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I like to think of lip trills as balancing on a tightrope. That is, I don't think of rapidly alternating between 2 pitches, but of actually playing a pitch somewhere between the two and balancing between the high and low sides of that in-between pitch. So if you're trilling between 3rd space C and D, you'd actually be buzzing your lips at about a C# and oscillating the pitch between C and D. This probably doesn't take as much effort as you think.

When I do it right it feels like I'm using mainly my airstream rather than my embouchure, and the trill just floats out effortlessly.

I don't know if I can really help you unless I hear you trill, but have you tried working on lip trills on lower harmonics? You mentioned that you could trill on a 1st line F. That's a relatively high harmonic to be able to trill on for someone who has lip trill problems- most people who need work on lip trills can usually trill on 3rd space C or thereabouts, so it sounds like working on lip trills on lower harmonics could help. I know that for me personally, working on trills on lower harmonics has really helped me figure out exactly what I'm doing when I lip trill and is a less strenuous way to work on them. It helps accentuate that "balancing on the tightrope" feeling.

To be able to lip trill fluently on lower harmonics is more difficult than on upper harmonics, and also helps when you do happen to find low lip trills, like in the 1st Mozart Concerto. For me, trills on the usual higher harmonics become much better after working on the lower harmonics.

Try starting on 2nd line G and work your way downwards. The harmonics as you get lower gradually get wider apart, so the pitches listed are approximate.

The fingerings are in parentheses: G-A (F12), F# -G#(F23), F-G(F13), E-F# (F123), E-G (F0), Eb-Gb (F2), D-F(F1), and so on downwards as far as you want to go. I hope this helps you. Keep at it- most of us have felt your pain!

For lip trills, I have an excercise which, like most of my excercises and philosophies, is inflammatory to several people, and embraced by several.

This excercise begins by playing a C above middle C, the third space C in the treble clef staff. Just play it. Get the feel for it, just enjoy the sound. Rest for a few seconds. Then, ply that C again, and lip it up very slowly, until you can find the point where it wants to become a D. Stick around here, get the feel for that point, and then slowly let it metamorphose into a D. With a bit of patience, it will be a flat D, almost a C#, almost the same pitch you left, but on a different partial. Go back down to the C. Rest again. PLay the C again, this time take it down slowly, until you find the other extreme of the partial, and again let it slowly become a Bb, this time a little sharp. Go back up to C. Everything up until this point shoud be done slowly and methodicaly, getting the feel for the extend of the partial. Do this with a few other partials in the neighborhood, or outside the neighborhood. Don't rush it. After this experiment, play the C again, then go up and down on it, not to the next partial, but just to a point near the edge in both directions, and slowly center in on the C, until you are certain that you are in the "Center." I have found that the pitch seems a little low at this point, and usually push in my slide to compensate. Do this for several notes. Now, the moment of truth. With a C, lip it up slowly until it breaks into a D, then take the D to the center, lip it down until it becomes a C, then center the C. Repeat slowly. Perform on several notes.

The purpose of the previous excercise is to understand the distances between the partials, and to explore regions which we traditionally avoid for being "uncentered." This also gives us a better understanding of the center of the note.

The next step, after gaining fluence across the range of a note: Perform the prior excercise, but now keep the color of the note constant throughout its range. This will demonstrate how to move the center of the note to a different location, so that should you ever need to play in a different center, such as with a clarinet or flute, or violin, or piano, you can, and without adjusting the slides mid-performance, yet still keep a centered sound.

Next, just do it faster, slowly and patiently.

After you feel comfortale moving between the partials, i.e., you can do it when you want without too much worry, begin hanging out in the spot right in between the two partials. Get to know the territory, because it is treacherous ground at first. However, once you know the lay of the land, it is just like being in the center. Now, wiggle a little bit on either side of the partial. Keep the sound as if it were centered. You should have about a quarter-tone trill, possibly slowly. Do this on several notes.

Now, after all of that hard work, the fun begins, because the foundations have been laid for a trill, and now you can watch it become an edifice. Begin with a quarter-tone warble, and imagine moving the landing point on each side of the break further and further out. Go slowly, because you have lots of time. Keep the break firmly in mind at all times. Keep the air aimed at the break. Keep moving the landing point further and further away from it. When the landing points are at the centers of the pitches, you have a trill, from center to center, at whatever speed you would like.

To maintain the trill once it has been established: Begin on the C, slowly move up it until it is a D, then back down at piano, slowly speed up the transition while loudening, at the peak speed (you'll know it when you see it), begin softening and slowing the trill. Go down one half-step, and repeat. Go up one half-step from C, and repeat. Continue outward chromatically from C until tired (not exhausted, you need to be able to play for the day, still). Here are my tril fingerings:

• E-F# (First line E): 123
• F-G: 13
• F#-G#: 23
• G-A: 12
• G#-A#: 23
• ...
• C-D: 0
• C#-D#: T23
• D-E: T12
• ...
• F-G: T0
• F#-G#: T2
• G-A: T0
• G#-A#: T2, T23
• A-B: T12
• Bb-C: T1
• B-C#: T2
• C-D: doesn't really matter beyond this point

In closing:

The pitch changes should be accomplished by changing the direction of the airstream. Using the lip to accomplish this will result in an inability to move smoothly from one partial to the next. This is a good breath support excercise, as well. Should the air stop at any point, stop everything else as well, then start again from where you left off. The trill should happen around the air column, rather than happen because of it. It is more difficult to center the notes on either side of the trill while trying to find the air, which has mysteriously moved from where you though you had left it. As long as the air moves, the horn will obey. Pretty standard for any technique.

One possible way to make learning lip trills easier is to employ what I call a half valve/half lip trill. You do this by coordinating you lip to move with your fingers. I'll try to explain.

Try this experiment--play a third-space C [horn pitch] on the open Bb horn [thumb valve], and hold that. Press the second valve [still on the Bb horn] to slowly slur up to a 4th line D, and hold it [it may be a bit flat, but don't worry about that for now]. Slur back down to the C--up to D--back down to C. Notice as you slowly slur using the valve, you lip moves when your finger presses or releases the valve. Slur up and down from C to D very slowly just making mental note of what your lip and finger are doing; and then, slowly begin to pick up the speed. You will not instantly be able to play a fast trill, but you will in time. Coordination is at the heart of a valved trill. To develop this coordination in the beginning, play the trill very slowly and allow your mind to be conscious of when your lip and finger move.

There are some who might suggest that doing a valved trill is somehow cheating or not authentic--that we must use lip trills in Mozart horn concertos, for example, in order to be "correct." But if we can play Mozart horn concertos on modern valved horns when they were all written for valveless instruments, then it is musically correct to play the trills using the valves as well. Valved trills are more measured, controlled, and secure. Besides, one cannot play a valve trill without being able to lip trill in the first place. However, learning to lip trill using the valves assists some players who find learning lip trills especially difficult.

Let me try to explain my method for teaching trills. There a couple of different processes I use, and I'll try to briefly touch on them.

Try this: beginning with sixteenths (or eighth triplets), slur on the F horn sarting on second line g to A using the 1-3 valves. Do two measures of 4/4, end with a whole, then breathe. Proceed chromatically upward to the C-D slur, switch to the B horn and continue to the F-G (or F#-G#, or G-A).

I use a metronome for this, and the procedure is very time consuming, very tedious, but very systematic and disciplined. Try it for a while and I think you'll get good results: At whatever rhythm value you choose, choose a comfortable speed on the metronome. Better on the slow side. Move through the markings going up five speeds, then back three. If you work this out on paper, you'll see that soon you will be doing each marking on the metronome three times, once when its the fastest, once in the middle of the range, and once when its at the slowest. (If this sounds strange, write it out; you'll see)

At some point change the rhythm value without changing the speed of the note. In other words, make the speed of the eighth in the triplet, the speed of a series of sixteenths. This requires some math skill, but I think you get the idea. Naturally, the metronome speed will be slower. Proceed throught the metronome as outlined above. The next notes would be sixteenth triplets, then thirty-seconds, etc.

As I said, time consuming, but worth the effort.

Another method is to do the slurs described in the first paragraph form the high note to the low note. These slurs feel very different than sluuring up and really help.

Finally, I firmly believe that the key to slurs in general and the trill is that we are so concerned about the upper note, we ignore the lower note. By firmly 'resetting' the lower note each time, or 'filling it up' with air, or whateve language appeals to you, your slurs and eventually your trill will vastly improve. To emphasize this comment, how often does the trill start well, then successive slurs don't seem to want to move. Try this 'resetting' business, starting slowly.