How do you recognize tremolo in sheet music?

Tremolo is indicated by tree lines through the stick of the note. It indicates precisely that you should play eight times as fast, but we don’t make a difference in bowing speed when doing tremolo on half notes and quarter notes.

If you see just one line, you play every note two times and play twice as fast. If you see just two lines, you play every note four times and play four times as fast.

How to play tremolo without getting tired?

Don’t shake your whole arm, but use your wrist and fingers. It’s important that you have a relaxed and flexible bow hold. While moving your wrist and fingers, you must be able to maintain the contact points of your finger tips on the bow. This is something you can practice on with a pencil.

To make your tremolo more relaxed, you can leave your pinky a bit of the bow. This might make it easer as tremolo is played at the tip of the violin bow. See what works best for you.

The motor of the movement is your elbow. Your lower arm moves just a little bit. The movement is mainly in your wrist and fingers.

Let me know in the comments below how your tremolo is going? Did these tips help you to do a more fluent tremolo without getting tired?