# Tremolo (Italian, "trembling")

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/tremolo

**Tremolo is the rapid repetition of a single note, played on strings with fast, short bow strokes near the tip, and notated with slashes through the note stem.**

Unmeasured tremolo, three slashes and no specified speed, asks for the fastest even repetition the player can produce, and is the standard orchestral device for tension and shimmer. Measured tremolo specifies an exact subdivision and is counted precisely.

It is distinct from a trill, which alternates between two different pitches. Fingered tremolo, confusingly, does alternate two pitches, but rapidly and under a slur, and is notated with the slashes joining two noteheads. Combining tremolo with sul ponticello produces the most recognisable "suspense" texture in the orchestral vocabulary.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/tremolo