How to Trill

Since I wrote yesterday that it was hard to learn to sing from the written word, I woke up thinking: I should write a post about the trill!

Yes, life is full of paradoxes.

This post will reveal how to trill—a journey worth taking.

What does the trill do besides being an ornament?

It firms up the muscles of the ears, larynx, and throat and makes the singer feel what they are doing.

It also makes the voice flexible.

I liken the trill to central control. If you can do it, you’ve gained a great deal. Most people, however, don’t spend the time to learn it, believing the trill to be a special ability given only to the very few. It’s not. In Handel’s day—the vaunted days of the great vocal maestro Nicola Porpora—every singer learned to trill. You weren’t a singer if you couldn’t trill.

Now I will now give you shorthand instructions on how to do it based on many years of research. Interestingly, Garcia wrote about the trill but didn’t describe the how. Instead, he gave the reader the what. What you read here is a procedure gleaned from his students—Jenny Lind being one.

First, you SHUT YOUR MOUTH. Yes, that’s right. The trill is learned by shutting the mouth. Then, you outline a major third in your mind. Hear it clearly in your mind before you begin. Then, using the action of an appoggiatura while suspending the breath, go from the bottom note to the upper note in quick succession. This upward stroke is the hammering action. It is the main action of the trill.

The next step is to attempt the upward hammering action and then allow a dip to the lower note, which is then followed by another upward hammering action.

THIS IS DONE SLOWLY.

The whole point of this exercise is to control the speed of the oscillation.

What I tell students—and show them by example, which is far easier—is: “If you can’t control the speed of the trill and go slowly, you can’t go fast.”

What does the singer feel when executing the trill? That you are OUTLINING the distance between the major third. What you are not doing is going from note to note in the normal manner. The trill feels very different. This becomes apparent when—ahem—you go very slowly.

Now, do you see the difficulty here? Do you think you can make a go of it and learn to trill from this page? If you can, you are damn smart. Even under the best circumstances, it takes repeated demonstrations and quite a bit of back and forth in the studio to get it right. Very few succeed at the first attempt. And yes—it can be frustrating. This is what separates the poseurs from the professionals. The student who works on it assiduously gains a great deal.

What’s the next step?

You must be able to regulate the speed of the oscillation at will. Once you are able to do this, you practice the exercise on a minor third, then on a major second, and then on a minor second. When you can do all this, you can begin to open your mouth and sing the trill on AH, EH, and EE. Of course, this is a steep learning curve all its own.

What is the step after that?

Being able to trill at will within a two-octave range. Mind you, the Castrati were noted for being able to trill on a minor second chromatically between two octaves in one fell swoop.

Now, go shut your mouth!

Photo Credit: Daniel Shigo’s iPhone 21. A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing (Part One) by Manuel Garcia, Da Capo Press, 1982.