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I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations on good trill exercises? I read over at music.stackexchange that Czerny Op 261, #36 might be good for all fingers (see reference below). I'm particularly interested in #4 and #5 for now. I can do it for a little while, then my hand gets tired. I noticed that thinking about keeping it relaxed helps. Thanks for any tips you might have!

http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/31105/how-do-you-practice-trills-on-piano

I think trills are really hard. When I practice them I play triplets with an accent on the first of the triplets. Slowly. Also wobble your wrist and keep touching the keys.

There are lots of exercises and etudes that can help you develop the trill, but it's very important to do it 'right'. When playing trills you should not feel pain.

I found the following videos useful

Josh Wright Trills

Graham Fitch

Maybe this would help but not for trills but more for strengthening 3,4,5. I do this every day 10 - 15 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpXqdBKSSFo

Thanks a lot!

This post is not helpful, but it's at least on topic.

Back when personal computers were first coming into households, there was a game on the IBM PC called Decathlon. One part of the game involved pretending that you're a sprinter by alternately pressing two keys on the computer keyboard: s-key and d-key. You had an opponent that pressed the k-key and l-key.

So you pressed s-d-s-d-s-d-s-d etc. The faster you pressed them, the faster you got to the finish line.

My trills got to be really good after two weeks of playing that game. Only for two of my fingers, though.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'll check out some of those videos tonight after work.

Let's say you play with fingers 2 and 3 (but it works the same with other fingers).

- Play 2-3 as quickly as possible
- Pause while keeping 3 down
- Play 2-3 againg as quickly as possible
- Repeat playing just those two notes and pausing on 3.
- After a while switch to playing 3-2 as quickly as possible and pausing on 2.

When that's mastered...

- Play 2-3-2 as quickly as possible and pause on the last note
- Play 3-2-3 as quickly as possible and pause on the last note
- Repeat the above, alternating between 2-3-2 and 3-2-3 runs

When that's mastered...

- Play 2-3-2-3 as quickly as possible and pause on the last note
- Repeat
- Switch to playing 3-2-3-2
- Repeat

etc.

The idea is basically to learn to play the trill at speed but start with only 2 notes then expand that to 3 notes, 4 notes, etc.

Any reason not to use Hanon? Book 1, exercises starting at #26, are trill studies, with special work on 4 and 5. Book 3, #46, is a full-on trill study.

This is one of the times you _really_ want to transpose the exercises into all keys -- otherwise, you'll be really skilled at C major trills, with no black-key experience.

Wow, I'll try that at perhaps 1/10th the speed.

Not opposed to Hanon. I'll take a look at those exercises. Thanks!

Graham Fitch's approach is very good and I highly recommend that - holding down one note of the trill and then repeating the other note of the trill, then repeat while holding down the other note and repeatedly play the other note.

Also, doing measured trills when incorporating into a piece is a good intermediate step while the tempo is slow. As the tempo increases overall then the trill should become unmeasured.

I would avoid doing a trill with 4 & 5 whenever possible. They are linked and thus will cause fatigue more easily than a different combination of fingers.

I'll give you an easy one first . Go to 12.32 here to see the actual exercise in full.

Not with my hands, ouch!

I tried to watch, but, got sidetracked by that video in the side panel about "How Gramps Got Blondie." Seemed more interesting than trills!

We used one of Brahm's exercises, number 17, and variations on it, for the long trills in Beethoven's 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata, trying to have even, unragged triplets against the left hand eighth notes.

http://imslp.org/wiki/51_Exercises,_WoO_6_(Brahms,_Johannes)