Viola stickers?

July 16, 2023, 12:24 PM · Don't know if you can still get them but atone time you could buy sheets of circular stickers, which you could then put your own designs on, and print on your home printer, or of you can no longer get them I am sure there must be online sites for designing your own.

July 16, 2023, 1:58 PM · Alto Clef Gifts has some stickers, and lots of other fun viola themed stuff.

July 16, 2023, 3:06 PM · Ron's got the right idea. Printable Avery labels. Trouble is that the printed surface is not always as durable as a sticker. Have you tried typing "custom printable stickers" into Google?

July 16, 2023, 4:12 PM · Recommend Etsy.com search. Not too expensive, and all kinds of stickers available, including specific for viola.

July 16, 2023, 5:54 PM · Andrew, that site is great! Thank you so much! I will check out the other recommendations as well.

I've printed stickers in the past, but they tend not to be all too durable.

Edited: July 16, 2023, 7:05 PM · Hey, I'm glad your daughter is doing much better. I know this is unrelated to your stickers query, but is she liking the viola better because the youth scene isn't quite as competitive and such? Does she have aspirations to become a professional musician? I know this is hard to say at her age. (If you don't want to answer, that's fine).

July 16, 2023, 10:08 PM · Ella, thanks for asking! She has very quickly had a lot of success with the viola, which has given her a lot of confidence. She was accepted into all the summer programs she applied for, as well as the advanced pre-college program here, and the top youth orchestra in the city (though she decided not to continue with that). All of that gave her quite a boost -- it was really nice for her to feel valued and wanted.

Then she went to camp and really did wonderfully there. She was asked to perform on one of the young artists' recitals and was very proud of herself. Plus, she made a ton of friends and really just found her place.

I think it is less about being competitive or not, and more about her feeling valued. It also helps that viola is something different than what her brother does.

As for aspirations, she has no idea right now, though she wants to keep playing through high school and college. I feel like it could go either way. We will let her explore through her high school years and see what happens.

Edited: July 16, 2023, 11:12 PM · That's good to hear, thanks for the info. I totally see the whole "being more valued and feeling more confident" part, since there's just fewer violists out there, and the fact that her brother seems to be much more advanced than average adds an interesting situation to the mix. As a fairly high level amateur who has always loved (and continues to love) playing both violin and viola and cannot easily fathom giving up one over the other, as well as being a decent pianist, I do have a bit of a hard time deeply relating to those who are having to choose one instrument over another when they might like both a lot kinda thing. And yeah, the best thing to do is definitely to play for the joy of it and let her explore her options.

Speaking of siblings, I've definitely seen some families where each sibling plays a different instrument, but others where everyone ends up learning the same instrument(s). I personally only have one sibling, and they play the same instruments I do, but I did end up being the more devoted one so we don't necessarily feel like we compete with each other. I should also add that I'm in Canada, where there's arguably far less competition among youth musicians compared to places like Chicago purely due to population size, not to mention we don't have the huge range of pre-college programs, (overnight) summer camps, and six-level youth orchestras that seem to be so widely talked about on this forum, so yeah. (For reference, Bruch is likely plenty to get into the highest level youth orchestra in Canada, and the majority of senior-level youth orchestras have a minimum standard closer to Bach A minor because we just don't have the pool density of high level players like some places in the States).

July 17, 2023, 3:56 PM · Stickers are the kind of thing you pick up for a dollar from the hip craft / souvenir shops.

July 18, 2023, 4:29 PM · I received a "Got Viola?" sticker from viola-strings.com with a strings order. It may be worth contacting them to see if they still have stickers like that.