So I'm playing Mozart's third concerto third movement for a competition at the moment i cant do lip trills and so just stick to rubbishy sounding finger trills.

I'm practicing them and at the moment after 'warming up' to them i can get a lip trill going that is probably two alternations a second. However i struggle to get straight into any sort of one after playing two minutes of mozart!!

So what i would like to know is if you think i could get my lip trills up to a decent standard in five weeks. Also does anyone know any good exercises that can help me build them up. At the moment i use exercises given in Philip Farkas' Art of French Horn but i figured the more exercises I try the better they will be!

The Farcus exercises quite possibly be the best. Be sure to follow the instructions he gives.

I second the Farkas exercises as the best. Here's the thing - or "trick." You have to do it every day without fail. It will be extremely frustrating and you will think nothing is happening. You will see NO PROGRESS for WEEKS!!

Really, you're going to get really annoyed and !***!ed - but keep at it NO MATTER WHAT! One day it just - happens, you can trill. It's weird.

I have confirmed this with a bunch of other players - it's like your brain learns how to do it. Sort of like rolling your R's in a weird way.

AK

I did that same piece 2weeks ago. I tried and tried, but I never got the trills out. So I just left them out entirely. I'm definelty gonna work on it in the next year tho.

Lol, I've decided in fact to change piece. I'm now playing Mozarts 4th Concerto - Rondo, which has no lip trills in, just is slightly faster with more difficult tonguing.

My lip trills have got better - i can now lip trill immediately, however they are slow about 2 alternations a second which really isn't good enough yet haha!