The "treble" with alto clef...

April 19, 2009 10:03 AM

Violin-to-Viola: please help me with a sound, non-bad-habit-forming technique to read and play alto clef after 27 years of treble only.

I am a violinist of moderate skill who has played since 5th grade (I'm 38) but never took lessons, and studied music theory for just one semester many years ago. Most of my previous experience is "classical" in nature.

I have been seduced by the husky, sultry tone of the viola, and its greater size and wider finger spacings fit my large body/hands better than the violin ever did.

Unfortunately, in the 1.5 years since making the switch, I have only worked with bands (folk, rock, bluegrass/country) where my playing is largely improvisational, or in original musical theatre where the composer simply used software to transpose the viola music so I could "pretend" it was in treble clef. This has allowed me to work on my ear, and my playing technique, mechanically speaking, but hasn't helped with reading sheet music written in alto clef.

Now, a fellow string player proposes a small chamber ensemble to make some extra cash playing weddings and such, and I realize reading viola sheet music reliably is going to be required.

I understand the theory that the clef tells me where middle C is on the staff. But after 27 years of reading only treble clef, when I see that note, I see "B," and my first finger wants to press on what would have been the A string of the violin. It's obvious how this would mess everything up.

I don't want to just transpose on the fly--to see "B" and have to do the mental calculation "no, that's 'C'"--everything I've read suggests that is a lousy technique. I think it must be something like learning a foreign language as an adult--trying to translate on the fly instead of "thinking in the language" is always discouraged by educators.

If you give me the tonic, I can generally sight read/sight sing pretty well because I can recognize intervals on the staff. Could this be my key to "switching" my brain between alto and treble clefs?

Can you tell me anything about how my (normal, as far as I can tell) brain works that will suggest a good technique? Can it be as simple as playing scales while reading them on the staff, over and over and over, until some switch goes off in my brain? If my foreign language experience is any indication, this will take forever--if it happens at all. Lessons are not an economically feasible option right now.

posted by ViolaGrinder to media & arts (20 comments total)

Gads, alternate music clefs make me crazy, after most of a lifetime reading treble and bass clefs. I really think the only way to do this is to get a book of viola solos, probably nothing too hugely difficult at first, and just do sightreading practice. It will really REALLY suck at first, but since you already have musical training, your brain should snap into the correct mode within a week, if not sooner.

Couple likes like alto clef with the concept that wind instruments have their music written in a key different from "concert" key... Egads! We do make it hard on ourselves!
posted by hippybear at 10:12 AM on April 19

Well, the thing about the clefs is that high E is on a different line for each one. Treble clef is on the bottom line, alto clef is on the middle line, tenor clef is on the high line, and bass clef is on two little lines above the top line.
posted by kldickson at 10:18 AM on April 19

Couple things like...
posted by hippybear at 10:18 AM on April 19

I've gone through something similar since starting to teach myself piano recently (never had to read bass clef, always treble, through years of playing the violin) and began by doing the "lousy" technique of mentally translating ("that would be an F in treble, so it's an... A in bass").

This was of course tedious to begin with but after much slow practice, a few weeks on, my brain automatically did the translation so I started to "see" the A being the bottom space without having to do the mental translation. The repetition of seeing the note and hitting the key imprinted pretty successfully.

So unless you need to learn really quick, persevering with the supposedly rubbished technique has a good chance of resulting in your brain skipping the calculation eventually. It took me much less time than I would have thought.
posted by Dali Atomicus at 10:19 AM on April 19

In music school I had to take speed drills on sightreading different clefs, chords and intervals. These were written tests. They were annoying at the time but the effort did pay off: I became somewhat good at switching clefs and still understanding the notes.
posted by sinderile at 10:24 AM on April 19

There are some online quizzes/drills designed to test your note recognition in alto clefs. This was useful for me when I was learning it 5 or 6 years ago.

Something else that can be useful is to play tunes that you know that are written out in alto clef. This way, you can rely on your good ear (make sure you're not just playing completely from memory) and associate the sound with the image at the same time.

Congratulations on switching to viola -- it's a beautiful instrument!
posted by rossination at 10:27 AM on April 19

Oh -- by the way -- this will NOT take forever. Sure, learning to play well is a life-long process, but the notes will come pretty quckly. Don't despair!
posted by rossination at 10:28 AM on April 19

When I first started doing orchestral score reading, this would drive me nuts, especially during rehearsal, where I looked like an idiot for not being able to read alto clef.

I got lucky, though, that as a bassoonist, I was already reading in three other clefs (treble, tenor, and bass). I learned to do alto clef the same way I did tenor - flash cards. Make yourself a set of flash cards on cheapo note cards and just drill over and over.

This is one of those things that requires drill and kill type memorization. You'll get more comfortable with it eventually, I promise. You talk about intervalic training, and that can help. I learned tenor clef that way, and it still catches me sometimes.

Another trick I learned is that certain things look weird in certain clefs. Like, in treble clef, Bb doesn't look weird, but that same note would be a Cb in alto. Those kinds of things, the more uncommon notes (again, depending on what you're playing) can provide a good check to make sure you haven't slipped into reading the wrong clef.
posted by SNWidget at 10:36 AM on April 19

I had the same issue, although as a violinist trying to learn piano (in addition to the various other clefs that came up as a music major!) and everyone's comments are spot on -- practice and you get it.

I found that initially I would be transposing on the fly when I encountered bass clef, but after using bass clef on a regular basis, it eventually became a subconscious, automatic mental process. What I would do is what others have suggested: go through slowly, practice a few solo viola pieces with the music, and it will progressively become ingrained. Good luck! Sounds like a fun endeavor (taking up the viola -- not the new-clef part)
posted by davidnc at 11:13 AM on April 19

As a euphonium player who learned it as a Bb treble clef instrument (think: large trumpet) who then had to struggle to learn it as a C bass clef instrument, I feel your pain. That being said, going cold turkey and just playing songs that I knew and had committed to muscle memory while reading the C bass clef part made things go quicker, but it did take at least two years to finally all sink in.
posted by Brian Puccio at 11:50 AM on April 19

Ok, found something that might help. I usually recommend this to my kids (I teach privately, plus I'm a music educator grad student in training, or something like this.

Link

It's a flash note recognition trainer. Go into the setting part of it, and you can select which clefs it's going to use, and what the range you want is. This is like flash cards, but without all of the muss and fuss of actually making flash cards.
posted by SNWidget at 12:03 PM on April 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

I play the trombone. I had a similar experience going from my high school band (entirely bass clef) to my college orchestra (about 10-60-30 in alto, tenor, and bass clef, respectively.) One thing that really helped me was looking at the intervals on the page, and trying to focus on the relative intervals rather than the "absolute" position of the notes. For example, if you have a sequence of notes on lines 1, 2, and 3 of the staff, then you know it's a 1-3-5 chord of some sort and you just need to figure out the tonic rather than needing to figure out all three notes. Key signatures can still bollix you up, of course — but when you're first learning a clef, there's no shame in writing in courtesy accidentals or even note-names so you can play the part on the fly.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to immersion & experience. If you want to learn a clef, there's really no substitute for playing lots of different things in that clef. Eventually your brain will "learn the language" and it'll become second nature; just don't be afraid to use crutches like writing in note-names & accidentals until then.
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:11 PM on April 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

Seconding Johnny Assay here -- focusing on the intervals -- and not fearing your pencil -- are key!
posted by rdn at 12:17 PM on April 19

One thing that helped me as a violinist-to-violist through the alto clef was writing in the fingerings. That way I could "cheat" by seeing which finger to put down on the string, but I also got to know the alto clef along the way. As you get better at reading the alto clef you can write in fewer and fewer numbers.

I found writing in the fingerings more effective than writing down the note name, since my brain couldn't think "oh, E, that's first finger on the D string" very quickly.
posted by Maarika at 1:24 PM on April 19

focusing on the intervals...third that...and when you practice, do some scales with them written out in front of you...that was how I learned tenor clef, just playing, saying and seeing the notes all at the same time -- linearly. Any way you cut it, and whatever works for you, there will be a bit of grueling and annoying memorization and then it will click and you wont need to think about it anymore. And grats, violas are the underrated "red-headed step-child" of the orchestra.
posted by sundri at 1:26 PM on April 19

It'll take a week or two, but some things to keep in mind:

Don't think in terms of transpositions. As in, that note's a B in treble, so one note up, octave down. This is a crutch, but it won't help in the long run.

Do memorize where the open strings are.

Write in the fingerings.

Think about the intervals from one note to the next.

Try to get music you know the tune to, so you're not totally dependent on deciphering the page.

Eventually you'll reconfigure what the notes mean, and also, where they are on the viola, as that's the other thing you'll have to get used to: having the strings "shifted" to the right.

It'll happen, it just takes time.
posted by Busoni at 1:34 PM on April 19

I found that nothing improved my reading fluency in alto clef like having to write in it. As an exercise, you can take low-lying treble clef melodies you know, and then write them out by hand in alto. Then play them through -- that way it goes from being theoretical to practical.

For some reason, unlike treble, tenor, and bass clefs which are totally internalized, I find that I still get rusty at alto clef if I don't use it at least every couple of months. I can get it back pretty easily, but it does actually require effort. I'm a Ph.D. student in music and have taught orchestra. Not sure what that means, but there it is.
posted by dr. boludo at 3:37 PM on April 19

Speak the note names out loud whilst you are playing some simple tunes written in the new clef.
posted by Jabberwocky at 3:37 PM on April 19

If you give me the tonic, I can generally sight read/sight sing pretty well because I can recognize intervals on the staff. Could this be my key to "switching" my brain between alto and treble clefs?

Yes.

Can it be as simple as playing scales while reading them on the staff, over and over and over, until some switch goes off in my brain? If my foreign language experience is any indication, this will take forever--if it happens at all.

I'm not sure that's the right analogy. Look: you're still "speaking" the same "language" here. The scales, keys, chords and changes are all the same, and you're still using the same "vocabulary" of arpeggios and ornaments and melodic fragments and so on.

At worst, you're learning Pig Latin. On the surface, yeah, everything looks strange, but once you scratch the surface it's the same old English (or Western harmony) that you've known all your life.

Just focus on remembering which key you're in, and where I and V fall on the staff. If you can do that, your musical instinct and muscle memory will fill in the rest.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:55 PM on April 19

Write in fingerings. Scales won't help because you'll be viewing everything as relative once you figure out the first note -- get some easy sheet music in alto clef and sight read as much as you can. It really shouldn't take you long at all. It might be a while before you're able to look at a note in alto clef and immediately be able to name the note, but after a few solid weeks of sight reading in alto clef you'll be able to easily associate notes on the staff with fingerings on the strings, which is functionally good enough, right?

I made the switch to viola after many years as a violinist as well and this is exactly how my private teacher helped me learn alto clef. You're really at no disadvantage without a teacher, just as long as you have the will to stick with it.
posted by telegraph at 7:54 PM on April 19