New bow

Finally got around to ordering a new bow for the viola a few days ago, and it arrived today.
Viola and Bow
Sounds a little rough right now. Still need to get the bow broken in with rosin and remember how to bow the strings. Can definitely tell the viola’s just a little too small for me (or else I just have fat fingers).
Now to see if I can re-teach myself all the viola-playing stuff I used to know.

Strings on the viola

While running errands over the weekend I stopped at a nearby music shop to see what they had for string instruments. Picked up a set of strings and a pitch pipe to help me get things into tune, but they didn’t have any viola bows in my price range. The ones they did have were very nice, but a little more than I needed at this time. Thanks to the pitch pipe and a few MIDI files I found online, the viola is now newly strung and sounds decently in tune, although the A sounds kind of odd to me. Maybe when I hear it with the bow it’ll sound better. Plucking the strings does make some very satisfyingly familiar sounds though.

Now I just need to find a bow and some beginner’s books.

In search of musicy-bits

Ok, so now that I’ve got this spiffy viola, I need to find a place around here where where I can get:

  1. a new bow (or two)
  2. rosin
  3. some strings (C, G, D and A)
  4. music and instruction books
  5. something to help me tune the viola

This should be interesting. Simba was a total spaz yesterday when I was checking out my new toy and plucking the strings trying to tune it. I bet it will be even more entertaining when I actually start trying to play the thing.

Anybody know of any good local music shops that carries stuff for string instruments?

A new old hobby

Today I spotted a viola the neighbours were selling at their yard sale, so on a whim I decided to pick it up. Unfortunately I missed out on the Lemond road bike he was selling yesterday, otherwise I could have started up two old hobbies.
My viola
I used to play viola for about 7 years between grades 4 and 11. I enjoyed playing but being somewhat tone deaf (although I can tell when something doesn’t sound quite right or is out of tune) and somewhat lacking in the rhythm department, I think I had gotten about as good as I could get by the time I reached high school. And by then my interests were starting to diverge to other things like cycling and running.
I hadn’t touched a viola since then but always thought about getting back to it. When I saw the neighbours set one out this morning, I just thought it would be too good of an opportunity to pass up. It’s in reasonably decent shape and sounds decent despite having a thin crack along the top of the body. It’s missing a G string, needs a new bow and maybe some new pegs but those things should be easy enough to find somewhere.
I wonder if my viola books are still back home sitting in the closet.