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Trills

Short trills without an extender line are printed with \trill; see Articulations and ornamentations.

Longer trills with an extender line are made with \startTrillSpan and \stopTrillSpan:

\relative {
  d''1\startTrillSpan
  d1
  c2\stopTrillSpan
  r2
}

A trill spanner crossing a line break will restart exactly above the first note on the new line.

\relative {
  d''1\startTrillSpan
  \break
  d1
  c2\stopTrillSpan
  r2
}

Consecutive trill spans will work without explicit \stopTrillSpan commands, since successive trill spanners will automatically become the right bound of the previous trill.

\relative {
  d''1\startTrillSpan
  d1
  b1\startTrillSpan
  d2\stopTrillSpan
  r2
}

Trills can also be combined with grace notes. The syntax of this construct and the method to precisely position the grace notes are described in Grace notes.

\relative {
  d''1~\afterGrace
  d1\startTrillSpan { c32[ d]\stopTrillSpan }
  c2 r2
}

Trills that require an auxiliary note with an explicit pitch can be typeset with the \pitchedTrill command. The first argument is the main note, and the second is the trilled note, printed as a stemless note head in parentheses.

\relative {
  \pitchedTrill
  d''2\startTrillSpan fis
  d2
  c2\stopTrillSpan
  r2
}

The Accidental of the first pitched trill in a measure is always printed, even for naturals.

{
  \key d \major
  \pitchedTrill
  d'2\startTrillSpan cis d\stopTrillSpan
  \pitchedTrill
  d2\startTrillSpan c d\stopTrillSpan
  \pitchedTrill
  d2\startTrillSpan e d\stopTrillSpan
}

Subsequent accidentals (of the same note in the same measure) will need to be added manually.

\relative {
  \pitchedTrill
  eis''4\startTrillSpan fis
  eis4\stopTrillSpan
  \pitchedTrill
  eis4\startTrillSpan cis
  eis4\stopTrillSpan
  \pitchedTrill
  eis4\startTrillSpan fis
  eis4\stopTrillSpan
  \pitchedTrill
  eis4\startTrillSpan fis!
  eis4\stopTrillSpan
}

Predefined commands

\startTrillSpan, \stopTrillSpan.

See also

Music Glossary: trill.

Notation Reference: Articulations and ornamentations, Grace notes.

Snippets: Expressive marks.

Internals Reference: TrillSpanner, TrillPitchHead, TrillPitchAccidental, TrillPitchParentheses, TrillPitchGroup, Pitched_trill_engraver.