Hey gang,

The good news is my trills are much improved after months of practice. I'm very pleased. The bad news is I've got a bit of tendonitis.Seems to be in middle of hand, just above the palm. It's minor at this point, with only one or two slight flareups, so just cutting back to ten or so minutes practice sessions with little or no trilling. I've learned not to panic about these things. The human body is one resilient machine, if one only gives it a chance.

My question is this: I've two ways of trilling, with fingers arched and the other with fingers flat. I realize the second method is kind of weird, but it works for me. It also feels like it's slightly less stressful to the tendons in the area where I have pain. Arching seems to increase the load on them.

I've no way to know this for sure, but thought I'd throw it out there. Can't think of a better place to do it :>)

Many thanks,
CG

A video of you playing trills would be helpful.

You might refer to one of many good books on piano technique, for example "On Piano Playing" by Gyorgy Sandor. In general when tendonitis sets in, it's a symptom of playing with tension. Someone might be able to watch your playing and identify the source of the tension.

Here's my trill exercise. Notice the fingers are naturally shaped, RH more than LH. The elbows are maybe a little low, don't take that as an example.