James Smock

These trills are making my life hell! What can I do to clean them up?

I've spent plenty of time on Clark #4 (or whatever the trill one is), and tried to just play them slowly and work them up faster, but I just can't seem to get them clean! Any thoughts?



Thanks a lot,

James

music matters

Hi James,

I have been having the same problems on the Haydn trilling on the G up to A. A friend who is a very good player said to use 1 and 3 for G and 3 for A as its not as wide an interval then. I was worried about the tone/tuning using this combination but he said not to as you will be going so fast no-one would notice it and that's how he has performed it in the past. I have been working on it for over a year now and was having very slow progress just playing semiquavers on the metronome and when I could do it cleanly moving up to the next speed. All of a sudden it started clicking into place, after many months and progress seemed to go very well so all I can say is keep patient and it will come together! I had the same problem with C to D on the 4th partial but the same worked again - just practise a little every day and be patient and keep chart of your progress with a metronome.

Best regards
Graham.

music matters

Sorry James! I forgot to add that I found it really important to make it very clean and clear before progressing to the next speed however slow this is. I have found that if you go fast and it is unclear find the speed where it is clear and go from there. If you speed up too quickly and move onto the next speed when it is not clear the problems will not resolve themselves. Are you saying ahh ee ahh ee ahh ee? as this helps too (ee on the higher of the 2 notes!)

Good luck
Graham