im starting work on grade 8 and have just realised that whenever i play trills i do finger trills when it would be better to do lip trills. the only thing is i dont know how to do them. im not going to see my teacher for a few weeks so i cant ask.

i use a double horn so what fingering would i need to use?? i understand that it needs lots of practice and there are exercises which you should do but what are the principles behind it and how would i, say lip trill on a B. thanks

Lip trills are EASY !!!!!!
Ready?!! Here we go. - - - - - wait -- - - - - -I am assuming you know how to do the basic lip slur. . . . you do know how to do lip slurs? GOOD!!!!
All lip trills should be done on the F side of the horn if you have one and you will be using the fingering for the lower pitch. (For those of you playing on a Bb single we can talk later).

Start on A (2nd space treble clef). Play A. while playing A you want to change your vowel shape in your mouth from 'tah' to 'EEE', and let your lips do a lip slur ever so slightly. Don't do this fast. Just slow, you should hear you note go from A up to B. Do this slowly and you can try it on Bb, B, and C. When you think you have it then go and do this exercise below (but remember don't try and go too fast at first, take the time to slowly build it up.

Exercise 1.
Play A (1/2). slowly move between A and B using 'Tah - eee - ah - ee -- ah' . Go back and forth using quarter notes at quarter =60bpm. When you have this down goto EX.2

EX.2 -
lip slur back and forth using "Tah -- eee- aah --eee- aah" in the following pattern.
4 quarters, then 4 eighths, then 4 sets of triplets, and then 4 sets of 16th notes.


FUN!!!!!!!

great! that makes sense and will really help, i understand about the pitch changing when you go from tah to eee its really wierd.

however what i still just dont get is if you use and fingers like for a trill from A to B you would press 1,2 like you said and do the tah...eee but would you need to lift up 1st valve to get the B or does it just come without changing the fingering?? thanks

You move NO valve levers for your lip trill. You hold down the finger on the F horn for the lower note. No need to move the fingers.

Lip trills are fun, and lip trills are fast. You could never get your fingers to go as fast as you will be able to get your lips to do it.

aaah that is where i have been going wrong!! thanks alot for this, im gonna go and practice them now

Ahh, I've been really pounding away at my lip trills skills these past couple weeks. I assure you my neighbours have gone nuts! I'm close... I can play a pretty convincing liptrill at a mezzo dynamic, but as soon as I go for forte or more, I just can't do it. So I'm working on that. Louder. Just what the neighbours wanted. The only real problem I've been having is initiating the trill expediently. It takes me a while to get it in the groove and up to speed. But, it's getting better. It will come with time.

It will get better with time. To play louder we often try to hard and this keeps us from getting louder. To play louder you need to be sure you are relaxing a little more. Relaxing will allow your aperture to open just a little more to let more air volume through and relaxing will allow your autonomous respiratory muscles to do what they need to do to move more volume easier and quicker.

Good job explaining lip trills, John! ) When I read that question, I thought to myself, "How in the world can that be explained!" I wouldn't have a clue how to approach it. And, yes, you're right; they are FUN!

Val