Lesson 27: Ornamentation Basics — Trills

Play an even trill between two adjacent diatonic notes.
Apply a Baroque-style trill to a cadence and resolve it correctly.

Lesson 26 — grace notes.

Trill.
Mordent.
Ornament-rhythm relationship.

The trill is the Baroque exclamation mark.

A trill is a rapid alternation between the written note and the diatonic note above it. The Baroque convention — which you should follow until told otherwise — is that the trill starts on the upper note, not the main note. That detail matters: a trill starting on the wrong note sounds modern, not Baroque.

The trill also has a defined ending: a turn or termination at the bottom of the trill, leading into the next note. Without the termination, the trill sounds amputated.

The trill written out as alternating sixteenths. Practise at this tempo until even, then accelerate.

The same idea fast. The trill should sound as one ornament, not as discrete notes.

Trill at a cadence

The classic Baroque cadence: a trilled penultimate note that resolves into the final. The trill is on the leading tone or its neighbour, and the termination prepares the final.

Play: ornaments in concert

Grace notes from the previous lesson and trills from this one belong in the same musical sentence, not in separate exercises. Here is a four-bar Baroque-style phrase in G major: an appoggiatura leans into the second beat of bar 1, and a trill closes the cadence in bar 4. Play the bare melody first; only add the ornaments once the line itself is steady.

Now play these

Telemann: Six Sonatas, TWV 40:101: The cadences are the trill opportunities. Start each on the upper note.
Telemann: Six Sonatas, TWV 40:102: Another study in Baroque cadence ornamentation.
Handel: Sonata in A minor, HWV 362: Add trills at the cadences marked in the score. Start on the upper note.

When you can place an even, Baroque-correct trill at a cadence without disrupting the underlying tempo, move on to Lesson 28.