Viola...help?

One day I was listening to a band(Silverstein-Discover The Waterfront) and I really liked the song I though it had the violin and then I checked out the song information to found out it was a viola.I have been in love with the viola sense that day.Any way I am making this longer than it needs to be.My question is..I just started playing the viola do you have any tips for me.I can hardly play.

Viola...help?
I second Cowboy's recommendations :) In the mean time:


Posture/ Position


-Standing up produces better tone than sitting down. Make sure you're standing balanced, feet about shoulder width apart.


-Hold your left elbow underneath the viola.


-Avoid "pizza hand", where your hand is flat against the back of the neck. Your hand should be "waving" at yourself.


-The fingers of your left hand should be somewhat curved.


-Your bow grip is really important, the main problem you'll run into is "kickstand" pinkie, where your pinkie is rigid. It should be curved against the bow, and your middle and ring fingers should be lying flat against frog.





Actually Playing


-Make sure you're in tune :) An electric tuner is a great investment.


- If your bow is rosined properly, it will sound much richer because the hairs will grip the strings better.


-Use more of your bow rather than less- it sounds more confident, smoother, and just better overall.


-Keep your bow away from the fingerboard. The closer you are to the bridge, the louder you sound, but even if you're playing quietly, don't play too close to the bridge, it produces a very weak tone.





It's hard to keep all this straight at first, but you learn as you sound so much better when you do all this. And a private teacher and practicing help enormously. I could barely play at first, but now that I've been playing for five years, it's really fun :) Good luck!
Reply:Just keep practicing and don't rush anything. It is a bit hard to start out with if your practicing alone since you keep thinking your ready to move on and get better quick. If your in school see if they have an orchestra and just join it next chance you get (you will like your instrument alot more if you can hear it sound good with other instruments.) I played in middle school and by the 3rd year we could play lord of the rings and other cool music like that.





If you cant do that get a private instructor they can help alot by knowing where you really are skill wise and what you are doing wrong that is hard for you to see and how to fix it (like bow movements or incorect posture).





Bottom line if you want to be good practice, go get a book from your music story to help you learn how to play and just try to practice from 60-120 minutes a week over at least 3 days.