Practice Tips: Trills versus Counting - who will win? (spoiler alert: it’s you!)
You’re playing in band, on a really long trill, but suddenly you’ve completely lost count as to where you are in the long high note wiggle - oh no. OH NO.
This has been something that has come up in lessons with some students, and something I struggled with when I was a lot younger in my flute journey, but coped and figured it out eventually on my own. It's all about deconstructing it and going back to basics.
So here we go.
Counting while trilling can be a difficult task, because we’re piling on extras with what our mind has to deal with while playing. The action of trilling, thinking of the air, thinking of where the beat is, hearing the trill - it’s a lot and sometimes the counting goes out the window unintentionally. This can all be combated with practice.
Where do we start?
This is different than practicing evenness in your trills, if you need that, go check out the section on trills in the Technique section of Trevor Wye’s Practice Books for the Flute (page 72 in the blue omnibus edition - that’s books 1-5.) And use a metronome. Please.
Here we’re practicing counting through a long trill, short trill, any trill. So to do this we have to make it easier by practicing with a controlled and basic set of parameters. Start with an easy scale and a metronome - this way we don’t need to think about the notes we’re playing, and we can just listen to ourselves with the metronome.
Start with one note on a quarter note. Then make it a half note. Keep extending the length of the one note until you can count through eight beats on a trill comfortably.
Then move on to a scale in half notes - choose to trill every other note, or every third note, or every note that has a letter in your name. Pick something manageable. Then increase the amount of notes you trill on - even if you add just one note, we’re taking very small steps so our brain can manage. We’re slowly pushing the boundary of our skill little by little so that it expands.
When playing any combination of trills within the half note scale is comfortable (like I’m talking really comfortable), switch up the rhythm of the scale. In my exercise I start with one quarter note followed by a dotted half note in each measure. Now do the same thing as you did with the half note. This way we are switching it up ever so slowly in a different way.
Next, why not try the scale in thirds? Mix it up a little, and if you’re finding it really difficult, go back a step until it’s not so hard.
If we take practice slow, controlled, and manageable, we can build our skill in no time. You’re doing great!
If you’d like a copy of my Trills versus Counting - who will win? exercise that I give my students when they express this issue or show it in their playing, you can download it by clicking here (it’s a newsletter opt-in as well, and I don’t spam.)
If you’ve found this helpful and would like to work with me to help further your skills on the flute, are looking for a flute teacher, wanting to try flute lessons, and/or build your practice strategy toolbox, I have space in my online studio - I would love to work with you!
I have a few different lesson offerings:
And of course, if you would like to get started but don’t know what’s right for you, click here to contact me!