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Trills too slow? Left hand thumb trills
problematic?
Question:
Sometimes when I have a trill in a piece of music, it
either is not as fast as I would like, or it doesn't
speed up the way I want it to.
Any suggestions as to a good way to practice trills?
In particular, any ideas for trills with the left thumb?
Is this more a problem with lack of finger strength, or
control, or maybe both?
_________________
Answer:
You may wish to check with your private teacher, because
they can SEE
if you're doing anything that will slow your trill
practice down.
Here are some common problems:
1a. Leaks in the pads: I once had a
devil of a time doing a
complicated trill sequence with the LH thumb, where I'd
never had trouble before.
It turned out I had a huge leak in my thumb pad.
Therefore I would
always advise those who haven't had their pads checked
for leaks in
the past year to do so before worrying that it is the
player.
Additionally, if you are pressing the key down too hard
(may be caused
by leaks or simply by the bad habit of slamming and
squeezing the keys
down) the fingers are slowed because they take too long
to release.
Use the lightest
possible touch, merely overcoming the tension of the
spring that makes the key rise.
No more pressure than that is needed if the pads are in
good condition
and there are no leaks.
1b. Awkward hand position that makes fingers
*reach* for keys.
Study your hand position in a mirror and get
special help at your
private lesson.
You need to know HOW to place your hands on the flute for
optimum
fingering evenness, finger placement on keys, curvy-ness
of each
finger, and how to balance the flute well while not
gripping with the
moving fingers.
(The 3-point hold is covered under "Rockstro and
Modified Rockstro" in my article on the best way to
assemble and hold your flute stable. Click here.)
This topic is also well covered in Soldan's "
Illustrated Flute Playing"
method book, and in "The Simple Flute" by
Michel Debost.
If you can't find these books in your library, check out
Trevor Wye's
book "The beginner book of the flute vol. 1" in
your local music store
and see drawings of hand positions on first few pages.)
Other
common problems:
2. Fingers rising too
high: The most common problem for slow trills.
Instead of letting your trilling finger rise high off the
key, leave
it almost touching the key that you're trilling.
You'll soon know if this was keeping your trill slow.
3. Straight instead curved trill fingers:
Curved fingers trill faster
than flat ones.
If your LH trills are harder than your right, have a look
at whether
you can curve the fingers more (especially the ring
finger for G to A
trills.)
The pinky of the LH can also be problematic if the player
normally
holds it a great distance from the Ab lever, and has to
shift to a new
position each time they reach for the Ab key.
Instead, shimmy your hand down toward the Ab key so that
the pinky can
be slightly curved.
Deliberately curving the ring finger more than usual
during a G to A
trill is also normal.
4. Crooked thumbs: If you bend your
thumb normally to operate the
thumb keys, trilling can feel quite unbalanced. Try using
a more
straight thumb on a daily basis, and let the thumb key's
main point of
contact be the first joint of the thumb (one joint down
from the tip
of the thumb.) You may also experiment with turning the
thumb so that
the pad of the thumb faces the footjoint end of the
flute, instead of
the thumb pad facing the thumb key straight on.
Experiment with this and get your teacher's help.
5. Stiffening when trilling instead of loosening.
If you "try too hard" to gain speed with a
trill, you may stiffen the
muscles that need to be free to move quickly.
When operating keys up and down there are two sets of
muscles in the
forearm that come into play. When trilling you can sense
(feel) these
muscles and tendons all the way to the elbow.
If you're too stiff, you might even feel your elbow
moving when you
attempt a difficult trill.
Instead: relax the arm as much as possible, and sense how
loose it has
to be to allow the tendons to slide easily into extendor
and flexor
positions.
If you have flat finger approach (suitable for some
hands) then the
inside of the forearm will sense more activity.
If you have very curved fingers, the outside of the
forearm will sense
more activity.
Experiment with both and get a feeling for the easiest
use of the
tendons and muscles that travel from the fingers and hand
to the
elbow.
The more freely these move the better.Don't be afraid to
experiment fully, even to the point where other fingers
move loosely in tandem with the trilling finger.
6. Note: Thumb trills can be the particularly
challenging:
Do not worry too much if your LH thumb trills seem slower
than all
other trills.
This is normal, and takes some careful adjustment to gain
improvements
in speed.
Some hints:
a) When trilling Bb
to C, try holding
down the Bb side lever above the
F key.
This makes the thumb key easier to operate and balances
your flute
better in your hands, with more of the "holding
power" being taken by
the right hand.
Also you can add RH ring and/or middle finger (as a
silent balancing
device) in order to balance the flute and hold it more
steady so that
the LH thumb is more free to move (no longer responsible
for holding
the flute.
b) When trilling B
to C, take more of
the weight of the flute in the
RH. Deliberately free the left hand so that it's barely
holding the
flute at all.
c) Sense that the
thumb is not rising too high off the key, when
trilling, and may even remain touching the key.
Slow triplet practice, all slurred going:
B-C-B,C-B-C, B-C-B,C-B-C, B-C-B,C-B-C,
and gradually speeding up will often help more than
trying to go fast.
It gives you more time to sense the muscles and touch
required for a
neat and clean thumb trill.
d) If all else fails and your thumb feels sluggish and
unable to
trill, check that
your left wrist isn't cocked back in a way that
stuns the hand and makes the thumb weak.
Instead, experiment with a straighter left wrist, to lend
strength to
the muscles, and experiment with rotating the upper arm
bone (that
floats in the shoulder socket) COUNTER CLOCKWISE a
centimeter or two.
Rotating the shoulder and upper arm can help bring the
thumb-forearm
tendons into play ,whereas cocking the wrist backwards,
and trying to
use the thumb ONLY, can make the thumb feel cut off from
the strength
and speed available to the tendons throughout the whole
arm.
e) It is usually not
lack of strength
that makes a student a
poor-triller, but lack of accuracy in operating the arm,
fingers and
keys with the least extraneous activity.
Go for slow accuracty over several months.
Walfrid Kujala's " The Flutist's Vade Mecum"
is an excellent resource
for trill work and fast fingerings that feel balanced.
Kujala is a master at "stabilizing fingerings"
that hold the flute
more still on the lip during fast finger work.
Look for "Vade Mecum" by Kujala it at www.fluteworld.com
And also consult your teacher for special trill
fingerings.
Best, Jen Cluff July 2004
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