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M. McIntyre
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How To Play Trills on the Piano

From Mel McIntyre,
Your Guide to Piano.
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Trills have been used in piano music since the Baroque times as decorations or ornaments. They're still used today in many pop and jazz piano pieces. Here's an exercise you can use to improve your trill playing piano skills.

Follow this link to get to the score for my exercise "Trill Practice" which you can see, hear and print out.

Difficulty: Average
Time Required: A few minutes & continual practice

Here's How:

  1. Using the exercise "Trill Practice" mentioned above, start by practising the right hand on its own.

  2. Try to use fingers 2 and 3 to play the trills, which are written out in the music.

  3. Use a metronome to keep the beat nice and steady, and practice each time at a slightly faster speed.

  4. Practice the left hand on its own. Note that the left hand in this exercise is not essential to learn how to play trills, but it does sound good when both hands play together.

  5. Trills are also sometimes called "shakes" -- which tells you that one way of playing them is to shake your hand back and forth, instead of relying on moving your fingers quickly.

  6. If you look at the picture nearby, you'll see the two main ways that trills are written out or notated.

  7. Learn the "Trill Practice" piece off by heart so you can play it faster and faster. Then try playing a different song with trills in it to see how much you've learned.

  8. Vary the technique by accenting one of the fingers more than the other. For instance, practice once putting emphasis on finger 2, and a second time putting the emphasis on finger 3. That way you'll balance things out.

  9. For best results, make sure both fingers are in similar positions, i.e. BOTH flat or BOTH curved, whichever position suits you.

Tips:

  1. Go slowly at first.

  2. Keep movements as minimal as possible.

  3. Stop if anything starts to hurt.

  4. Practice in small time chunks.

What You Need:

  • Patience.

  • Some time.

  • More patience!

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