School of Trills & Tremolos

This book has one simple goal: to provide the student with enough exercises to take them from the beginning to an advanced level of trill and tremolo playing. My hope is that these exercises, together with the suggested approach to studying them (via gradually increasing metronome speeds and shortening note values), will be all the student ever needs for mastering trills and tremolos.

Each of the 36 exercises in this book focus on trills in one hand, using one finger in combination with others. For example, exercise No.1 focuses on trills in the right hand, using the 1st finger. In the first bar you trill with fingers 1 and 2, in the next bar you trill with fingers 1 and 3, then fingers 1 and 4, and finally, fingers 1 and 5. Each exercise in this book, therefore, uses all the fingers of one hand in one way or another.

There are three kinds of exercise in this book;

1. Exercises where the focus finger is the first note of the trill,
2. Exercises where the focus finger is the second note of the trill,
3. Exercises where one note is held down, either with the 1st finger or the 5th finger, while the other fingers of the same hand perform the trill.

Once mastered, the third type of exercise will become the basis for more advanced tremolo practice.