..."What music score?"

Blues and Boogie-Woogie is most often played ad-lib...no score, and Rick is real good at it, but he will never admit it.

just started my first piece with a couple of trills, trying to develop them is a little tough but just needs to be practiced. Also just started a piece with a couple of mordents which are easier than trills but still a little tricky for me. No doubt you will see and hear the fruits of my labour in the piano bar.

Nah then - what sort o` trills are we talking about? There are Tudor Trills (harpsichord) and Irish Trills usually done on a penny whistle or something . . .

I can only do Irish trills on the piano. They usually involve more than two notes. Naughty me..

These are the only ones that interest me at the moment . . .

I adore trills. I eat them for breakfast. Just as well, because Chopin adored them too apparently. He ate them for breakfast, lunch and supper. Whole measures of them. Fast, slow, long and short. He apparently didn't take his meds either.

Another left hand trill is in Chopin's op 62/2 nocturne, neasure 49 which in the right left hand makes a rather ominous rumble. I do what I can.

Thanks, Rocket88!

Well, I hate to show my ignorance about reading music here, but I've been having so much fun with the playing by-ear thing, I don't spend much time learning the score/sheet (I’m embarrassed ). Of course, now I know what a trill is.

By-the-way, I love your Boogie CD! It puts a smile on my face every time I listen to it...

My goal is to play as well as you one of these days!!

Rick

Mostly I don't because I find them hard to get right. But sometimes, one creeps in and I think, "Yes!"

Now this is a LH trill that I have learned to hate. At least my thumb has. I finally accepted slow and regular over fast and ragged.

Hated this one. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Not that the right hand one was much better

A trill requires some forearm rotation, right? So it's not only a test for technique, but an aid in learning it.