Category: Hobbies

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?

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.

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.

This is a picture I took back in April from the 3rd floor of the apartment building I live in. The full moon was just rising, and we were having one of those unusually high tides when I took the photo. Olympus C4000Z, 4 second exposure time, f2.8, ISO set to 400.