Does anyone have any tips on how to do a trill - especially with the left hand, my right had has 'got' it. I started trills in the last year and, aged 61, found I had to do a lot of work on finger flexibility, scales, arpeggios. Hanon and Czerny - all of this has helped.

I am now doing Bach's invention no 12 - which I love, wonderful waves coming in and out. But not much good with a left hand trill that sounds like a herd of erratic elephants!
What my teacher wants me to do is two notes in the trill to match one in the right hand (until I can get to the point of freeing it up). This I can do at a lugubriously slow speed! It is accurate but sounds awful.

As soon as I begin to speed up, my hands get out of sync (yet I don't have any problem the other way round, with right hand doing the trill to the single notes of the left hand, whether fast or slow). As I am at the polishing stage with this piece I have been increasing the speed, one notch per day, on the metronome. I start each day with scales and Hanon in the 'new' speed. I then do each hand separately until I can do each well at the new speed. And I can do the left hand trill like this - I can do the speed required so long as there is no distraction. I then try both hands together all the way through so that I can identify the parts that need special attention and each time it is the left hand trill. So I go back to slower but never get the two together at a reasonable speed. As my hands can do it, I think it must be something in my head, and wonder if there are any other ways of thinking about it that will make it click.

I do feel that something clicked with the right hand and like riding a bike, I don't think I will forget it but as I don't know what or how I don't know how to do the same thing with the left hand.

I'd be grateful for any tips.

If you do a search on 'trills' there should be several threads that come up - some recent and some from the distant past. I've probably read 'em all, having struggled on and off with trills at various times! But some forum suggestions really helped, and I'd love to remember the person from whom I got the biggest tip, which was to think of trills in terms of the notes being released alternately rather than pressed alternately; apparently the muscles that make you bring your fingers up are 'better' than the muscles that cause them to press down. So If you make sure your hand and wrist are totally relaxed, really feel the keys (but lightly) under your fingers, and think in terms of bringing your fingers up rather than pressing down, then it seems to get easier - or it certainly did for me!

Here are two options for improving the speed of trills:

1: Play C B C B as semibreves, then CBCBCBCB as minims then as crotchets, quavers ...
Do that with fingers 1 2, 2 3, 3 4, 4 5

2: Get a spectrum emulator and play Daley Thompson's Decathlon Challenge, which basically consists of doing a trill as fast as possible and then you can claim to do the 400m in under 20 seconds.

What is a specturm emulator?

**goes off to Google it**

The ZX Spectrum, you can get a program to make your computer pretend to be one, then you can play the Daley Thompson game, which is really good for practising trills!

Previous posts are good advice, but basically it takes time to develop the co-ordination to trill well (like any other physical movement). Make sure you are practicing correctly, then just keep practicing every day and be patient.

Are you practicing on an uprigt piano? If you get the chance to play on a grand you might be pleasantly surprised at how much faster and cleaner it makes your trills.

I had the chance to play a Steinway Grand once and was absolutely amazed at the difference in this respect. So when I win the lottery that's what's on my shopping list!

Marvellous!


Those trills in Bach's inventions will hold no fear for me now!

this works for me: If you think press/lift/press/lift, then yes, it's elephants, but if you think
press/relax/press/relax starting from a relaxed hand and keeping it relaxed, then it speeds up quite happily,
where the "press" isn't coming from the top muscles but from the bottom.....it's more of a pull the finger down.
Have a good look at Valentina Lisitsa's hands (spelling?) playing anything and you'll see what I mean,
especially Chopin's "Thirds", wonderful relaxed hands and you can see clearly the hands stay relaxed on top through the most
fiendish stuff

Both of these posts have been really useful for me - thanks

My trills have really improved over the last few years, but this is a great way to think about it.

Like pedalling on the piano, trills were something I was never taught how to do at lessons. It was just "play this trill"

I can only trill with the left hand if i've worked out the number of times i'm going to do it, and even then not always with much success. One of Chopins preludes.... think it's number 9, has LH trills that for some reason i seem to often mess up, it's not the trill in itself, but i seem to have a problem coordinating it with the right hand.