Editing Tremolo (section)

=== 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]]| 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.