Trill

What it’s for

A trill is a note and its upper neighbor, a half step or a whole step higher, alternated as fast as possible. On guitar, you pick once, then your fretting hand chains hammer-ons and pull-offs on the same string. The note never stops: it shimmers, it boils.

It’s a very old ornament: in baroque and classical music, on harpsichord, violin or flute, trills decorate important notes and the ends of phrases. Rock and metal guitarists turned it into a show-stopping effect: a long trill builds tension before a fast run down, or keeps a high note alive longer than plain vibrato could. In folk, short, quick trills work as ornaments, often from an open string. And for everyone, it’s a great exercise for finger strength and independence.

How to do it

Here’s the move from the example at the top of the page, on the G string: the 5th and 7th frets, alternated.

1. Put your index on the 5th fret and keep it pressed from start to finish: that’s the main note.
2. Pick once, then hammer the 7th fret with your ring finger, as for a hammer-on.
3. Pull your ring finger off right away, tugging the string slightly, as for a pull-off: the 5th fret rings again.
4. Loop it, with a tiny motion. Your ring finger only moves a few millimeters away; the hammer and the pull have the same strength.
5. Stay relaxed and count. Speed comes from staying loose, not from tensing up. Start with two notes per metronome click, then four.
6. Stop cleanly on the main note, exactly when you mean to: a trill that ends cleanly sounds twice as good.

In tab, a trill is written tr followed by a wavy line (tr~~~) above the main note, often with the upper note in parentheses: 5 (7) means “alternate the 5th and 7th frets.” A short trill is sometimes written out in full: 5h7p5h7p5.

Examples

The example at the top of the page, played slowly: a trill from C to D on the G string (5th and 7th frets, index and ring finger), then a trill of just a half step, from E to F, on the B string (5th and 6th frets, index and middle finger). Each trill is followed by a short run down in A minor.

Here, the trill holds up a high note: the A on the high E (5th fret) alternates with B for almost a whole bar, then the phrase comes down and a second, shorter trill leads back to the A on the D string.

e|-----5tr7-5------------|
B|-5-8--------8-5--------|
G|----------------5tr7---|
D|---------------------7-|
A|-----------------------|
E|-----------------------|

Five trills climbing the A minor scale on the G string, without a breath: C-D, D-E, E-F, F-G, G-A. Ten notes per second, and a position shift with every trill. For a whole step, index and ring finger; for the half step (E-F), index and middle finger.

e|-----------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------|
G|-5tr7-7tr9-9tr10-10tr12-12tr14-14~-|
D|-----------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------|

Licks

A rock lick in E minor, in 12th position: a trill from E to G on the high E, between the 12th and 15th frets, with your index and pinky, for a whole bar. Then the E minor pentatonic comes back down to the E on the D string.

e|-12tr15-----------------|
B|--------15-12-----------|
G|--------------14-12-----|
D|--------------------14~-|
A|------------------------|
E|------------------------|

A folk lick in G major, on an acoustic: little trills, very short, from the open B and G strings, like the ornaments of a traditional tune. Here the trill only lasts four notes: it’s almost a mordent.

e|-----------------------------|
B|-----0tr1-3-1-0--------------|
G|-0-2------------4-0tr2-0---0-|
D|-------------------------4---|
A|-----------------------------|
E|-----------------------------|

A blues lick in A: a trill between C and D, then a half-step trill between D and E♭, the flat fifth of the blues scale, grinding before the run down to A.

e|-5------------------------|
B|---8----------------------|
G|-----5tr7-5---7tr8-7-5----|
D|------------7----------7~-|
A|--------------------------|
E|--------------------------|

Practice routine

On the G string, 5th and 7th frets, index and ring finger:

• Start at 60 bpm, two notes per click for one minute, as steady as a clock.
• Then four notes per click at 60 bpm, and go up 5 bpm once the trill stays even for a full minute.
• Goal: four notes per click at 120 bpm, eight notes per second.

Then go around all the finger pairs, one minute each: index-middle (5-6), index-ring (5-7), index-pinky (5-8), middle-ring (6-7), middle-pinky (6-8), ring-pinky (7-8). The last two are the hardest: they’re the ones that make you improve.

Common mistakes

Variations

A half step, a whole step, a third. A classical trill uses a half step or a whole step. In rock, players also trill over a minor third (three frets, index and pinky), within the pentatonic scale.

From an open string (0 and 2). Only one finger works; the open string plays the main note. Very common in folk.

The mordent. A trill cut down to a single back-and-forth: the note, its neighbor, the note (5h7p5), as fast as possible. It’s the most common ornament in traditional tunes.

The tapped trill. A picking-hand finger hammers and pulls the string far up the neck while your fretting hand holds a note: the trill gets wider and faster. It’s a form of tapping.

On two strings. Classical guitarists sometimes play a trill on two neighboring strings, each note on its own string: the notes overlap and the trill gets softer.

Acoustic or electric

On an electric guitar, especially with distortion, a trill sustains for a long time: every hammer-on re-energizes the note, and you can trill for several bars. That’s where it becomes an effect.

On an acoustic or classical guitar, the string loses energy with each pull-off and the trill fades fast: keep it short, as an ornament, and pull firmly. Trills from an open string ring out very clearly there.

Going further

• The two moves of a trill: the hammer-on and the pull-off.
• To chain more than two notes from one pick stroke: legato, and its lesson Legato.
• The two-handed trill: tapping.
• The scales in the examples: the A minor pentatonic, the A blues scale and the G major scale.