Before I start this blog post, I have something to confess. Since I have been playing the viola for 7 years, I believe I have an advantage over those who have never played an instrument similar to the violin.
That being said, the viola and the violin are alike in many ways. However, they are not the same instrument. Although both instruments are played in the same manner, the viola has the C, G, D, and A, strings while the violin has the G, D, A, and E strings, making the two instruments different in terms of the notes resonating from each instrument. Additionally, the viola is played in the alto clef, while the violin is played in the treble clef, which indicates that violin music is completely different from viola music. Therefore, I may be familiar with the bowing technique, intonation, and hand placement on the violin, but violin music is an entirely different language.
I have to admit, given my music background, I began this project thinking that it was going to be a piece of cake. However, I soon discovered that this task was not as easy as I hoped it would be. In fact, obtaining a violin was hard enough by itself. Luckily, a close friend of mine had to switch instruments and lent me his violin. The next obstacle was figuring out the logistics behind my project, mainly practice time at school. I needed to plan when to bring the violin to school and when to keep it at home while making sure that I always had my material with me. Since I tend to carry numerous things with me to school, carrying an instrument around only makes it harder to navigate through school without getting angry looks in the hallway. I am still trying to figure out when to schedule practice time at school without accidentally bringing the violin to school for no reason, but hopefully, I can figure this all out when I start my trial practice session on Friday.
I have also began to practice at home to make sure that I am keeping track of my deadlines. While playing, I noticed that the violin produces a louder and richer sound than the viola does, which is surprising since I have always been told that the viola is “the heart of the orchestra”. Additionally, I tend to play the E string notes out of tune, which makes sense since the viola does not have an E string, so I am not familiar with it, but the E string on the violin and the A string on the viola are located in the same spot and my intonation on the A string on the viola is decent, so maybe I need to place my hand a little higher than I normally would due to the high pitch of the E string. I have also discovered that if I play the same song on both the violin and the viola, the one played on the violin sounds better, which is strange since I have been playing the viola longer. I also learned how to play the two-octave G scale on the violin in first position and my goal for next week is to learn how to play the same scale but in third position to improve my shifting in preparation for more challenging music compositions.
As I reflect on this experience, I have realized that having a music background does not necessarily mean that it is easy to play any instrument because each instrument is unique in terms of technique and clef. That being said, I need to treat the violin as its own instrument, not as an instrument that closely resembles the viola to improve my intonation. I also discovered that my fourth finger notes tend to be out of tune, so I need to practice playing those notes with a tuner. Most importantly, I have learned that since the notes on the violin have a higher pitch than the notes on the viola, it is important to have precise intonation because it is more obvious when a note with a higher pitch is out of tune versus a note with a lower pitch.
Thank you for joining me on my journey and stay tuned for next week’s blog post!
Vivi's Blog 
Great job on your first post!
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