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Saturday, March 7, 2009

It's true.

There is a universal truth about violists that very few people realize. It is absolutely true:

Violists cannot name the lines or spaces of the alto clef.

I'm not kidding. Ask your viola playing friends (for those of you who are curious the lines are, F, A, C, E, G; the spaces are G, B, D, F).

Someone --probably a violinist-- will then ask, "Then how do they read music?" Well, that's a trade secret.

5 comments:

Maren said...

Hahahahaha, it's so true! I attest to it! I probably played for 5 or 6 years before I could name them with a decent amount of comfort....and even then, I would rather just say "Oh, that bottom line? That's a 3 on the C string." :)

Unknown said...

F, A, C ,E, GGG yup David I'm never going to forget!

James Bower

Ashley Rogers said...

Seriously? Does this give violinist the upper-hand? =)

Lins said...

I don't think it's just violists...because that's how I read my music. ;)

David said...

Hey Everyone! Thanks for commenting.

@Maren: I really didn't learn until last month. I'm sure somewhere along the line, I learned them, but we just don't use the names of the notes. I'm probably going to do serious a blog post titled, "The Neo-Violist: A Plea for Proper Viola Education". Honestly, I'm really fed up with viola ignorance. There's no excuse for it (but we'll keep that between amongst our viola-playing brethren).

@James: Thanks buddy! I'm glad you've that down. See you Monday. Make sure you do your rhythmic training :-)

@Ashley: No. Surprisingly. But it does beg a question: what's the difference between being superior and acting superior? The answer to the question may shine some light on the oft asked, "What's the difference between a viola and a violin?"

@Lindsey: My dear, you've stumbled upon the black art of viola sight-reading. Be careful. You may be closer to the dark-side than you think. But let me be the first to say, "come one over".