devilhand -> Piano trills on guitar (May 1 2026 15:52:04)
As I understand trills are usually played on piano. It's a piano technique. On guitar trills sound lame to me since we use only the left hand. I believe we can get a decent result if we use both hands. Any suggestions on how to get a nice long trill on guitar? For example 0:26-0:33.
Grisha -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 1 2026 19:36:10)
Cross-string trills that achieve similar effect on guitar are usually done with pmiapmia... or similar four finger right hand sequence. I use paim fingering myself. The problem is that your right hand cannot really pluck anything else while you are employing this technique.
devilhand -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 1 2026 21:46:27)
quote:
Cross-string trills that achieve similar effect on guitar are usually done with pmiapmia... or similar four finger right hand sequence. I use paim fingering myself.
4 finger paim is a 4 note trill? I mean 4 different notes. I can imagine this will sound more interesting.
In my example above if I read the score correctly, it's a 2 note trill B C B C B C.... It would be i & m free stroke on two adjacent strings?
hamia -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 2 2026 15:28:36)
I do like a bit of Hayden from time to time. Refined and understated. How I aspire to be.
AndresK -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 2 2026 22:29:43)
Grisha means this
Ricardo -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 3 2026 14:39:25)
not terribly interested in this technique or device myself, however, I can imagine a quick cheating version could use iami P, which most flamenco players have down very quick already.
davewphx -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 3 2026 19:32:58)
God that clip sounded beautiful ...Thanks Andresk
devilhand -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 4 2026 20:48:05)
quote:
Grisha means this
Thanx for the video. Now I see it's still 2 notes on 2 adjacent strings. But what I don't get is why they play it with 4 fingers. As I mentioned above I would prefer i&m or i&a.
devilhand -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 4 2026 21:01:29)
quote:
not terribly interested in this technique or device myself,
Flamenco guitar music is full of ornaments. I don't know why cross string trills are never used in flamenco. We can at least see it as some odd arpegio pattern. If it's done with i&m or i&a, we have a 2 finger arpegio pattern.
quote:
I can imagine a quick cheating version could use iami P
How would you use it on 2 adjacent strings?
Ricardo -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 5 2026 12:06:21)
quote:
I don't know why cross string trills are never used in flamenco.
we use em all the time via picado imimim etc, two strings with notes a half step apart. I thought you wanted specifically the wimpy cross string free stroke sound of the baroque music...that is the thing I don't really care about. For flamenco players it is not really "ornament" since it is part of the music you must play, not some interpretive inflection.
we use the iami grace note tremolo technique for scale runs across strings with index on the lower string. Gerardo shows a tremolo on two strings via rondeña in the encuentro video via F# fretted and open between 4th and 3rd strings with P hitting the bass notes and the Ami rolling over and over. iami is basically ami repeating at the index stroke as a grace note. So for that baroque trill you do index on lower string first then the last stroke cross back up to the higher string...the point being it is a rapid easy movement no matter what string your finger hits and no reason to be super clean about it in flamenco anyway. Thumb stroke comes up for the last note in a 5 note trill.
Basic cross string trill done picado you can see here at 0:06
devilhand -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (May 9 2026 14:22:42)
quote:
I thought you wanted specifically the wimpy cross string free stroke sound of the baroque music
My first thought was it can be either a tremolo like sound with 2 alternating notes for example B C B C B C.... or a machine gun picado sound again with 2 alternating notes. I wanted a long trill like in my piano example. A similar result with i&m arpegio at 2:35
aloysius -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 11 2026 6:31:06)
A saw a good example of cross string ornaments recently with this David Russell performance of Bach's 1st lute suite - check out the courante at 7m.
Ricardo -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 11 2026 11:35:45)
quote:
A similar result with i&m arpegio at 2:35
Really? a Scale run and a trill are very different.
zendalex -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 11 2026 15:50:36)
Are these your own falstetas Ricardo? Really nice playing - I guess sufficient number of gin-tonics were consumed :)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
quote:
I don't know why cross string trills are never used in flamenco.
we use em all the time via picado imimim etc, two strings with notes a half step apart. I thought you wanted specifically the wimpy cross string free stroke sound of the baroque music...that is the thing I don't really care about. For flamenco players it is not really "ornament" since it is part of the music you must play, not some interpretive inflection.
we use the iami grace note tremolo technique for scale runs across strings with index on the lower string. Gerardo shows a tremolo on two strings via rondeña in the encuentro video via F# fretted and open between 4th and 3rd strings with P hitting the bass notes and the Ami rolling over and over. iami is basically ami repeating at the index stroke as a grace note. So for that baroque trill you do index on lower string first then the last stroke cross back up to the higher string...the point being it is a rapid easy movement no matter what string your finger hits and no reason to be super clean about it in flamenco anyway. Thumb stroke comes up for the last note in a 5 note trill.
Basic cross string trill done picado you can see here at 0:06
Richard Jernigan -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 11 2026 17:40:07)
quote:
As I understand trills are usually played on piano. It's a piano technique.
It is a keyboard technique, but all the instruments of the modern symphony orchestra play trills. This was true of 18th century orchstra as well, as heard in this short piece.
In the opening phrase almost the whole band plays trills. Particularly remarkable are the trumpets. In the 18th century brass instruments still had no valves, so trills were managed entirely by the lips, a virtuoso technique. In the second phrase the oboes answer with trills of their own, a frequent touch by Handel.
The trill is fundamental to the marimba music of Veracruz and Chiapas, in southern Mexico.
RNJ
Ricardo -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 12 2026 11:53:38)
quote:
Are these your own falstetas Ricardo? Really nice playing - I guess sufficient number of gin-tonics were consumed :)
Affirmative! [:D]
devilhand -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 13 2026 18:44:19)
quote:
Really nice playing - I guess sufficient number of gin-tonics were consumed :)
Indeed, great stuff played masterfully. Jerez toque right from DC.
Btw, at 1:03 this is the coolest acoustic guitar sound I've ever heard. I wish my guitar responded like this.
devilhand -> RE: Piano trills on guitar (Jun. 13 2026 18:49:46)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Richard Jernigan
quote:
As I understand trills are usually played on piano. It's a piano technique.
It is a keyboard technique, but all the instruments of the modern symphony orchestra play trills. This was true of 18th century orchstra as well, as heard in this short piece.
In the opening phrase almost the whole band plays trills. Particularly remarkable are the trumpets. In the 18th century brass instruments still had no valves, so trills were managed entirely by the lips, a virtuoso technique. In the second phrase the oboes answer with trills of their own, a frequent touch by Handel.
The trill is fundamental to the marimba music of Veracruz and Chiapas, in southern Mexico.
RNJ
Thanx for pointing this out. Now I like trills even more.
