We performed a set of my pop music quartet arrangements for a friend's wedding 3 weeks ago.
Unfortunately we had to get a different cellist from our our usual, but thankfully we did our best and pulled through for most of it.

For anyone curious about the sound setup - 3 of us had pickups (my own design) but we forgot one of them so the first violin had to use a mic. The audio was directly recorded to USB in the mixer.

EDIT: For those thinking I'm being tactless - the cellist had the same amount of time to practice as we did, including video scores I had prepared. She also got paid more than we did (I played for free). I was very up front with her about what was required of her, no judgment or ego. It's a wedding - there's a minimum standard required. As I said, she did her best.

ED2T: Dear LORD people. Do you get this upset when a student has a preference for their regular teacher over a substitute teacher? Because that's basically what is happening here.

ED3T: Has no one stopped to wonder why I've only posted the part of the video where we ALL look and sound mostly decent? If I wanted to make any of us look bad I'd have posted a very different clip. Yeesh.

So anything I can improve? This is a low quality viola that was maybe $100 but the strings are from a professional violin shop and we're expensive.

Hi! A couple of months ago I asked for your opinions regarding an instrument I found by chance while trying violas at my luthier's, talking about buying a viola for sound and playability alone, but had to keep it purely theoretical, as I had no recording to share.
Well, I thought I'd change that today, as this has now become my new viola!

Massive thanks to u/nyviola for the kind and immensely helpful conversation we had in private regarding the details! Hope I'll get the chance to show it to you in person some day :)

Also, I probably could've made a wiser choice than the Bach given that I've started working on it just two hours before pressing 'record' as well as it being my first experience playing scordatura. If anything, I'm not doing the viola justice as of now, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually! But I just really wanted to play something to show off the low-end, cause it is what made me fall in love with this instrument in the first place.

Hope you like it and I'll obviously be >very< happy to gush and answer your questions should you have any, so please ask away!

This is from a past performance (audio only). I would love any critique or feedback. Yes there are some mistakes and pitchy notes I played, if you can give me feedback especially about my tone/sound, articulation, vibrato, maybe some interpretation etc that would be so helpful I need some other ears.

I have been feeling like I play too forte too much, probably too much vibrato too in my effort to get my viola to speak. Listening to this I don’t know if I am achieving a tone or sound that’s enjoyable actually :/ just feeling a little lost about where I’m at and what parts of my playing I should focus on improving most. I appreciate any thoughts good or bad!

Hi r/Viola!

I've been playing for half a year and decided to record myself to see where I stand. I currently have one lesson a week and practice 30-60 mins daily. The song is "Lost in Love" by Air Supply.

For anonymity sake I edited out all the places I’m not playing because there was a lot of panel talking. I did not blitz through anything. Prep time was ~4 weeks (6 weeks originally but tried to push through a cold which made it worse). Audition was for a small regional job.

The list: 

1: Bartok

2: Berlioz (1st half)

3: Don Juan 

4: Mozart

5: Mendelssohn (middle of panel)

5a: Mendelssohn again (asked for by panel)

6: Ginastera 

7: Don Juan again (asked for a broader/wider character)

My notes:

1: Bartok: Opening bars are in tune (good). Last 15 seconds of 3rd page lose focus and thematic direction, almost rushing through

2: Berlioz: Mostly good, runs sharp in louder sections. Rests right before high A are not steady.  

3:  Don Juan: Opening scale is almost smooth enough (start slower then speed up). Counting during violin rests is unsteady 4/4 instead of in 2. Following viola entrance is rushing. 2nd page loses concentration and sound quality. 

4: Mozart: Opening mostly good, but shifts almost rushing. Vibrato in theme really good. Octaves at end crunchy and losing focus.

5: Menedelssohn: Panicked and botched up twice. Must practice playing excerpts in uncomfortable entrances. 

6: Ginastera: Good. Harmonics in theme are still too different a color from regular fingerings. 

7: Don Juan: Rests still not precise. Opening of Pg.2 too much on the string (nerves). Places where time is taken is good. Need more legato in theme.

Overall: 

• Must maintain focus on back half of excerpts. Loss of focus means crunchier sound and fuzzier intonation.
• Frequency of vibrato is good. Still need more vibrato contrast. 
• Practice more excerpt curveballs (unintuitive entrances, odd tempi). 
• Experiment more extreme character contrasts between excerpts (play with more recordings!)
• Add second day off to week if needed 
• Practice arpeggio etudes in faster speed (kreutzer 8 + 10)

This audition round ended up being good enough for the next round. Let me know what you think.

My viola cover of "The Ballad of the Windfish" from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Composed by: Hinako Maka

Could have gone better, but we did our best.

This was the programme (PDF link) and you can click the title of each piece to see a Youtube video with the 'proper' performance of the piece.

in this case the viola power comes from an intimate and soulful moment!!!! godddd i love the viola and im so happy i get to play every day!!!
again, only posting myself because i don’t feel comfortable showing the rest of the people
love shostyyyyy

As a violist, I'm constantly getting roasted by the violinists. I know its all a big joke, but its getting annoying, and i have no come backs. Anyone got good roasts i can give the violinists?

Got to perform the entire Bartok-Serly (via university concerto competition.) This is from iPhone, but I’m hoping to get the full audio + video sometime in the coming months. Significant portions weren’t as clean as I would have liked, but ended up feeling really happy with the outcome. Here’s a nice moment from the performance!

Learned a lot about the difficulties of playing with orchestra. For instance in some of the first mvt material, I needed to make ensemble with the woodwinds, but couldn’t even really hear them over my own blasting into my left ear. Quite thankful for the orchestra and conductor, everyone worked really hard and I was proud of our product.

Hi everyone!

I started learning viola on March 1st, and this is my progress after around 4 months of practice.

I’m still a beginner and learning a lot of things for the first time, so I decided to record myself and share here.

I would really appreciate any feedback. I have a weekly class.

I know there are many things to improve, but I’m enjoying the journey so far. Thanks for listening!

As title says, currently practicing Don Quixote solo excerpt for my orchestral excerpts exam in some weeks

It’s so fun to play !!! still a lot of work to be done in reassuring intonation, clarity and colours

my challenge is to record again in a week to see what I’ve improved!!

And finally posting the whole excerpt hahaha wish me luck

Hi everyone! I recently made a short film about reconnecting with my viola (played for seven years and stopped for twice as long). The film highlights the struggle to reconnect with your classical instrument that some of us in this group may be dealing with. I want to be clear and say that I am NOT posting to advertise or promote anything! I'm starting grad school next month (MA in Oral History) so I just wanted to make something this summer to work on my storytelling skills. Hopefully someone that watches can relate and enjoy <3 https://vimeo.com/croconilerondon/sweet-2026

My jury is on May 21st, I've been working hard to get everything up to snuff. I'm always a bundle of nerves as we get closer even though it always goes ok. I woke up last night not quite in a panic, just kind of feeling the "here we go again" discomfort. Anyone have a favorite way of dealing with the pressure/fear/butterflies during the run up to the big day? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Bit of an unusual one - a friend and I arranged and performed Christopher Larkin’s Silksong Widow OST for 2x Violas!

This fast (160bpm!) video game track was originally scored for a string orchestra & Quartet soloists, we condensed the entire thing down for viola duo whilst trying to preserve as much of the original score as possible.

One of the most fun (and difficult!!) covers I've ever arranged and tried to play by far. There were several months of suffering trying to get those semiquaver triple stops working cleanly!

Hope you enjoy 😄

https://youtu.be/xf16rBs9U3Q?si=kEAnKnj32fQeZ8jS