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Why do I still suck with trills?


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Posted

Ok, been playing for about 2 years. I practice every other day for 4-6 hours and if its everyday its a warmup for an our with leanring a song basically. Well, I basically try to warm up fingers 1 and 3 and 1 and 4 as much as possible. For example, I do -8-5 on the high E, then 8-5 on the G string alternate picking and go up the fret board using fingers:"1" and "3" and "1" and "4". I do this like 10 times every time until my arm hurts, then take break, then go at it again. I also just do trilling of both finger sets going up the neck and down it in 3 sets of each finger. After all this, I'm finally able to trill a little faster but as the practice goes on and I don't the exercise anymore, my trill action slows down a bit. Im pissed off cause ive been doing this as a ritual for 2 years. Do muscles in my arm/hand still need to build up so I won't need to warm up so much to actually make it work? Or do I just suck at trills?

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Posted

You could be doing it wrong. A trill is a rapid hammer-on and pull-off between two notes. Ok, we know this already, but the problem could be in your pull-off technique. A pull-off isn't, like, a lift-off, or just removing your finger. You have to grab the string with your finger, pull it a little bit, and then let go sound the string is essentially plucked. Of course, this is a quick motion, and not as drastic as, say, finger picking. But, you don't just hammer-on the string and then lift your finger up, you have to pull the string a little tiny bit and then let it snap back into place.

 

See if you're doing this. I am convinced it's your technique, not the strength of your arm or hand or whatever.

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Posted

If you practice in long sessions, fatigue is going to be a factor eventually. So, it's probably best to save any 'strength building' stuff for the END of your sessions; doing them early on will result in you doing the rest of your practicing with tired muscles which can cause a lot of bad habits.

 

Also, and I may be taking a shot in the dark here...when you are doing trills, are you always starting on the lower note on the downbeat (or always the upper note)? Believe it or not, there's a physical difference between the following:

 

a) 1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3

 

and

 

b) 3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1

 

If you aren't already, make sure you practice it both ways.

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