Trills

The trill is a technique that you should have in your ‘ukulele arsenal. They aren’t used a lot in ‘ukulele music, but have their place in the classical genre. The trill is a flurry of hammer-ons and pull-offs with only the first note picked to get things going. You can trill both whole and half steps. In standard notation a trill looks like this (the wavy line was used in times past and is not as relevant now. These days that means vibrato):

This is how you’d interpret it:

To play a trill:

1. Fret the “low note” with your index or middle finger. It would probably be best if you learned to trill on the A string.
2. Pick that note.
3. Hammer-on one or two frets above.
4. Pull-off.
5. Hammer-on
6. Pull-off
7. Etc…

It would sound like this:

Remember that a trill is still shown in notation “tr“. I’m just trying to give you an idea how it is supposed to sound.

This can be played anywhere on the fretboard. Make sure that your pull-offs really pop because that is what keeps the sound going.

This is a great way to exercise you fingers. Carlos Santana uses this technique quite often.