I think we need a viola thread

The reason for this is that I am becoming passionate about Violas: the playing, the instruments, the repertoire, and I want to share/hear all about VIOLA things (although I love violins too and the violinists are welcome here )

So let's hear from the violists please

I'll go first:

In total I've played for about 3 years violin and one year viola (although I had a gap of a year and started again two months ago). I'm planning to join the local orchestra in February and hope to play chamber music in 2011 too. I play duets with my friend as often as we can (mostly sightreading which is brilliant fun!). I'm also going to the Scottish Forum event in Glasgow in April and I'm hoping (hoping hoping) to play a wee bit of Bach

I'm about grade 4/5 (passed grade 3 in June 2009) and am currently playing:

Pleyel, Mozart, assorted Baroque: duets for two violas
Kayser studies
Bach - viola transcriptions of the cello suites
Telemann concerto for viola in G
Some of the Grade 4 and 5 ABRSM pieces
Scales
Daft stuff I make up myself usually to practice things like vibrato and various positions

I am listening to every piece of viola music I can find but my current favourite is the Bruch concerto for Viola and Clarinet (heaven, because I used to play the clarinet) and OF COURSE the Bach suites. There are some fabulous viola concertos out there so I will post more about them later. I am reading the Menuhin book and have ordered the Lionel Tertis book 'My Viola and I'.

My Viola is called Pan (Agapanthus) and is the top range Yita model (made in 2008). I'm currently saving up to buy my dream viola (out there somewhere )




Oh, all right.... you can post your Viola jokes here if you must... I'm big enough to have a laugh

I LOVE this thread lottie!!! I got given my viola in June 2010, and am around grade 5 ish on it, NOT because I am a genius (i wish!!! lol) but because I teach violin, and when I was at school learning violin my teacher was actually a violist who gave me extra lessons on a viola for a year and i fell in love sadly uni etc and lack of funds scuppered my plans of actually learning it properly, so I am so pleased I finally have the chance to try teaching myself a bit... hoping to take grade 5 or 6 on it next year!

I soooo want to hear you play in Glasgow lottie!!! looking forward to it!!

Any tips and hints on how to play better are always appreciated!!

Here's to VIOLAS!!

I'm a pianist/violinist....and secret violist! Recieved my viola last month from lottie Renamed her Rosali (from Twilight )

I am pre-pre-pre-pre-pre grade one

I like my viola, which now has D'adarrio Pro Arte strings on it. I regretably have barely had a chance to touch it this month, along with piano and violin, due to work/xmas/illness etc. And am moving home this weekend so it'll still be sorely neglected

I like this piece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOrUcZBBDo on both viola and violin

I have Gumbo - a 15 inch Gliga Gama viola.
I have to confess that he never gets practised (I still find him a bit too big for comfort) but do play him in a couple of orchestras on a semi-regular basis. I have even played him at forum concerts. I took Grade 5 a couple of years ago but, since I did minimal practice beforehand and none since, I have made no progress since then.

Perhaps this year I will get my act together and play him a bit more regularly...


W

Is your viola really only a 15 inch, willobie. It looked huge to me (bigger than Babybird's, Phantagomoria's - you know who I mean even though I can't spell her username - and Nicia's) and I assumed it was a 17 inch. Or have you changed violas?

I did change but I think that was before I met you - and that was only from a 15.5... Last time I saw you, I was playing a violin...

W

Yes you were playing a violin last time. For some reason I have a distinct memory of you playing a viola that looked huge. A light coloured viola.

Very strange. I can picture you really clearly with it (and where in the room you were standing). Did you try someone else's viola maybe?

Oh I'll be soooo scared - I may chicken-out altogether But I hope not

It's just that I'm still a beginner and still scratchy and sometimes touch the wrong string and sometimes my fourth finger just doesn't hit it properly (my fingers are quite short) although I'm about to try a 'Flesch' chinrest to see if that helps

Dont worry lottie, im sure there will be several other "beginners" there, and i'm equally sure that you will do well, and everyone will enjoy listening to you play!! Please don't chicken out!!

I've been playing viola for about 15 years on and off, and violin for 10 years before that, so I quite like violin too. I play anything I can get my hands on but particularly love the Bach Cello Suites and more recently am getting into the Telemann Fantasias (also for unaccompanied viola, but this time transcribed from the originals for violin). Currently working on some Schumann and Grainger, and loving it.
Yay for violas!

Ooh I had just begun looking at the Telemann Fantasias (easy bits) on violin and loved them... so they have been transcribed for Viola eh??? *off to rake up some pocket-money*

hello, can I join in?

I've been learning the viola for about 18 months ish. Did violin as a child to grade 5, then had a break of eek 21 years, restarted violin and quite quickly switched to viola. At school only the very good violinists got to play the viola...

Am hitting a bit of a hill atm with the whole thing. I've been working on grade 5 pieces for about 4 months now, I'm not sure whether that is a long time but it feels like it. I've changed teachers, which has worked really well, and was what I needed but has also brought home to me that I'm in the middle of a hard slog with viola atm, there are a lot of technique issues that I have that need constant attention, or it feels that way! If I didn't love it I'd be very grumpy by now.

i play viola in a local amateur orchestra and also, on the violin (and sometimes viola) do various folk music things, esp welsh fiddle music which I love.

A viola thread is a very good thing!

I started playing exactly 2 years ago, although I did have about 6 lessons whilst in the 6th form at school, but didn't play again for 20-odd years, so pretty much started from scratch.

I am supposed to be learning the grade 5 scales, and working on some Sevcik exercises but they have sort of tailed off a bit lately. I'm finishing off various bits at the moment - mainly a Corelli sonata - i have a bit of a love affair with baroque music on the viola (never took to it on the piano).

I love Rebecca Clarke's music and have been working at 'I'll Bid My Heart Be Still' on and off for a while. I was thinking about playing it at the adult learner's concert in Teddington, but it tends to fall apart in public - I think I love it too much so playing well becomes really important and the pressure I put myself under means it all goes pear shaped. I think I will play something else I learnt a while ago which I quite like but doesn't mean quite so much to me. If i ever get round to sending in the form that is.

I joined an orchestra in September and managed to get through the first concert just before Christmas without playing loudly in the rests, which was my main concern. A few correct notes may have slipped in too!

I'm also playing in a string quartet, although we don't manage to get together that often. That's what I enjoy the most - solos are just too nerve wracking, but somehow playing with other people works much better for me.

I am looking forward to my birthday in March, when hopefully my mum will buy me the cello suites and other family members will give me money and I can go on a music spending spree. Any suggesions?

Definitely

Tell us more about the technical issues you're having... I've got all sorts of questions about playing so I'm curious. Also please tell us more about folk and 'fiddle' playing on the viola you are doing!



That all sounds really interesting and you'll LOVE the Bach cello suites when you get them. I dream of playing in a string quartet one day If you're looking for music the Telemann Concerto in G is really nice and not too challenging - you should manage it well at Grade 5 I think (I'm not an expert just a beginner ) The Corelli sounds good - I'm a big Baroque fan on any instrument!

Indeed they have. The only one I could find in print was a Viola World publication, and I must admit I think the way it has been printed is not that good. It looks all crammed in and squashed (which makes the pages look black and scary!). Perhaps consider searching for a second hand copy of a different edition? Or you could, of course, memorise the violin ones and then just play them on your viola. All that's been done in the transcription is that they've been taken down a 5th and written in alto clef.

Oh yes, violas are topping, we all know that! Why else would folk make jokes about them but to stop folk from seeing how much better they are than.......!!??

Seriously though:

I wish someone could get me to get around to playing mine again. I never got very far anyway owing to repeated health hassles, but now I can't afford lessons (no, I really mean that) and it's hard to get going with no teacher and no lesson to be ready for. Ooof!

I love that part about only the best violinists being able to change to viola in the school orchestra (near the top of the thread). You too often hear it said that viola was for failed violinists. Now we have a school with the idea straight!!

Do you have favourite recordings? I've been meeting to acquire some viola music for a while - I'm ashamed to say I have NOTHING!! I am all ears for recommendations...


I am so glad you got lottie's viola. I think when lottie wanted to sell it is when my viola fantasies started taking shape (see Upper Strings Beginners thread). But I couldn't imagine how to get it to Costa Rica.


If I cave in and get a viola I'll happily compete with you for "World's Slowest Viola Learner Title" (I'm sure you're not...). But this has to be dead secret. If my oboe teacher finds out I'm dead!

I'm afraid I require documented evidence before I'd believe that anyone could be slower!! I started almost 4 years ago and am still pre-Grade 1 standard. I got to not far off being ready to prepare for the G1 exam, but it would have been more challenging than I was really up to and since then, (over 18 months ago), I've been unable to play (not having a viola whilst living in East Asia didn't help) and am more or less back to square 1!

Ok... posture problems. Has anybody experienced any neck or shoulder problems or have any suggestions?

I don't play a big viola (15.5") but I am having more migraines than usual and have had a neuralgia pain up the left hand side of my face and neck over the last couple of weeks too (I've played every day of the holidays).

I have a displaced vertebrae in my neck from an accident 17 years ago so it may be causing problems - I'm going to see a bone cruncher about it soon. I can't imagine not playing the viola now - it would break my heart!!

I don't mind pain actually (I'm used to it because that vertebrae regularly presses on a nerve ) but I don't want to do any long term damage... mind you I pretty much have the long term damage already but nerve pain doesn't kill you so I can put up with it so maybe I should just stop moaning and get on with it!!!

And do string players get arthritis in their left hands???

Hi Lottie. Sorry to hear of your problems. There are lots of us who have had various neck/shoulder problems, but my opinion is that your problem needs the attention of an expert (and I am no expert!). When you see the bone cruncher, presumably you will find out whether there is something physiological that is causing your increased migraines and neuralgia. If there is, and they can correct it, all well and good. It could also be that it is something that you are doing, perhaps in response to the discomfort, that is making it worse. Have you seen an Alexander practitioner? If not, it may be worth investigating this, but make sure the bone cruncher knows about it and vice versa. Good luck with that, I hope that things improve for you.

As to arthritis in the left hand, I have not heard of string players getting more arthritic than the general populace. In fact, with the onset of age-related arthritis, playing a string instrument (or presumably others such as woodwind or piano) might help preserve finger dexterity for longer.

Loving your signature by the way. I'm glad I got to my user name before you did!!

I am a fellow viola player as well. I love the instrument- the deep rich sounds it produces. I stopped playing for 10 years but not because it was my intention to do so but because life took over after leaving university. I returned to it 3 years ago and decided that I should finish off getting my grades. I stopped playing when I got to grade 6. Anyway, I started with a new teacher in 2009 and she skipped me grade 6 and we started to learn grade 7 instead which I went on to pass last June with a solid of pass of 115.

I was having lessons until October but unfortunately my dad got seriously ill (still is as he is intensive care) and hadn't had a lesson since. Anyway, I've decided that I can't return to orchestra at the moment but will do so once he recovers but I'm going back to my lessons and hopefully start in the next week or so. So, I'm currently practicing
- Bach's prelude- Suite No 3 (which I find a chore- I know it's popular but I'm not keen on it)
- Glazunov's Elegie (which I adore)
- Vaughn Williams' Christmas Dance (which I love)

I've still been playing in the time since October as I couldn't go that long without picking up my ole' flowerpot (my viola's name)
I would recommend to my fellow violists Rebecca Clarke's Passacagalia on an Old English Tune and Morpheus or even better get a collection of her music. They are simply lovely to play.

yay! viola awesomeness time!
I started viola exactly 1 year ago after having been learning classical guitar for two years. I'd always wanted to play a bowed string instrument and decided to go for the ever awesome viola as a fellow A level music student played it and I thought it was awesome and get to learn a whole new lovely clef! I'm about grade 3 ish standard and just starting Suzuki book 4 (which has Telemann's viola concerto in G at the back - way excited for that! ) and I'm about to buy my first viola sooon!!! I currently have a rented one from the local music service and I'm getting a bit fed up of it... also with the fact it's 14". it also has a lovely greasy violin bow Though I have to say as the instrument I started to learn how to play on I'm going to miss 'BHC 1094' a flittle bit!

I am becoming another viola crossover! I asked my teacher about playing it at my last lesson and had some very positive vibes! The clef bothers me but I had to learn to use the treble one when I began lessons on the fiddle so I can do it again I think. Now, to think about getting an instrument.

For all the new viola people - I know we're not supposed to really do this on here but I may be selling my 'intermediate' viola in the next couple of months when I can track down an upgrade. I'll let you all know how I get on - I'm going to try out violas in Edinburgh next month (very, very, very, excited!!! )

Lol if you do that I might sell on the one I just got from you and get your intermediate one LOL

Yesterday I practiced for 45 minutes which is quite good for me (I try to fit in 30mins). It was quite intense playing too and by the last fifteen minutes or so there was a change in my playing

I struggle with intonation for my fourth finger - I have to do a little 'jump' to land the note properly and of course very often I miss.. or if I hit it going back down my hand is in the wrong place (almost a 'half' position) so I have to thoroughly concentrate if there is anything with a 'fourth finger' in it.

Of course everything has fourth finger (thanks Mr Keyser ) but yesterday it suddenly started to fall into place and for about 10 minutes my intonation was spot-on with my little 'jump' quite smooth.

Without a teacher I'm not sure if this is the right thing to be doing but it felt like a little step forward ??? Mr Keyser would like me to hold down my first finger while doing this but that just makes me laugh at how impossible that would be!!!!

Should really get the viola out

Ahh I'm so jealous reading this thread!! I played viola when I was five or six for about six months, but I was a freakishly small child and even the very smallest viola we could find was huge for me and it hurt to play so I had to give up! If I ever get decently proficient on the violin, viola is definitely what I'll want to learn to play next it's so pretty!

Yay. Go on, you know you want to.

Do it! Do it!

Well after a few days reflection, I have decided now is not the time for me to start viola I do not have near enough time between work and piano and violin, even just for fun stuff lol. So I'll be putting the viola away for a year or two until I can give it the time it deserves

I had such a great lesson today - mainly because I forgot my music!

Did some work on A maj and A min scales and looked at fingering for the C maj 3 octaves (aargh). Also did a vibrato exercise.

And then - sight read some duets with my teacher. Bach 2-part inventions and this amazing Telemann sonata thing where there is only one line of music and the second viola plays the same line but starts a bar later. It was so gorgeous. Anyone know what I mean? And does anyone live near enough to me to play it with me - I will practise it first, promise (had a tendancy to fall apart as soon as more than 1 ledger line appeared today)

It was so much fun I have been grinning ever since.

Wonder how often I can forget my music?

Also found out that for the summer concert my teacher has an early music piece for 8 violas - and I can be one of them.

Do you mean the Telemann Canonic Sonatas?

I have these in flute and recorder editions - although I've played the flute edition on the violin.

If you have them, why not bring them along to Egham for some jamming in the morning?

I've just put the Flesch chinrest on my viola

Although it looks black in the photo it is rosewood to match my tailpiece. It certainly is more comfortable and it was fractionally easier to reach with my fourth finger but I had to adjust my shoulder rest too so I guess I might still have to fiddle with positions (pardon the pun ) because my shoulder is still fatigued.

Yes, that's the one. I don't have it (at the moment!) I struggled to sight read bits of it but reckon I could get from start to finish with a bit of practice. If I find a copy within the next week or so I may bring them!

It's out of the case, but I can't find my shoulder rest

Oops. If you can't find it then either a sponge or some thick socks (or something similar) plus a big elastic band or some string should do the trick for making a temporary shoulder rest.

I have borrowed a spare viola! Now, what was that about alto clef and F A C E G? I must remember that I don't have an E string now too! O dear! My brain is starting to ache.

Hi Claudia!

I see we're in a similar position viola-wise, only I know where my shoulder rest is (on the music stand)!!

We need our teacher again - Come back E, all is forgiven!!!

I went to the local orchestra last night and for the first time I sat in the viola section!!

There are four of us and I sit at the back. We all play the same part. I could really only play a few notes to start with ..... and two hours later I could still only play a few notes!!! They just went soooo fast!! They have plenty violins and four violas is quite healthy - they're short of cellos, brass and double bass though. (The clarinet made me wince though and if I am hugely honest I would probably be of more use to them there but I'm keeping quiet about that )

A couple of times I did manage to play a few thing though but one of the pieces went into FIVE FLATS!!!! And another was in FOUR SHARPS and I kept forgetting the Dsharp I spent a lot of time miming

Still, I'm going back next week and the people were LOVELY!!! SOOOO friendly - it was just wonderful to be welcomed so much

One person who spent a lot of time with me was the local violin/viola teacher and he was showing me how to get round my fourth finger problem by playing in 2nd or 3rd position all the time. He says he hardly ever plays the viola in first position but I get confused easily so I'm not sure if I'll manage that. He's not a big man and plays a 16 1/4. He looked and me and my viola and does think it's too big for me That's okay really because I was planning to aim for a slightly smaller one when I upgrade. We'll see. But at least I could tell hubby I NEED my upgrade because the professionals are telling me so I need a narrower neck too.

What a lovely evening

Sounds like a great experience, Lottie, good to hear you've made it 'back' to orchestra.

Sounds like you had a great time lottie Glad it went so well for you

Good news and bad news

I'm going to Edinburgh in a few weeks time so I will have the opportunity to try out new violas!! The bad news is that hubby said last night that I was not to buy one just now even though he knows my current one is too big for me.

What if I find 'The One'????? Would I be able to walk away!!!!


He won't be in the shop with me but my credit card will be....

Don't even think about it, hun! Domestic peace is too valuable. If you think you won't be able to walk away from the 'perfect' instrument, it's better to not even walk up to it.....

Sorry to change the subject, but I wondered if anybody would be interested in attenting a viola masterclass at Trinity college? It's on Mon 14th Feb at 10am in the Peacock room at Trinity college in Greenwich, with Roger Chase. Don't know anymore about it than that, but I'm keen to go - hopefully if I leave the car at my daughter's school and walk to the bus stop I should get there on time.

Might I see anyone else there?

Very tempted, but I don't think I can justify upwards of ?60 to get to London

Wow! I would LOVE to go!! But there's the small matter of 500+ miles What a pity they couldn't film it and run it from the Trinity website.