Chords for HOW TO: Do Trills on the Violin

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_ _ Hi everybody and welcome.
My name's Alison, the online [D#] piano and the online violin tutor.
Today I'm just going to be talking about trills for you on the violin.
_ I was in a lesson the other day with a student.
She was about a grade 2 [B] to 3 standard.
And all of a sudden a trill popped up in the music and she said to me,
Oh, what's this and how do I do it?
So I was explaining that to her.
She thought it was really good and fascinating.
And then I had an idea of doing [C#] a video on that for you.
Because I know a lot of you have probably come across trills.
I have no idea how to do them or what they are or what they look like or anything like that.
So I'm going to explain that now for you.
So you'll know if you've come across a trill because you'll have the letters TR, short for trill, above a note in your music.
Sometimes you'll have the letters TR and sort of a wavy line after it.
That just more or less indicates how long the trill needs to go on for.
But more often than not you'll just see the letters TR above a note.
For example, if you have TR above the [F#m] note of B, which is going to be first finger on your A string,
all you would do is you would trill on the B and the note above it, which is C.
And all you would do is play the B and the C in rapid _ succession after each other.
So you'll keep the B down [G] and then you'll just lift the second finger [D#] for the C up and down very quickly.
So you'll get something that looks like [B] this. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ And basically that's a trill.
To start with you'll probably find that you might not be able to trill that fast.
_ _ _ [C#] It'll be a little bit stop-start or you might not be able to keep it up for very long.
But trilling is a little bit like vibrato.
It's sort of little and often.
The more you do it the longer you'll be able to go for and the better it will sort of get.
So just keep trilling and your fingers will get used to the action as well.
[F#] What you don't want to do is lift up the first and the [B] second. _ _
_ Because you won't be able to keep the movement up because the hand's working too hard.
[C#] So keep the lower note down and just take the second or the higher note on and off.
And that's a trill.
Alternatively if you were trilling with a C sharp, for example,
if the trill was above a C sharp then you [D] would be trilling with a C sharp and the note above it, which is [C#] D.
_ _ _ _ So you take the C sharp down and you_
_ _ _ I'm just lifting up [B] the third finger so I can get a C sharp D, C sharp D, C sharp D.
So depending on how long you would trill for would depend on how long the note was.
So going back to the original _ _ _ example,
if the trill was above a B and that B was say three beats long, then you would just trill for three beats.
[C#] One, two, [G] three.
[G#m] And that's it.
That's all you would do.
Sometimes [F#] the editors have actually written out the trill for you above the music.
Personally, in my experience, sometimes I copy those trills.
Sometimes I get students to do exactly what the editor has written out.
Sometimes I just say, [N] well, you know, just go for it and trill.
I sort of think that as long as a trill sounds trill-like and it's not too long, it's not too short,
you're not doing anything silly with it, anything like that, it still sounds musical,
then I think it's absolutely fine.
A trill is a trill at the end of the day.
Sometimes if you get lower grades or sort of more beginner type music,
the trill might be written out for you just to sort of give you an idea.
When you get to more advanced music, more often than not, the trill isn't written out for you.
So you would have to put a trill off your own back anyway.
So it's completely up to you.
As long as it sort of sounds musical as well,
then you don't have to, I believe that you don't have to exactly [G] stick to what the editor says.
Especially if you're doing a performance or exam, it really doesn't [D#] matter.
Your fingers are going to be going so quickly.
You're going to be moving on so fast.
But as long as it sounds musical, as long as it sounds nice,
[F#m] as long as it's in the right timing and the right rhythm and all those sorts of things,
then I don't think it matters [D] all too much when you're trilling.
So I think that's it on trills.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comment bar underneath.
And I'll try and get back to you as soon as [C] I can.
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