How to play the saxophone. Trilling is something that we can all do with little or no effort. It's a worrying word that might make you think it's hard. In practice the only real difficulty is moving your fingers from certain keying positions. For example, on the table(spatula) keys. You may need to find alternative ways of playing certain trills. Finding ways around this is all part of your journey to learn how to play saxophone.
There are 2 types of trill. The trill up or the trill down. The trill up starts on a note lower than the next note and a trill down starts on a note higher than the next note.
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The trill up
Starting on any G. Now play what follows as fast as you can whilst slurring.
GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA
The trill down
Starting on A play what follows, again as fast as you can whilst slurring.
AGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG
In musical notation trilling should be symbolised by the letters tr or a wavy line or both as above.
What is hard about trilling is getting a bit of speed up and then continuing to play the tune you had in mind when you started. However a bit of practice will soon see you trilling whenever and however you choose.
There is such a thing as a lip trill which involves you altering the pitch of the note by using your embouchre but we won't discuss this here.
