Viola Clef for Violinist

September 10, 2009 at 03:10 AM ·

 when I started, I read it as though reading violin in 3rd position.  That works temporarily, while mentally transitioning.

September 10, 2009 at 03:49 AM ·

When I switched over from violin to viola it took about a year to be totally comfortable with the reading, and at the end of that year I did a concert playing Beethoven String Trio etc. Committing to a concert drove it along, but I just started with a reference such as; this A here is first finger on the G string in first position, and so on for each string. It doesn't take long and I suspect it will only slow you down to keep thinking about referencing it to the violin. Just do lots of playing in first position at the start to establish the connection.

September 10, 2009 at 08:14 PM ·

  yeah.  I am learning to read alto clef, because i want to start viola. Having a lot of trouble with it myself!!!   sorry, no help here!     =)

September 10, 2009 at 08:22 PM ·

The way I did it and still does, is I marked all the Open Strings.  That way I know which finger and the corresponding notes to put on the fingerboard. That makes it way easy for me. The marked open string will be your guide. Confusion is much way less.

Hope it helps!

September 10, 2009 at 08:27 PM ·

Similar to Elinor, I memorized the open strings and work from there.  Why always have to relate it to violin?  Relate it to itself and learn what the notes really are.  I do understand the "thirds" method, I just found it more confusing in the long run.  But maybe that's just me  :)

September 11, 2009 at 01:15 AM ·

I'm a violinist learning the viola and alto clef is still a challenge - if I lose concentration, I revert to treble clef and play the wrong note.

What helped me was marking the first note of every measure (and sometimes all the notes in a measure if the notes jump around).  It isn't necessary now, 2 months in, but it did help me get started.  Marking the open strings helps too.

For practice with reading alto clef, scales, and other musical skills, this website has some good on-line drills.
www.emusictheory.com/practice.html

C-Clef Note Names - Press the settings button to select alto clef or other C clef.
www.emusictheory.com/practice/cNoteNames.html

Viola Fingerings - Useful for 1st position fingerings and note ID.
www.emusictheory.com/practice/violaNotes.html

Good Luck!

September 11, 2009 at 02:17 PM ·

If you have not already done so, I suspect all of you might benefit from working straight through one or more series of books intended for school students such as Essential Elements, All for Strings, Artistry, etc. Not only will this build up your alto-clef reading skills, but doing the simple & repetitive exercises will help you be more conscious of the subtle differences in how the bow works & feels on a viola. Just because you can jump in & play stuff close to your level of violin playing doesn't mean that's the best course in the long run. Sue

September 11, 2009 at 02:36 PM ·

It's been over 35 years since I first acquired and played a viola. In the intervening years I have probably not played it as much as 100 hours - and that includes 7 or 8 performances. And I hae not played it for a year. If you are familiar with the Suzuki violin books, a good starting place is the Suzuki viola books. With many of the same musical pieces, you will fall naturally into playing and reading from the viola book. Start with the viola book that looks as though it is advanced enough to work you a bit, and then buy the whole series of viola books above that and practice reading as much as you can at any one time.

I agree with the observation to start by reading alto clef in 1st position like violin in 3rd position and viola in 3rd position like violin in first position -but one string over. I found that after a short time the transition to alto clef became quite natural BUT it was the "autonomous" adjustment of myh fingers to the sharps and flats that never kicked in to my mind - I guess I was too old when I first tried. I have tended to find that even when I'm doing fine playing viola, my mind wants to slip into violin mode after about an hour.

Most of the violists I know were (and are) violinists first.

My best advice is that if you are young (under 30), really work that viola every chance you get until you really learn to read music on it. It is  much easier to imprint your brain with these things if you are younger.  Violists can always find a place to play with other people - even where there is a big excess of violin and cello players.

Good luck

Andy

October 29, 2009 at 08:45 PM ·

I learned the clef using home-made flashcards at first, and then started visualizing imaginary flashcards and thinking about the letter name for the note or the string and finger position when waiting for stuff throughout the day.

I have found that in practice I read relative pitches most of the time though perhaps that's because I have a piano background.  It's not something I cultivated, it just happened.  A benefit of this is that clefs don't matter as much.

Also, if you have a piano background, it works well to imagine the center of the staff being the center of a grandstaff.

Finally, I found it helpful to practice reading alto clefs on other instruments to mentally separate out the mental task of learning a new instrument from learning a new clef.  Many passages in viola literature can be played on a violin, for example.

January 11, 2010 at 07:24 PM ·

Hi All,

Have you tried this one.  Bearing in mind that the middle stave is Middle-C on the piano  we have Treble above the line and the first bass octave below the line for those who can read treble and bass!

If you own the music you can draw a black Biro line over the second and fourth stave's counting up the five stave's from the bottom.  They already read 'A' in the bass octave and 'E' in the Treble above.  Bearing in mind music originally was written over eleven lines not five and you still have it in piano music with Middle-C stave being the sixth through the note without the rest of the stave being printed.

So the top three stave's of Alto-clef are the bottom three stave's of Treble and the bottom three stave's of Alto-clef are the top three lines of Bass Clef.  I am confused but it works on the five stave's of music called Alto-clef!  (Provided you count Middle stave twice if you are wondering at the arithmetic here!).

Yours,

Colin.

PS. Some of my friends and enemies would deny that I speak and write English too but they are like that!

January 11, 2010 at 08:43 PM ·

This guy did it.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTVKXpvZ960

Enjoy! 

January 12, 2010 at 05:50 AM ·

 I had to make this transition about 8 years ago, and it was rough going at first. I was playing viola in a string quartet instead of violin, so I had to read a wide variety of literature, even though I'd never read viola clef at all. My first alto clef reading . . . . Debussy string quartet. Ouch.

 
The trick is internalizing the different clefs, and the notes/finger positions. You already know how to read music, so you don't need to redo the entire process from scratch. 

Here are a few suggestions to try and read alto clef a LOT better in a short period of time :

1) don't try to think about "transposing". it's one additional step that probably isn't necessary, and you'll be basing your reading on transposition for a long time.

2) open strings are your friends. the spaces above them are 2nd and 4th finger, the lines are first and third. If you can internalize this, then it makes it a lot easier, and though it seems silly, this is a fairly common mistake when learning to read music.

3) try to play the intervals on the paper. We recognize the distance between 3rds, 4ths, 5ths,6ths, 7ths, and octaves pretty easily in visual terms. does it matter whether the lines match up to the notes you're used to playing? 

4) Play the major scales that start on each open string. It will help more than you realize.

5) Play the arpeggios for the scales (the flesch viola transcription is good for this), this will help you recognize common accompaniment patterns that we will spend a lot of time playing.

6) Get the bach cello suites, and read the ones we can play in the correct intonation from start to finish (you can leave out number 6 here, some editions do that already). This will also help with patterns and scales. In addition to starting to learn some of the standard repertoire, you will recognize most of this, and ***the ear will help the eye learn.*** I can't stress enough how much a reading from start to finish can help. Break it up, do a movement or two each time you pick up the instrument. Most of it stays in the lower positions, and skip the higher stuff anytime you want. It may seem daunting, but don't worry so much about sound quality or music. Look at it as a long, (hopefully) enjoyable batch of kreutzer etudes. It won't take as long as you might think to do this. 

7) re-learn how to play treble clef on the viola. seriously. you might think it will be easy, but your reflexes will have you playing a fifth lower. 

8) practice going between alto and treble clefs. this mostly happens for passages higher on the A string, but will touch D string and occasionally G string as well. We have to be fluid in the transitions. 

9) more sightreading

10) even more sightreading

11) you guessed it . . . more sightreading

12) now, a stiff drink (or two), to get over the sightreading. 

Cheers, and good luck!  There's a whole 'nother 12 step program to turn you back into a violinist later if you need it ;-)

Chris

January 18, 2010 at 10:53 PM ·

Join a church like ours that is trying to save on heating bills. The cold makes the organ tuning exactly a whole step sharp. Volia! You are singing the melody in Alto Clef for the Hymns without even knowing it! (Well, one does have to transpose an octave down... Details. Details.) I stumbled upon this method because I have more or less perfect pitch, and I was being driven into schizophrenia as a result of seeing one pitch and hearing something different...until the obvious solution presented itself!