Help reading Treble Clef

July 11, 2011 at 12:05 AM ·

 Interestingly enough, I also play viola and learned treble clef. (Just started learning treble clef 2-3 years ago) It is very easy to remember the lines if you remember this sentence: Elephants Got Big Dirty Feet. (EGBDF bottom to top) The spaces spell FACE from the bottom up. If you remember this line, you can also remember the two notes above and below the staff. "The White House is in Washington D.C. (bottom) Ahh Gee! (Top) Another thing to know is that all the notes are just one step up (plus an octave). So just take a note on Alto clef (open A) and go one spot up on Treble clef. (Where B would be). That is A but one octave higher than open A. Whew! Hope I didn't confuse you with all this and that it is helpful!

Saagar

July 11, 2011 at 01:44 AM ·

 Go to IMSLP and dig out some easy violin repertoire that is familiar to you and play it on viola.  Think Cannon in D and such.  Once your ear makes the connection with the printed notes after a few weeks, you'll have it down pat.

July 11, 2011 at 02:26 AM ·

 Some things that helped me to learn alto clef going the other way were to learn where the open strings are and be able to recognize them quickly by sight, and also to learn where middle C was and recognize that quickly.  I started seeing the alto clef as a staff below the staff I was used to and it became easy for me to count down from middle C to B to A to G.  

You could probably also think in 3rd position fingerings for a while, but that only takes you so far.  That stage lasted a couple of weeks for me before I could read alto clef easily without having to translate.  Mendy's suggestion is good--you could also try something like Wohlfahrt etudes written in treble clef.  I did those on the viola in alto clef and they helped with the reading because they weren't very difficult technically and I knew how they were supposed to sound.

July 11, 2011 at 05:42 AM ·

 I switched from violin to viola a year ago. I was able to learn alto clef very quickly due to diligent practice. I would just keep playing pieces in alto clef for about 1-2 hours and do websites that help me figure out note names. Also being fluent in where open strings are first helps

July 11, 2011 at 08:32 AM ·

For me the easiest way was to think of treble clef as just an extension of the top two lines of alto clef. So every thing above the second line of treble clef is A string territory. From there I can work out all the positions in fifths.

Reading all the other posts I am now so confused that I wonder how I managed to learn it. 

July 11, 2011 at 09:23 AM ·

Don't forget the most important thing when playing the viola in treble clef is to take those special high altitude pills or you will get sick and also get bad frostbite. But whatever you do do not venture out of first position ...

July 11, 2011 at 09:30 AM ·

Take some very easy music that you don't know by heart (familiar music would allow you to cheat) and write the names of the notes at the end of each line.  Now play it.  Your brain will look for the letter name but will get irritated at having to do it for every note and will gradually skip the looking part.

[OK Andre? :) ]

July 11, 2011 at 12:47 PM ·

I learned in a 'hard and fast' method.  It was really, really tough.  I called it Clef-switch boot camp.

My instructor would put up a piece written in the alto clef, and I would play it on the viola.  Then he would remove the viola from me and give me a violin, and say, "Now translate it."  I'd have to read the alto, but convert it to treble clef.  Then I'd have a piece written in treble clef that he would have me play on the violin, which he would then substitute the viola and have me translate that. 

It was a brutal method, I admit, but the results came fast and I am fluent in both clefs now.

---Ann Marie

July 11, 2011 at 01:15 PM ·

Ann Marie; He must have been trained in 'Stalag 17' as an 'Oberstabsfeldwebel'. Sieg heil.

July 11, 2011 at 03:08 PM ·

 About the worst thing I ever had to do orchestrally was to sight read a viola solo part on the cello, because the violist concerned didn't show. As a cellist I'm used to reading the bass clef (obviously), the tenor clef, the treble clef, and the treble clef transposed down an octave – this is required in old editions of some 19th century cello writing, mainly in quartets. The viola clef was worrying, to say the least (hint: it is 1 line spaced from the tenor clef), but I just about managed it.  
P.S. Those nice people in white coats were very kind to me afterwards.
P.P.S.  My cello teacher was a professional violist as well as a professional cellist, but he never initiated me into the mysteries of playing a viola part on the cello.

July 11, 2011 at 11:25 PM ·

There are a couple of books dedicated to this.  Look on Southwest Strings', Shar's, or Johnson's website.  You might find something useful.  As others have suggested, borrow some not-so-hard violin pieces and work on them.

July 12, 2011 at 01:38 AM ·

Online "flashcards" might help:  http://www.musictheory.net/exercises > Note Identification > Customize > [clef, range, etc.]

July 12, 2011 at 03:23 PM ·

The Whistler position-study books for violin could be helpful to you. You would start with the pages for A string-notes, then the D, and eventually the E string, if you are really playing viola-stratisphere. The thing w/treble clef for viola is that it is used for playing quite high on A & D, with only occasional notes over on G, so its not just the clef but also the technique. Sue   

July 13, 2011 at 03:38 AM ·

July 18, 2011 at 03:00 PM ·

The secret to playing and reading in different clefs is to simply 'DO IT!'   Do it a lot!

I play violin and cello (all "4" clefs) and only occasional viola. My mind has had no problem switching around between cello clefs or switching from violin to cello. This, I'm sure, is because I have practiced playing those instruments for many decades.

For me, viola alto clef is the only clef reading problem I have for several reasons: (1) I have only played viola for way less than 100 hours in my entire (including about 10 concerts), (2) I first played a viola when I was 40 years old, (3) I only practice viola if I'm going to have to perform on it.

When I wanted to resume viola a bit in my mid 60s, I bought the Suzuki viola books, volumes 4 - 7 and read through them. It was an easy transition from the Suzuki violin books, and in less than an hour I was growing quite comfortable with alto clef. But because I didn't keep it up, it was a skill I lost. I'm quite sure that if I had learned to play viola at a more pliable age, I'd have no trouble reading any music on it - especially if I practiced as hard as I did on cello in my teens.

Of course one has to learn where the notes are (on the page and on the instrument) but it can take a lot of work to create the corresponding "map" in our brains so we can sight read at speed.

Andy