When a trill is marked into a piece of music, you must rapidly play the note written and the note directly above it back and forth. There are two kinds of trills: lip trills (no valves used) and valve trills. Of course any trill can be done as a valve trill as a last resort, but it will not be as “authentic” and smooth as a lip trill.
The rule for lip trill vs. valve trill is this: if the trill goes up a whole step, then it is a lip trill—for example, C to D. If it only goes up a half step—say, B to C—then it is a valve trill. Half step trills are done with valves because it is not possible to lip trill a half step.
Learning lip trills can be very difficult and frustrating, since they require a lot of flexibility. At first, your lip may not cooperate when you tell it to move that fast between two notes for four beats. However, by starting slowly and practicing the exercises included in the “skills” part of this book (or suggested exercises in other books) you will slowly increase your flexibility and notice an improvement in your trills. As you practice the exercises, here are some points to keep in mind:
· I mentioned in the section on practicing that we all need to work on “skills” every day. Well, that goes doubly for lip trills. They need to be practiced consistently in order learn them, and keep them at performance level. It is not a skill that can be learned in a day or two, so it is important to continue working on them regularly. Lip trills pop up in solos (all Mozart concertos) and even in orchestral parts—you want to have them ready to go at a moment’s notice to avoid potential embarrassment.
· It is necessary to keep the air stream steady and moving forward at all times when trilling. Don’t let the air stream get stagnant—think of blowing a steady stream of air in front of you while “wiggling” it back in forth. In other words, if you get bogged down just playing each note back and forth, you will not create any momentum and it will be difficult to trill fast.
· Sometimes it helps to say the syllables “O” and “E” as you trill back and forth to help facilitate the trill. The change in the aural cavity that occurs with the vowels O and E will help “wiggle” the air stream back and forth to each note.
.BN.FRENCHHORN.SECTION.
8/31/2004 04:47:00 PM
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