does anyone know where to het a viola fingering chart?

Hi Michelle,

Please see my earlier post:

http://www.8notes.com/f/32_100578.asp?y=1&spage=1#101183

Regards,

Bill

wat bout the all the sharps and flats

Hi Michelle,

The sharps and flats fall out exactly the same way. Remember that I mentioned that the finger positions "cycle" through the strings? Note that if your tonic (the bottom note of the scale) is an open string, then your dominant (the 5th) will be the next open string, but as you go to the next octave, you are on 3rd fnger, not an open string, and so you will be in a different finger position for the equivalent notes as you go higher up the octaves.

Sharpts and flats on the violin/viola are in my opinion best found by ear. They are not fixed--as in a guitar or piano. They relate to the context of the notes around them, the piece of music, and the other instruments you are playing with. If you are playing alone or with other strings, you can quite naturally find yourself playing "perfect" intervals and chords. If you are playing with a bunch of guitars, you will naturally adjust to match their simplified note scheme.

Depending on whether you are playing a major scale, a minor scale, or something cool like a "gypsy" scale, you will find the sharps and flats by their sound--by the interval they make to the tonic.

If you have a hard time hearing intervals, then try making double-stops---a finger on each string--and play them together. The best way to start exploring this is to start with the open g-string as a base. Then put your 1st finger on the c-string. You will hear what is nown as a "4th" which means that the G is exactly 1-1/3 times higher in pitch than the D (1st finger on the c string). If you then move the 1st finger towards the nut, you will hear the dflat note. As you slide your first finger towrd the nut, the chord will start to sound bad, but then will get better again as you find the dflat--it will come back to a sweeter sound.

You can then explore all the other sharps and flats the same way--just try 2nd finger, third finger etc on C.

Finally, use the open C as the tonic, and play 1st finger on the G string, then second and third etc as before, while bowing chords. Again, you will hear all the consonances as you move up.

Good luck and best regards,

Bill

Without meaning to sound rude, you cannot learn the viola with a `chart` as tuning the note makes fingering more tricky than, say, a guitar.

Equally, most notes will have more than one way of playing them. In order to prevent tricky string crossing of indeed fingering, often a string player will move down a string but up positions.

If you are asking for composing reasons, perhaps it is best to leave the fingering to those who play the instrument.