Clefs

In music there are a variety of different clefs. Treble clef, alto clef, tenor clef, bass clef... and so on and so forth. As a violist it is pretty much required that you know these clefs. Because of the violas range many composers will change the clef in the middle of a piece to make it "easier" for the violist to read the notes. Most of the time it is easier. All the time though it is confusing trying to remember what clef your supposed to be in, especially if your changing constantly from alto clef (the violas clef) to treble clef (the violins clef). 

Recently our quartet performed its first contemporary piece. The piece was composed for quartet and choir. It was a beautiful piece. The chording was very cool, with a lot of suspensions. At our first rehearsal with the choir the composer came and helped us put it together, giving us his ideas for different sections and what not. After we had played through this one spot he looks at me and says "in measure 201 your out of tune." (I only play 3 sixteenth notes in this bar). I looked at the notes, played them, then told him those were the right notes. He came over and scratching his head was like "It doesnt sound right..." We played it a few more times and he was like "please look at that at home." 

As we (the quartet) packed up and left I vented a little. "I dont care if you wrote the piece those were the right notes, and they WERE in tune!" My brothers and sister agreed with me. Obviously the composer was thinking of something else. Well 2 days later we went for our weekly coaching session in Portland. Having worked on this piece with our coach a few times he wanted to know how the rehearsal had gone. We promptly told him about the notes in question and he asked us to play it for him. After we played it he told us he thought it sounded good. He didnt see anything wrong with it. Then all of a sudden he was like "Oh! what clef are you in?" I look and was like "uh... alto?" He shakes his head and says "treble". I leaned forward and took a closer look. Sure enough I had been playing in treble clef 2 measures before that and should have still been in treble clef. Instead I automatically switched back to alto clef, and thus was playing the wrong notes. The problem with that kind of mistake is that when you play in alto clef instead of treble, the pitch is off by a seventh. In other words its plain way off. 

I was so embarrassed! Here I had been playing this part for a month and a half and the whole time I was playing it wrong! To make things worse, I thought the composer was crazy for thinking my notes were wrong. Talk about a major lesson in humility.

If you play viola take my advice. Watch out for those evil clefs!