zbd1960

OK 16" viola... enjoy. I did think about playing the viola, but I found the left arm position tricky. I'd strongly recommend getting some lessons from a teacher, not least to avoid long-term arm/neck/shoulder issues. Getting the set-up right is critical. I do play instruments that use alto clef (tenor and bass viol). I think you will need to read notation (stand to be corrected if I'm speaking from a position of ignorance!) as I think that you will struggle to find tab for it. I doubt there is lute tablature written for it (which there is for the viol).

For clarity for me - are you talking a standard (apart from the five strings) sized viola that you play with a bow? I'm assuming 'yes'. I'm a cellist and obviously the viola is similar in that it's tuned an octave higher. The two obvious issues are they are tuned in fifths not fourths and they're usually fretless... so 'fretted' is new to me. Five string cellos (and presumably violas) were a thing in the cross-over period from the demise of the viola da gamba and the rise of the violin family around the mid to late baroque period. What is not obvious is that instruments like violas are not symmetrical. You cannot just 'flip' the strings around. It has a bass side and a treble side. There is a bass bar on the inside of the top (on conventional acoustic instruments anyway). The finger board and the bridge are not symmetrical. The reasons for that are mostly to do with bowing. There are fingering patterns for cello but unlike the bass they are not quite as 'fixed' (because of the tuning in fifths). Viola fingering is not the same as cello fingering. On a cello for scales, apart from some open string ones, the 'standard' pattern is to use 1, extended 2, and 4. If I were to play E major two octaves starting on the C string it would be: C string: 1E 2F# 4G#, shift back whole tone G string: 1A 2B 4C#, shift back a semi-tone D string: 1D# 2E 4F#, shift forwards and stay on D string 1G# 2A 4B, shift back A string: 1C# 3D# 4E Above that E you're in 'upper positions' and fingering pattern for an octave changes to 12 shift 12 shift 123 because fingering is now nearer to violin fingering as the spacing has narrowed a lot. The awkward thing there is the 2 shifts needed on the D string.You could avoid that by opting for the open A string and putting 1 on the B, 3 on C# then small shift to 1D# 2E. Viola is not as large as a cello so you might use 'violin' fingering which is different - because they're smaller, you can have semi-tone or tone between all fingers, which you cannot do on a cello. The elephant in the room: viola uses a C clef - C3 aka alto clef. For entertainment, cellos use bass (F4), tenor (C4) and treble (G2)... Hopefully someone more familiar with the 5 string viola will be along to provide better info.

Yes you could play it on a bass. It does spend some time in the tenor clef as well as bass clef. Tenor clef isn't that difficult to read - the fourth line up from the bottom is 'middle C' rather than the F you expect on a bass clef. You can buy books of music for cello with CDs for play along from absolute beginner level upwards.

OK - it's been a weird week or two... I've lost two of my music teachers in the last few weeks. I'm rather disappointed to have lost my singing teacher. He moved a few months ago making it over 100 mile round trip. It's a particularly irritating rural A road journey, half of which you have zero chance of getting past anything slow. For various reasons, but travel logistics is a major one, I've had to call an end to them. It will not be easy to find a replacement. Given that, there's no point until I've moved house. I lost my bass tutor as he opted to teach at a Rock School set-up that was only a few miles form him, rather than the 50 to here. I entirely understand that. I persisted with the alternate week local 'jam' sessions. But, there's now no dedicated bass teacher, and a guitarist for a tutor that a) can't read notation, b) doesn't understand bass, is just a waste of my time and money. I haven't had a sax teacher (read carefully) since Covid, so I just have my cello lessons now. Started work on the Brahms E minor cello sonata this week.

I went to a grammar school -careers advice was a joke and boiled down to little more than what was your strongest A Level subject and which university that suited. I wanted to go into astronomy, was advised to do chemistry. I didn't have a clue really. Randomly ended up working for a bank. Some years later moved into programming and IT, none of it thanks to careers advice though. I'm at university now in my 60s after I retired...

It's a well-known quote... When I was a youngster at school, Casals (1876 - 1973) was held up as the "greatest living cellist". Time and styles of playing move on and much of his way of playing is now out of favour...

Yesterday I went to an ad-hoc string orchestra day on the Wirral. Usually there are three of these days a year (roughly September, January, and May). This was the first since January 2020 due to the joys of Covid. About 60 of us (8 o cello) for the day which was mostly focused on the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. It's written for double string orchestra plus a string quartet. In reality it splits into many lines - can be 27 or more independent lines. I was in 'orchestra 2' and at times it split into three separate staves with two parts per stave i.e. 6 parts and that's just cellos in second orchestra... There were only 2 celli assigned to the second orchestra. It's a work I like and I was pleased to have the chance to play it as I hadn't done so up until yesterday.

The 'Midlands' is a rather amorphous zone. I'm at the extreme northern end of it, and I have a 30 mile drive in any direction to get to a motorway... I accept that wouldn't locate something at one of the extremities as people wouldn't turn up. I also know that there is no easy answer to the venue selection as availability dictates as much as anything. I was thinking that somewhere like Telford would be suitably inconvenient for most people, although I don't have nay specific suggestions for a venue (I will ask someone I know for ideas). For me, Nottingham is roughly 90 miles away - depends on the route, via M6 it's over 100.

Well I have one of those....

I'm at the very north end of the Midlands (a few miles short of the Cheshire boundary and 1 mile from the Welsh border)

I saw the Ludlow pin, remembered someone saying 'Bridgnorth' so assumed 3? The pins are very very slow to load in my browser, so I can't always tell if I've got a full picture or not. Anyway, another tumbleweed zone

And lo, it came to pass in the land of the Marcher Barons, that the Low End Lords were dispersed far and wide... aka - I think there's now three of us in the entire county. My nearest fellow bass chatters are in Cheshire and Staffordshire, not Shropshire where they are 40 and 50 miles away.

Nearest to me seems to be around 25 miles

Orchestra rehearsals in Chester resumed last night. Looked at suite #1 fro Bizet's Carmen and Haydn Symphony #82.

Similarly end up on the platform of my local railway station

About 40 miles away...

The majority of the music-making I do is in genres / styles that require me to read the music. I have done some jazz workshops where you need to be able to read for the ensemble parts of works, but then you get say an 8 or 16 bar improv to do within the harmonic context of the lead sheet. I can sight-read reasonably well, but I find improv difficult. That is down to the simple fact I have done lots of sight-reading and very little improv.

Living in the Border Marches one has to be prepared for invasion at any time...

Shropshire it seems is a barren hinterland bereft of bassists...

Yep, that's about right. My cello cost me £1,800 back in 2011 and the bow was £450.

I have one (BG250 208) as my practice amp. It had an outing to summer school recently and was fine for the big hall I played in.

Do not underestimate the forces involved with the bridge. A few years ago I was in an orchestra rehearsal and my cello was on its side on the floor next to me. Suddenly there was loud 'ping' and the cello was on its front. What I think happened is one of the strings suddenly lost tension. There was enough twisting force to cause the cello to roll onto its front. The bridge snapped in two, the fingerboard becomes a big lever and it just peeled off the neck. The front of the cello was now a mess. The luthier made a new bridge for me - repairs came to about £350, which the insurance paid for.

As a cellist I'd say make sure you don't skimp on the bow. Cheap bows are useless and will hinder your progress.

Today was a camera day - I was covering a touch rugby competition end of season finals day in Chester. Now have a mountain of photos to process

The C string on my cello would cost £125 to replace.... fortunately they last a long time