Here is my question, friends:

I am just beginning with Bach's little prelude BWV 926. It has, as usual, multiple ornaments.

In some broque pieces I just skip these ornaments when it gest too hard, for they are inscribed in a group of notes enough complex and melodic as to allow skipping them without too much loss for the piece in question.

But in this case, for example, the left hand is composed by only one note with a mordente during the first bars. If I just forget about the mordente, the single note seems too lonely and boring. Thus, I HAVE TO.

Any tips about practicing trills and mordentes?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Gloria

In my experience, I've found that when
working up a piece, all ornaments--trills,
mordents, turns, graces, etc.--should be
played as quickly as possible, almost
crushed, so to speak. The reason for
this is that you don't want to get into
the habit of letting ornaments dominate
your playing, like you often see in the
playing of beginners: they tend to almost
stop when they come to an ornament and
then laboriously pound out the ornament,
whatever it might be. This throws off
the whole flow of the piece, and this
habit typically stays with a player even
as gets into the more advanced pieces,
marking his playing as hopelessly amateurish.

Thus, when working up a new piece, you
don't ever want this insidious habit
to infect your playing. Ornaments,
although important, are always secondary
to the main notes, and they should always
be treated as such. They should be
almost "ignored," so to speak, and "sluffed
over" as fast as possible, so that they
don't interfere with your learning to
play the main notes. Finally, after
all the main notes are learned, then
you can concentrate on refining the
ornaments, which will be a minor task
once the main notes are in hand. If
you concentrate on ornaments from the
start, you'll never get the main notes
learned properly, effectively destroying
any chance of performing the piece
impressively.

Writing out the ornament notes might help. Play them slowly at first and then progressively at tempo. Once you're used to it, they'll come out much more naturaly and you may even play them with some rubato style...

To me, turns are the worst... :p

relaxing your fingers at trills or modents is the most important. also, don't be mentally frightened by it, and just play it continuously without stopping before it and after it. my teacher was constantly annoyed when i kept stopping without connecting immidiately to next note/notes after a trill or a turn is played. he said of my problem: "it's not technical. it's mental!"

I'm working on that same piece now! A work in progress........

For now we're leaving out the LH trill & mordent in measures 15 - 17 because the RH is busy with those things (in mm 15-16).

Tips from my teacher include playing them easy and light (since they're ornaments), do a little wrist rotation, and "dropping down" from just a hair above, not too far where you'll miss the keys, but so that you have a bit of momentum. Other tips I've been given are too difficult to explain in words.

One thing I was guilty of doing (and still seem to do), is to put too much pressure on my thumb to where I cause strain.

Thank you very much for all your comments, friends.

Gyro: I agree with you. That is exactly what happens to me. The mere presence of the ornaments stops me and stops the normal flow of the music. I'll try to pass over them as quickly as possible, at least in the initial preparation of the piece, as you advice me.

Pianoid: thanks for the tip. I have made a copy in big size of the notes that should be played in mordentes and trills and have it with me just aside the sheet music.

Signa: that's right! I'm also convinced it's more a psicological than a strictly technical problem. But I just can't avoid it (hum.. I'll have to talk with my therapist).

Sleepingcats: how much time have you devoided so far to the piece? How much more do you plan to dedicate? Do you have an mp3 of the piece? (I have never heard it and would like to).


All the best,
Gloria

I think i've heard somewhere that for making your trilling fingers stronger you can (lets take 2 and 3 fingers as the "trilling fingers") hold down every note around those two fingers and trill SLOWLY whilst holding 1,4,5 down. After lifting up after slow accurate practise try and trill keeping your 1,4,5 fingers RESTING on the keys instead, again trill slowly and you hopefully should feel much more ease and relaxation because the position is more natural then bring both practises to speed.A few ways of trilling are around, some people use flat fingers so the exercise above may not be practical. Just what I've seen, i'm sure a more experianced pianist could elaborate.

Regards, The Entertainer.

GloriaT

Sorry for the delay in replying! Life started getting a bit complicated and I haven't been able to keep up.

Regarding the Bach Little Prelude, I actually started over a month ago, but have a Chopin Mazurka & Mozart Sonata in the works at the same time, and also recently picked up a short Granados piece, then of course life interferes, so I feel like I've been on the piece for a year.

Anyway, at first I didn't like it much but my teacher said it had some great technical lessons in it; I like it better now. I haven't heard a recording of it either. I plan to work on it as long as I need to till I feel I won't progress significantly. My teacher mentioned that after I'm done with it, maybe we can work on a Bach French Suite, so I'm excited about that!

How are you doing with the trills & mordents?

sc