View source for Tremolo

{{Short description|Trembling sound effect}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Tremelo|Vibrato}}
[[File:Tremolo notation.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Tremolo notation (denoting rapid repetition) {{listen|plain=yes|filename=Tremolo notation.mid|title=Play (repetition)|filename2=Tremolo notation regular.mid|title2=Play (variation in volume)}}]]
In music, '''''tremolo''''' ({{IPA|it|ˈtrɛːmolo}}), or '''''tremolando''''' ({{IPA|it|tremoˈlando|}}), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo. It is either the rapid repetition of a note, alternation between two different notes, or variation in volume.

Tremolos may be either ''measured'', in which the exact rate of repetition or oscillation is specified, or ''unmeasured'', in which it is not (the understanding being in that case that it should be performed as rapidly as possible).

== Types of tremolo ==

=== Rapid reiteration or oscillation ===
The rapid reiteration of a single [[Musical note|note]] is a characteristic effect of [[String instrument#Bowing|bowed string instruments]], obtained by rapidly moving the bow back and forth. However, the technique may be performed on any instrument on which it is practicable. (Indeed, a slow measured tremolo is simply a shorthand notation for an ordinary repetition of notes; thus, tremolo notation may appear in written music for any instrument.)

The notation for this effect consists of one or more strokes drawn through the stem of a note (or, if the note lacks a stem, through the position that a hypothetical stem would occupy); the strokes correspond to the beams that would connect the individual repeated notes if they were to be written out, thereby representing the rate of repetition (the speed of the tremolo).

[[File:Page 15 Ex.4 (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians-Volume 1).png|thumb|upright=2|Tremolo examples (repeated notes)]]

Some special cases are worth noting:
* On plucked strings such as on a [[harp]], the word ''[[wikt:bisbigliando|bisbigliando]]'' ({{IPA|it|bizbiʎˈʎando}}) or "whispering" is used. [[Tremolo picking]], on traditionally plucked string instruments including guitar and mandolin, is the rapid articulation of single notes or a group of notes with a [[plectrum]] (pick) or with fingers. Tremolo playing sustains notes that would otherwise rapidly decay (fade to silence).<ref name="Examples of Tremolo on Acoustic Guitar">{{cite web|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd3NAh7klSY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Fd3NAh7klSY| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live| title=Examples of Tremolo on Acoustic Guitar |work=[[Kapil Srivastava]]|date=August 9, 2020 | via= YouTube| access-date= August 12, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mandolincafe.com/glossary/glossary_32.shtml |title= Mandolin Glossary: Tremolo |website=Mandolin Cafe| access-date=March 28, 2022}}</ref>
* The technique of [[flutter-tonguing]] on [[wind instruments]] is analogous to an unmeasured tremolo on strings, and notated similarly.
* The [[drum roll|roll]] on [[percussion instruments]] is one of the most familiar examples. On unpitched instruments, as well as [[timpani]], it may be notated as either a tremolo or a [[trill (music)|trill]] — a fact suggestive of the close relationship between tremolos and trills (see below).

A rapid alternation between two different pitches is another type of tremolo. On bowed string instruments, this is referred to as a ''fingered tremolo'' to distinguish it from the ''bowed tremolo'' discussed above; but once again it may be performed on any instrument. It is notated by writing the pitches to be alternated as a [[melodic interval]], with both notes receiving the rhythmic value of the total duration of the tremolo (e.g. two half-notes for a tremolo lasting a [[half-note]]), and then either connecting them with beams, or else interpolating strokes, with the number of beams or strokes corresponding to the speed of the tremolo (e.g. a tremolo in [[thirty-second notes]] lasting a half-note would be written either as two open noteheads connected by three beams, or as two half-notes with three strokes interpolated).

:[[File:Tremolo notation two notes.svg|thumb|upright=2|Tremolo examples (alternating notes)]]

This type of tremolo includes the [[trill (music)|trill]] as a special case: a trill is simply an unmeasured tremolo between two notes separated by the interval of a [[major second|major]] or [[minor second]] (whole- or half step). Thus, a tremolo in this sense is a generalization of a trill to any interval, and to include measured durations.

=== Amplitude variation ===
[[File:Fuse Electronics Tremolo MK-III Quick Demo.ogg|thumb|Video of a tremolo [[Effects unit|effect pedal]], producing a cycling variation of volume, played with an [[electric guitar]]]]A separate type of tremolo is a variation in [[amplitude]]:
* As produced on organs by [[tremulant]]s
* Using electronic effects in guitar amplifiers and effects pedals which rapidly turn the volume of a signal up and down, creating a "shuddering" effect
* An imitation of the same by strings in which pulsations are taken in the same bow direction
* A [[vocal technique]] involving a wide or slow [[vibrato]], not to be confused with the [[Trill (music)#Trillo|trillo]] or "Monteverdi trill"
Tremolo is sometimes used interchangeably with vibrato. However, a tremolo is a variation of volume (or amplitude); as contrasted with [[vibrato]], which is a variation of pitch (or frequency).
[[File:Fender Pro Amp brownface (1960s, pre-CBS) front panel - mid.jpg|thumb|"Vibrato" channel on a 1960s [[Fender (company)|Fender]] Pro Amp Brownface [[Guitar amplifier|electric guitar amp]]. The effect produced is actually a tremolo.]]
Some [[electric guitar]]s (in particular the [[Fender Stratocaster]]) use a lever branded a "tremolo arm"<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=Dave |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVP0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA221 |title=The Fender Stratocaster: The Life and Times of the World's Greatest Guitar and Its Players |date=2013-11-16 |publisher=Quarto Publishing Group USA |isbn=978-1-61058-878-2 |pages=221 |language=en}}</ref> or "[[whammy bar]]" that allows a performer to lower or (usually, to some extent) raise the pitch of a note or chord, an effect properly termed [[vibrato]] or "pitch bend". This non-standard misuse of the term "tremolo" refers to pitch rather than amplitude.<ref name=":0" /> However, the term "trem" or "tremolo" is still misused to refer to a [[Bridge (instrument)|bridge system]] built for a whammy bar, or the bar itself. True tremolo for an electric guitar, [[electronic organ]], or any electronic signal would normally be produced by a simple [[amplitude modulation]] [[electronic circuit]], or in terms of [[analog synthesis]], a [[Variable-gain_amplifier|VCA]] under control of an [[Low-frequency_oscillator|LFO]]. Electronic tremolo effects were available on many early [[guitar amplifier]]s. [[Fender (company)|Fender]] labeled them Vibrato, adding to the confusion between the two terms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Teagle |first1= John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kO8y6J6Is_4C&pg=PA225 |title=Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years |last2=Sprung |first2= John |date=1995 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=978-0-7935-3733-4 |pages=225 |language=en}}</ref> Tremolo effects pedals are also widely used to achieve this effect.

Most settings on a tremolo effects pedal include depth of the tremolo (sometimes called intensity) and speed of the tremolo. Some models allow to choose the shape of the waveform ([[sine wave]], [[triangle wave]], [[Square wave (waveform)|square wave]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=Dave |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sM5azHTPaQ4C&pg=PT311 |title=The Rough Guide to Guitar |date=2011-02-01 |publisher=Rough Guides UK |isbn=978-1-4053-8873-3 |pages=311 |language=en}}</ref>

==History==
Although it had already been employed as early as 1617 by [[Biagio Marini]] and again in 1621 by [[Giovanni Battista Riccio]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| authorlink= David Fallows| first= David |last= Fallows |title= Tremolo (i)| encyclopedia= [[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]| year= 2010| edition= 2nd |isbn= 9781561592395}}</ref> the bowed tremolo was invented in 1624 by the early 17th-century composer [[Claudio Monteverdi]],<ref>{{cite book| authorlink1= Piero Weiss| first1= Piero| last1= Weiss| authorlink2= Richard Taruskin |first2= Richard| last2= Taruskin| year= 1984| title= Music in the Western World: A History in Documents| page= 146 | publisher= Schirmer Books|isbn= 0-02-872900-5}}</ref><ref name= Forsyth-1982>{{Cite book |last=Forsyth |first=Cecil |author-link=Cecil Forsyth |year=1982 |orig-year=1935 |title=Orchestration |location=New York |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn= 0-486-24383-4 |oclc=757100643|others=new foreword by [[William Bolcom]]}}</ref>{{rp|348}} and, written as repeated semiquavers ([[sixteenth note]]s), used for the ''[[stile concitato]]'' effects in ''[[Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda]]''. The ''measured tremolo'', presumably played with rhythmic regularity, was invented to add dramatic intensity to string accompaniment and contrast with regular [[tenuto]] strokes.<ref name= Forsyth-1982 />{{rp|348}} However, it was not till the time of Gluck that the real tremolo{{Clarify|date=May 2015}}<!-- Several different kinds of tremolo are described in this article, but no one of them is defined as more "real" than any other. Which is meant here? --> became an accepted method of tone production.<ref name= Forsyth-1982 />{{rp|349}} Four other types of historical tremolos include the obsolete ''undulating tremolo'', the ''bowed tremolo'', the ''fingered tremolo'' (or slurred tremolo), and the ''bowed-and-fingered tremolo''.<ref name= Forsyth-1982 />{{rp|350}}

The undulating tremolo was produced through the fingers of the right hand alternately exerting and relaxing pressure upon the bow to create a "very uncertain–undulating effect ... But it must be said that, unless violinists have wholly lost the art of this particular stroke, the result is disappointing and futile in the extreme," though it has been suggested that rather than as a legato stroke it was done as a series of ''jetés''.<ref name= Forsyth-1982 />{{rp|348}}

There is some speculation that tremolo was employed in medieval Welsh harp music, as indicated in the transcription by [[Robert ap Huw]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whittaker|first1=Paul| chapter= An Interpretation and Re-examination of the Music and Text|chapter-url= https://www.bangor.ac.uk/music/CAWMS/documents/Chapter3.pdf| via= bangor.ac.uk| title= Music of the Robert ap Huw Manuscript| publisher= British Museum, Additional MS 14905| access-date=25 March 2017}}</ref>

==Notation==
In [[musical notation]], unmeasured tremolo is usually notated as regular repeated notes (measured tremolo) of very short duration: so short as to preclude confusion with an actual measured tremolo. Commonly, for example, the duration used will be demisemiquavers ([[thirty-second note]]s). In this case, there will be three strokes through the stems of the notes, except on notes which already have beams or flags: quavers ([[eighth note]]s) then take two slashes, and semiquavers ([[sixteenth note]]s) take one.
:[[File:Tremolo notation.svg]]
In the case of semibreves ([[whole note]]s), which lack stems, the strokes or slashes are drawn above or below the note, where the stem would be if there were one.

In slower [[Tempo (music)|tempos]] (and/or [[Meter (music)|meters]] with larger denominators), notes of shorter duration (corresponding to additional strokes) would be used. To eliminate ambiguity as to whether an unmeasured tremolo or regular repeated demisemiquavers ([[thirty-second note]]s) should be played, the word ''tremolo'' or the abbreviation ''trem.'', is sometimes added.

If the tremolo is between two or more notes, both notes are given the full value of the passage and the bars are drawn between them:
:[[File:Tremolo notation two notes.svg]]
As shown above, a minim ([[half note]])-based tremolo is sometimes drawn with beams connecting the two notes together rather than interpolated bars (strokes).

===Bowed string instruments===
Violin fingered tremolo; notice the joining of strokes and stems is different for different time values, and that some notes shorter than eighth notes are written out, such as the last thirty-second notes on the last beat of [[bar (music)|measure]] three:
: [[File:Fingered-tremolo.png|thumb|none|upright=3|Fingered tremolo notation<ref name= Forsyth-1982 />{{rp|358}}]]
Violin bowed-and-fingered tremolo, notated the same as fingered tremolo but without slurs and with ''staccato'' above the staff:
: [[File:Bowed-and-fingered-tremolo.png|thumb|none|upright=3|Bowed-and-fingered tremolo notation<ref name= Forsyth-1982 />{{rp|362}}]]

==See also==
* [[Arpeggio]], a chord played one note after the other
* [[Flexatone]]
* [[Leslie speaker]], a rotating speaker horn producing a tremolo and vibrato effect
* [[Drum roll]]s are the percussive equivalent of tremolo

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|last=Adler|first=Samuel|author-link=Samuel Adler (composer)|year=2016|title=The Study of Orchestration|publisher= W. W. Norton|edition=4th|isbn=978-0-393-60052-0|ref=none}}

{{Musical notation}}
{{Musical note values}}
{{Violin family}}
{{Authority control}}

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