The Strad: Why we should all be violists

What is a viola?

Walking down the street, meeting strangers the conversation often goes ‘So you play the violin?’

‘No, actually it is a viola.’

‘A WHAT??’

‘Well, it’s an instrument bigger than the violin, smaller than a cello.’

‘Oh, I see …. never heard of it! Good luck with THAT!’

As I write this, spell check is not allowing me to write the word ‘violist’, suggesting the word ‘violinist’ as a possible fix. Funnily enough, I too never heard of it when growing up in Taiwan 30 years ago. We young musicians were given the option to pick a second instrument as we entered the 4th grade. Knowing only that I didn’t want to play the violin like everyone else, I opted to play something that the orchestra needed. They offered me either the oboe or the viola. We had no idea what a viola was, but my father thought playing the oboe did not look too appealing, so the viola was what we settled on.

Read the full article on The Strad’s website here.