How to Polish Up Your Trill
I was looking forward to getting my daughter off to school this morning, having a nice, full practice session, and then sitting down to write.
Things turned out a bit differently.
To make a long story short, I just finished a penmanship lesson with my daughter, who convinced me that her 'cold' was worthy of a day away from school. It doesn't mean we sit around in front of a tv all day. No, we'll turn our attention to reading.
My practice session will have to wait.
Here's the deal with trills. I believe that the ultimate speed at which you are able to trill, is determined by God.
Yet even more importantly - the Clarity, and ultimately the effectiveness of our trill, is completely up to you.
There are people who, when you say 'trill', give the impression someone just pressed a doorbell. It's that fast and effortless.
Yet these players often have the challenge of getting control or variability to it - a blazingly fast trill can be out of character in some music - a Mozart Andante being one good example.
Most of us are confronted with the opposite problem - namely how to develop the finger reflex to convey an impression of something more.
There are two things that enable you to do this - technique and smart planning.
On the technical side you must resist the urge to press the vibrato into service in an attempt to amplify the finger's natural reflex. Invariably the result of this will be a muddy, featureless blur. I can guarantee no one is going to be fooled or impressed.
Ultimately the best approach is to always stay with the finger - keep your finger as light and clean as it can possibly be. The more relaxed you are, the better will be the result.
What you CAN do, after you've isolated the finger motion to a high degree, is experiment with the height you take it above the string. In doing so you must remember to keep your hand relaxed, otherwise it will revert back into a knot of frustration.
The other side of the trill coin involves planning.
If you focus on a given pre-determined of oscillations for the trill - assuming it's duration is a beat or less, and allow yourself to visualize the entire event each time you arrive to it, you may find yourself 'tricking' your finger into doing more than you thought possible.
This requires patience, relaxation and focus, yet I myself am constantly surprised by the results I get from doing just this.
There are countless etudes and studies devoted to trills. Yet none are more enjoyable and satisfying than those found in Kreutzer. In volume 2 of 'Kreutzer for Violin Mastery' I take you through all manner of possibilities - measured, unmeasured, prepared, with terminations and without terminations.
There are some players who believe in practicing trills using various rhythms. I haven't mentioned this here because I don't feel they really produce the results I'm after. Kreutzer does.
Though challenging indeed, these Kreutzer etudes can really clean and polish a trill beautifully.
About the Author
Clayton Haslop is the Concertmaster on many Hollywood movie soundtracks including The Matrix movies, Titanic, Avatar, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Up, Jurassic Park, Apollo- and The Perfect Storm. Clayton Haslop's bestselling Instructional DVD courses are used by beginning violinists to professionals worldwide.
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