Week 1 Assignment
Welcome to the latest two-week intensive with Leann Osterkamp!
Do your trills never sound quite right? Do your fingers refuse to play trills? This two-week intensive will start by giving you some basic academics about correctly deciding which notes you should be playing in each unique trill. We will then discuss how to train your ear and fingers to play consistent elegant trills each and every time, using proven practice techniques that you can incorporate right away, no matter what level of study you are currently at.
Week 1 assignment:
- Pick 1 or 2 trills within your repertoire (or dream repertoire) to analyze
- On blank sheet music paper, write out the entire ornament, including (and paying special attention to) the preparation (vorschlag) and termination (nachschlag) of the trill.
- Either record a video discussing or type out your rationality/decisions behind why you specifically chose the preparatory notes and terminating notes that you chose, as well as why you chose the subdivision tempo for the main part of the trill. For example, "I chose to initiate the attack on the note itself instead of the note above because I wanted to emphasize the main melodic contour and create a more stark delineation of beat. I then chose to do precisely 4 sixteenths per left-hand note because I like how the primary note is then contrapuntally emphasized on each beat and I think it balances the energy with accuracy. I then chose to do the somewhat anticipatory notes at the termination because it more elegantly sets up the next section, which needed a more placed set-up vs. a direct entry, since this was the end of a major structural section of the piece."
- Bonus, record yourself playing the exact written version of your trill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovZlaJdMhog
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Hi Leann! I am playing Beethoven concerto 3, 1. movement. There are a lot of trills. Today I have looked what I am exactly playing and I got confused, because I didn‘t know . Really funny. But the biggest problem I have with the trill at the end of the cadenza. How can I practice it? LG Kerstin
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Kerstin
1. With bar 47 try taking out one of the "C-B" and doing just two notes per left hand note.
2. Bar 48 looks possible and ok!
3. Which trill do you want help with on this cadenza page?
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He
On cadenza where left and right hand trill together.
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Kerstin I think this week's assignment is useful for this! If you can write out what you would like to achieve, you can better determine appropriate practice methods. I, personally, would probably always keep the "main" notes on the downbeats, in order to emphasize the reiteration of the GMm7 chord. Subdivide each beat, initially, for what feels most physically appropriate to your level.
I can better answer questions once I see your written out version, or if you would like to record yourself playing the passage :)
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Hello Leann, I would like to play it faster. But when I try left hand and right hand are not together anymore. https://youtu.be/-Y7YRxr33MA?si=Wpt-lEt2MLhkQEhe
How can I practice ?
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Kerstin Great question! I think a lot of things will actually be addressed in our Week #2 video which discusses more mechanics. The speed issues you are having are technique related. I would like you to try some of the concepts discussed in the second week video first and then, afterwards, let's revisit this question in that framework :)
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you.
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Wow! What a nice way to work on trills - thank you. This is Chopin Nocturne in c# minor.
Not sure about the trill intros in bar 5, 11 and 13, especially 11. There seem to be so many opinions out there above when to place these - before the main trill, as a part of, etc. Tried listening to Garrick Ohlsson's recordings as a model, but confusing.
Compromise seems to be the old "put the left hand on auto" and let the right hand express the melody, bel canto style. Still confused. Will listen to more recordings to see how others do it. Wish Chopin were here :-)
Looking forward to how you work this out next week. Thank you for doing this.
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Pat Van Buskirk nice work!
1. Typically, with simple trills, we keep things simple. At the beginning it is safe to just start with the note itself or just the note above. I've noticed that on all of your trills you are doing a double approach note model, where you start on the note above, go to the note, go above the note, and then start the trill. I would say that this is a very fancy vorschlag! We usually only see this when either we are doing very hyper schmaltzy music or when it is written out. I think it could be used in this nocturne but maybe once at a very special moment... it doesn't quite fit the sentiment of this piece or the style in which Chopin would have played.
2. On m.5, you end by doing a leap followed by steps out of the trill. It is not really common to have leaps... we want to stay with stepwise motion. If you added an additional F# before the final E (making that end thing something like a quintuplet), that could work. Again, the fancy vorschalg makes a reappearance here in the nachschlag! I would keep m. 5 simple... it is the very beginning of the piece and we need to establish the tune before doing fancy things with it.
3. m. 11 is missing LH notes... so I think that is why you are confused? Can't quite comment on that measure since it is incomplete right now, although the ending is better with the stepwise motion.
4. I think m. 13 is more on the right track!
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Dr. Leann Osterkamp He My pdf includes the LH in m. 11; rechecked on this site. Please check your pdf viewer. Thank you for your comments.
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Pat Van Buskirk Hi-
Apologies, I think my comment was unclear. I can physically see all of m. 11.... however, you only currently have 3 quarter beats written out in the LH (6 eighth notes).... the measure should have 4 quarter beats (8 eighth notes). Additionally, most urtext additions have an eighth note c# at the end of the RH tune in that measure.... it seems like you eliminated that? Since it is a primary note, it cannot be eliminated. Let me know if this makes sense... if it does, retry that measure :) If not, I can send a screenshot of the LH in the measure for you to copy out.
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Coincidentally I had been working on this Chopin posthumous nocturne when this course came up. Perfect timing. Not sure why he gave instructions not to publish it, but like all of his pieces, it is a little gem. Thank you for your instruction.
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Thank you so much for this intensive! It’s rather timely for me, because I had just become aware that I try to avoid music with trills. The reason for that was a feeling of unpredictability and some sense of lack of control that comes with trill playing. At times they work well, but very often not. One friend once told that trills so often sound like doorbells that she does not play them at all.
The two trills that thrill me in particular can be found in Bach’s bicinium BWV 711.
In bar 18 note A in the melody gives a Vorschlag, Nachschlag also comes with the melody. In bar 9 I see two options. One more straightforward which goes well with the fast tempo of the left hand and would be in line with Baroque principle that trills are started on the top note.
Another way could be with a Vorschlag on H. I like this better because it seems more melodic, although the strong beats of the trill are not on the upper notes.
What do you think?
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Astrida nice work!
I am not sure if the "start on the note above" is actually a hard and fast "principle." I know in some countries/schools of study it is taught as a principle.... but I don't think it is actually a rule that is required to be in Baroque style. I think it is the difference if we take it as a "performance practice" rule vs. a actual musicological rule, if that makes sense.
That being said, I think your instinct was correct of having H as a vorschlag prior to the strong beat. It is essentially starting the trill on the note above, just early. The reason I would choose this interpretation is harmonic... the whole point of that trill is to set up the arrival to G Major. The two beats prior with the trill are outlining and implying a D7 chord, which functions here as the dominant chord in GM. By making sure the A of the trill aligns with the corresponding chord tones, it helps the ear recognize the D7 chord and the functionality. Without it, the two beats don't quite function correctly harmonically.
That is a great example of why we don't want to think that we HAVE to start on the note above. Maybe, stylistically, it was more common because it has a tad more "elegance" to it... but it is not a rule. Every ornament should be individually considered for purpose, structural function, and affect.
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Dear Leann, thanks a lot for this topic. I am working on Rameau's Tendres plaintes at he moment and I have a problem with measure 8. I am thinking of practicing as I noted below but I find it difficult to continue playing the RH while doing the mordent in the LH. Should I stop the RH trill at the mordent? Should I opt for a slower trill in the RH with two 16th notes in RH per 8th note in LH?
I would be grateful for any suggestions.
Sedef
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Sedef CANKOCAK Great example!
At the moment, your written out trill is quite fancy... changing durations also doing rearticulations of the E's.... I would avoid rearticulations of the same note in a row when doing trills because then it isn't really a "trill" anymore, it becomes a different kind of ornament.
If you start with the mordent and work outwards, it does sound quite crunchy to do any trilling with E on the emphasized note in the RH because then we hear that 7th. I might, personally, want to find a solution that allows my RH to have an F at that moment. I like the ending with the unification of the E to transition into the next measure with both hands.
It is not impossible to do polyrhythms with ornaments but, in this case, it is a pretty simple uncomplicated measure and doing something that complicated is a bit out of place.
I would look musically at the concept of the vorschalg, which is to create that scalar motion. I would probably choose to do the trill starting on the note above (the F) on the downbeats. You could try two notes per LH note, meaning the RH will do "F-E" per each LH note. When you get to the mordent, the F's will line up. At that moment I would match the rhythm of the LH and do a triplet in the RH in parallel, but would do "F-E-F" in the RH against the "F-G-F" in the LH, so it will be like the hands are doing a mini-convergence. I would keep your final Es together. I kind of like the penultimate triplet before stopping on the E from a musical standpoint, as though the tension kind of releases and then calms.
Let me know if this makes sense.
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Thanks very much for your comment. And I apologise for my careless writing: I was thinking I wrote a continuous trill but of course that should have been E-F-E, F-E-F, E-F-E and F-E-F instead of E-F-E repeated four times. I will work on the F-E in RH/8th in LH pattern and continue as you suggest.
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I have written and deleted this comment about six times now. Each version worked itself into a corner where your insistence on knowing and learning the precise number of notes to be played provided a direct answer to my frustration. Well done! The rest may well be physical issues.
Physically, trills are pretty simple, sort of like grace notes one direction and then the other. It's the turning around that is a problem. Scales are similarly simple, 'drumming' your fingers one way or the other over successive clusters of notes. It's the getting from one cluster to the next that is a problem. Sigh.
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Myron Gochnauer haha, yes, most of the time it is just that we try to skip some steps along the way because things "seem" easy... but, when we slow down, we realize that skipping steps is what causes some later issues. :) You can do it! It is hard for everyone.
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So happy to be able to participate in this trill intensive since it falls just before Adamant Piano Camp! Am thrilled that you chose to demonstrate trills using the Chopin c# minor Nocturne. That's exactly the piece I chose for my example. I wish I could provide a detailed musical/theoretical reason for my trill choices as you gave in the sample, but my current approach is based on the edition I'm using (the Vorshlags are already annotated) and my skill level (4 notes to the beat seems my max right now). My big take-away from your video is that this choice isn't written in stone and that the Vorschlaege given in my edition can change if I prefer a different approach. Thank you!
The two measures below are the same ones you covered in the video (m. 5 and m. 11). The triplet Vorchlaege in each measure is what is written in my score. Apologies in advance if the notation isn't quite correct, but you should get the idea. In most cases, I choose to start with 3:1 and then speed up to 4:1. I like the sense of the trill speed intensifying as you play. The quantity of 3:1 versus 4:1 for me is simply what will get my fingers to land correctly for the Nachschlag.
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Victoria Macdonald nice work so far!
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The trills in the coda of Paderewski's Minuet in G major. There appears to be neither a vorschlag nor a nachschlag to this series of trills. The D in this work occurs as a primary note throughout the price and as such, in the coda, it sounds right, at least to my ear, harmonically, to emphasize it here as a starting note in the 1st and 4th trill. As such, I followed the pattern of beginning each trill on the note of the melody, again to emphasize harmonically.
Mechanically, I am able to play a series of 3 trills per 1/4 note, although I recognize that a more rapid trill would be more appropriate. Anything slower than that feels pedantic.
At the end of the final trill, the D is repeated 2x, and although it's repetitive, any other pattern that I tried didn't seem to "fit."
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Adena nice work! I think you had sound judgement in choosing to emphasize both the harmony and the primary melodic notes.
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Hi Leann, thanks for leading this TWI. I’ve chosen the Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2. It is probably at least two grades, if not more, above my current skill level, but as it is supposedly one of the easiest, it has been on my radar.
The implementation of the trills appears to follow a similar structure as that of the Posthumous Nocturne you discussed. That is, a basic melody is repeated several times with variations becoming more elaborate. In the edition I have (Paderewski), the first trill is simply a 3 note trill, so I examined the second variation, in measure 15. Measure 14 is doing a stepwise up/down/up ascent and then with the b flat in the second half of measure, begins a gradual descent landing on the f in measure 15. This is the trill. Because the phrase has landed (even if briefly), I like emphasizing this with the trill start note on the primary f on beat 1, for an eighth. The second beat gets the trill proper, beginning on the f and alternating with the g above, for 6 64ths, with the trill ending on the f for a 32nd. Having the trill start note, the trill itself and the end note all be on f gives the line a solid grounding from which to ascend again (very briefly), beginning with the small e and f 16ths. These should be played immediately after the b flat 7th, taking some time from the staccato g that follows, as playing the e with the b flat 7th is too discordant.
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Dora Burak I think your musical ideas are very nice! There are a couple things that don't quite work notationally.
It is not really common to have a long note at the beginning of a trill. The way you have notated your trill, Chopin would have written an eighth note F on the downbeat and written another F quarter on the second eighth note beat with the trill sign. Basically, when we see the trill symbol, the trill needs to begin. In order to emphasize the primary note, just make sure to start on the F (as you did) on the downbeat instead of the note above or any other vorschalge.
I think ending on the F to emphasize the Bflat Mm7 chord is great but you need to do so a tad later... if we end the trill too far ahead of the final chord, it kind of cuts the forward phrasing momentum. In short, you are starting your trill to late and ending it too early.
For now, keeping your concepts in mind, let's simplify. Maybe do 4 notes per LH note. Start on the F on the downbeat and begin immediately. So for the first LH eighth you will have "F-G-F-G", the second LH eighth "F-G-F-G", and then land on a brief F with the final LH eighth, prior to the nachsclage.
This will give you a good solid basis to experiment from. :)
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