i am learning the viola, and i have just completed learning from a book on how to chord and read music. i barely know how to play, but i am still having a problem getting the music to sound like music. how do you know what style of music to play the sheet music in? there are tons of styles of music; rock, pop, hymns,gospel, clasical, etc. where can i find a book that explains which style to play the music in and what are the methods of playing the styles?

if anyone can help, please write. thank you.

I`d strongly suggest a few lessons. Or if you don`t want/can`t afford regular lessons, at least sign up for some introductory ones, or go every two weeks, or even monthly.

You can`t really learn to play on your own. And as for chording, you don`t really chord on the viola (you do play double stops and play across multiple strings for effect...but these are advanced techniques).

I`m not sure what you`re asking about style.

Music is written in a certain way. For stringed instruments, bowing is crucial to overall sound quality...not just fingering the right notes. Therefore classical piece is written and bowed precisely. That, in part, gives it it`s sound. Fiddle pieces are written with little regard to bowing...that`s up to the performing...but you still have to know how to bow to make the best bowing choices.

MotR pop music can be anything...since it`s not written for the viola...and strings are most often used only for effect.

that is a question that none(including violists) have
ever found the answer to!

when i was reading over how to play the guitar, it showed that you had to stress the first note in each bar with a 4/4 tempo the hardest, the second very easliy, the third hard, but just a little less harder than the first note, and the fourth note was played very easliy like the second note for the rock style of music. the rock style of music also includes a lot of rests.

each type of music has a method of which note to stress in each bar. country music stresses a different note in each bar, jazz does, and so does other styles of music.

when i bought a harmonica it showed how to do each style of music and which notes to stress, but i don`t have the book any more, and i didn`t play the harmonica at all but 5 times.

maybe the bowing books will explain what to do. i will have to get a book on it! thanks for the advice on that, and i plan to take some lessons here and there. maybe soon! i really want to learn to play. thank you.

I wouldn`t worry about that sort of thing right away. Instead, I would concentrate on learning basic first position fingerings, proper playing positions, and bowing correctly. Once you have that done, you can work on expression, etc.

I`ve played in the Rubank instruction/technique books for flute and oboe, but never their string books, but I`m guessing they should be pretty good to learn from. You should try buying one.