I might be lucky enough to be having a quick blast at the viola in case one of my orchestras needs one, as both the viola players in my school have quit playing!
Fingers crossed I can pick up the cleff, as I can read bass tenor and treble pretty well.

Viola is a beautiful instrument. I'm currently borrowing one from school for the summer (Can you say awesome?).

I guess a tip for reading the alto (and I'm a bit suprised that no one mentioned it) is that the middle line (where B would be on the treble clef) is middle C.

I have very long and narrow fingers, so playing the violin is very awkward for me; I often find myself using very unorthodox fingerings (and that's saying something; I already do that on the viola!). It's for this reason that I feel more "at home" on the viola; violin finger placement is too close, and the cello's strings are too thick for my fingers to really hold yet.

__________________
"Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen
zu Gott wird es dich tragen!"
-Gustav Mahler

I started my viola lesson 8 months ago. At first, I find it very difficult to read the alto clef and at the same time the placement of my fingers in the fingerboard. After few lessons, my viola teacher requires me to attend in the rehearsals of the school chamber orchestra. I am hesitant to attend then because i know i can not be able to play with the chamber orchestra. But my teacher insisted me to attend because according to him, it will help me in reading the alto clef. He said that it is okay if my fingers can not follow as long as my eyes can follow in reading the pieces. So, i was convinced to attend regularly in their rehearsals. And later on, i noticed that i am improving in reading the alto clef and at the same time, my fingers are improving also. During lessons, i find my Suzuki pieces more easier now. So, for those who wants to improve their reading in the alto clef, try to sit-in in the string ensemble or chamber orchestra rehearsals. It can help you a lot and also practice regularly. As of now, i am still working on the vibrato and good intonation of my left fingers. I would like also to ask your help, if anyone here knows some easy pieces for solo viola?

I came along with the Kinsey Studies. The first set is easy - as you already play, the second set might be appropriate. They deal with technique up to about Grade 5 (ABRSM) - varied bowing, spiccato, staccato, martellato, chromatics, trills etc. The final set takes you up to 5th position (which I find uncomfortable on the lower strings!) and 4 sharps and flats. Some of them are quite musical as well being studies.

http://www.musicroom.com/Search/gsea...t=kinsey+viola

Playing in an orchestra is great experience.

I recently switched to viola, and I love it! I'm six feet tall, so naturally I have really long fingers and arms, and big hands as well, and playing the viola is much more natural than playing the violin now. I was having some trouble when I first started playing viola for fun as far as reading alto clef goes. However, when I picked it up again about seven months ago and was thrown into the viola secion in orchestra, (one of the first pieces we played was Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings). THEN I learned how to read alto cleft, (and quickly too). I started out on a fifteen and a half inch, and then recently switched to a seventeen inch. I can play it no problem, it fits me well. But, I heard that I would probably be more comfy playing a sixteen and a half. Anybody got any advice on this?

(BTW: Bruch Romance for Viola is a great piece, pretty challenging, but beautiful. It uses all the strings alot, and has a beautiful melody that will get stuck in your head after no time. Yuri Bashmet has a great recording of it.)

You should try Rebecca Clarke's Passacaglia for viola and piano. It's really just amazing; it uses both upper and lower registers very well. (Clarke was a violist par excellence)

I played a viola once. I liked it except that the one who owned the instrument
didn't have it tuned right and tried to tune it like a violin. This made the viola
sound awful until I remembered how a cello was tuned. A viola is tuned an
octive higher and then I played it and loved it. There was one more problem.
My arm and shoulder got tired after a while because of it's weight. They do
weigh more than a violin and is a bit longer. As the first song on it I played
Sweet Hour of Prayer on this viola and it sounded beautiful. I don't read
music too well so I played it by ear that evening. This was a Barcus viola
like the members of Electric Light Orchestra plays.
judy tooley

Confort your self considering you didn't have to play the gigantic viola that Lionel Tertis use to play with. That was a viola!

I adore my large viola. I plan on buying a seventeen or sixteen and a half inch when I buy one. And I will definately look into Passacaglia. I'm always scouting for new music. My mom bought me for my birthday, the Schumann Marchenbilder, Scubert Sonata per Arpeggione, and Brahms Clarinet Sonatas, which can be played on viola as well. I'm so incredibly excited, they're all so beautiful. I only have to wait like three more days... =D

Those are really hard pieces... especially the Brahms F minor. The stretches there are crazy, no matter what kind of violinist you were.

It was a big one. It was the length of my arm. It was a beautiful instrument. I did
also play a cello the size of my flat top guitar.
judy tooley

I signed up to this forum as "altiste" which is French for violist. Altiste comes from alto which is French for viola, although sometimes this can cause confusion with alto as in singer, so strictly speaking it's better to use the full form "violon-alto" as the name for the instrument.

I switched to the viola from violin over twenty year's ago now, to complete a chamber music formation. I've never looked back.

Say,altiste; do you know Pierre Lénert?. I've 2 CDs by him and IMO he's one
of the best viola players I ever heard. What do you think?

I agree that Pierre Lénert is a wonderful player. One of his viola-playing colleagues in the Opera Orchestra, Diederik Suys, is Director of UT3-Records (http://www.ut3-records.com/web/index.php). Do you know of this label?