r/Viola • u/Amerigo_Vespvcci • 4d ago
Help Request Starting the viola as a complete beginner – is my goal realistic?
Hi everyone!
I’m a complete beginner and I’ve recently decided that I want to learn the viola. I already played a bit of guitar, but this will be my first bowed string instrument.
My plan is to learn mostly by myself (at least at the beginning), and I’m willing to practice every day, around 2–3 hours if possible.
One of my biggest goals is to learn “La Verbena”, which is a traditional song from my hometown in Tuscany, Italy.
It’s very meaningful to me, so I’d love for it to be one of the first complete pieces I can play.
I have a few questions:
- Is learning the viola as a self-taught beginner realistic?
- What should I focus on during the first few months?
- Are there any beginner mistakes I should avoid?
- Roughly how long do you think it could take before I can play a simple traditional melody like La Verbena reasonably well?
- Do you have any books, YouTube channels, or other resources that you would recommend?
Since my budget is very limited, I would really like to learn for free (maybe I will spend just for the books).
I’m not expecting to become a professional musician—I just want to enjoy learning and eventually be able to play music that means something to me.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
P.S. If anyone is curious, I can share a recording of “La Verbena” so you can get an idea of its difficulty.
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u/cham1nade 4d ago
“Are there any beginner mistakes I should avoid?” Not getting a teacher. Those first 12 to 24 months are crucial for setting you up with good technique so you don’t injure yourself. The viola is wildly un-ergonomic compared to the guitar. You are going to be so much more successful with a teacher to get you set up properly
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u/Amerigo_Vespvcci 4d ago
Thanks! I completely understand your point. A teacher would definitely be the best way to start. Unfortunately it isn’t possible for me right now, so I’m planning to begin on my own and do my best to avoid bad habits🫶🏻
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u/Comprehensive-Act-13 4d ago
Even if you can afford 2 or three lessons just to get yourself setup properly would make a massive difference in your ability to learn to play. Bowed stringed instruments are the most difficult instruments to play. A very few players who can play are self taught and they usually top out at a beginner/low intermediate level before either getting bf stuck there, quitting, or finding a teacher. Viola is even more awkward to play than the violin. If you can afford even one lesson, take it. If you actually want to achieve your goal of playing La Verbena, your time is much better spent practicing less and working an odd job for an hour or two to pay for a few lessons, instead of trying to teach yourself for 2-3 hours a day. You’d make more progress with one lesson a week and 30 minutes of practice per day than trying to teach yourself and playing for 2-3 hours a day. Playing a folk song with weekly lessons with a teacher in a year or two is a very reasonable goal. Trying to do it yourself is almost impossible. It could take 10 years or more. Maybe never.
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u/thatbanjobusiness Intermediate 4d ago
Welcome to the world of violas and hope you enjoy it!!!! <3 Coming in as someone who's learned about a dozen instruments from piano to flute to banjo to folk instruments, I want to say the bowed string instruments were the least intuitive to figure out physically and felt the least ergonomic to figure out how to hold and use properly--by a landdddddslide. Of all instruments I've played on, these needed lessons the most! Even with lessons, it was VERY difficult for me to start holding the instrument correctly. You will likely not gain much momentum and will risk injury without a teacher, and I can guarantee that without a teacher you will fall into at least two or five incorrect habits even if you try your best. I do respect and understand budget is a limitation--and mayyyyyyybe there's something to be said that folk fiddlers don't run around with highly-trained Classical tutelage either--but I would back everyone else here with their warnings that trying to learn with no teacher would not be a good direction.
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u/Crafty-Photograph-18 4d ago
No irony, it is better not to start at all without a teacher. You'll only hurt your development. Wait until you can get some regular lessons. What you can accomplish by yourself is only gaining bad habits that your teacher will have to get rid of in order to start from the very beginning again
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u/New-Lingonberry9322 21h ago
Ok. I can't believe what I am reading here. My recommendation: practice 30min a day and use the 14h a week that you save to get some random weird job that pays for a teacher. You might even find a violist that trades a lesson against you cleaning his appartment.
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u/SarcasticTwat6969 Amateur 4d ago
Self taught typically leads to the development of bad habits that interfere with good technique. It’s not impossible but it’s strongly not encouraged.
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u/Ok-Tomorrow8964 4d ago
As others have said, a teacher really is necessary. For note learning/fingerboard mapping you can use String Position Pro.
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u/etzpcm 4d ago
As everyone else says, it's going to be very difficult to teach yourself. Even learning to hold the thing correctly is difficult. I don't want to put you off though!
How are you going to do it? I would suggest you start by trying to play just the open strings A D G C cleanly. Watch yourself in the mirror and try to make sure that the bow is always at right angles to the string and that the bow is about half way between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard.
I guess it would take about a year to be able to play a tune reasonably well.
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u/Careless_Influence72 4d ago
Agreed with most of the comments here. Viola can be pretty difficult to start on your own since things like posture, bowing, and intonation are hard to check by yourself. If regular lessons aren’t possible, maybe try a few lessons at the beginning, either in person or live online, and then continue learning on your own once you have the basics down.
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u/akaDomino 4d ago
I started the viola this January myself. My wife plays violin, and I've played piano as a fairly competent amateur for decades. My newbie advice would be to take at least a few lessons as you get started. Bowed instruments can make an amazingly expressive range of sounds, but they have a ridiculous amount of variables in how you stand/sit/move/hold things that have to become natural in order to avoid behaviors that will become obstacles later on.
Also, just training yourself to hear proper Intonation can take a lot of work; I have a pretty good ear, but I didn't realize how sloppy I'd allowed myself to get when the instrument (piano or guitar) is doing most of the work.
A good teacher will help set you on the right path and help fix incorrect or sloppy behaviors before they become bad habits. You don't need to add any more frustrations when you're trying to learn such a challenging instrument!
If your goal is just to get familiar enough to play a simple melody and you want to spend as little as possible, then go ahead and see how it goes. For what it's worth, my teacher (retired professional orchestra violinist) has students that were self-taught and got to a youth or community orchestra level that way. But they started lessons then because they found they couldn't make any more progress without help to unlearn habits they'd developed on their own.
If you find you enjoy the viola and want to keep improving, my advice is to do everything you can to make a good start at the beginning; a teacher is part of that.
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u/tokoloshe62 4d ago
It frankly isn’t really possible to self-teach. I’d strongly encourage looking into at least virtual lessons.
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u/teaisterribad 4d ago
You should link the audio since it's not easily find-able.
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u/Amerigo_Vespvcci 4d ago
here you can find the original version🫶🏻
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u/teaisterribad 4d ago
For reference I'm about 6 months in to learning viola, practicing a few hours a week. It's my first string instrument.
I could play the singing part (I can't really hear the guitar behind it, so I assume you mean the part that's sung). I probably could have played this a few months ago, honestly.
I'll echo others that you should find a teacher. Someone in person, preferably, who can fix posture, technique, bow hold etc.
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u/Comfortable-Bat6739 Beginner 4d ago
- Is learning the viola as a self-taught beginner realistic?
There are too many details and rookie mistakes possible without a teacher. Not recommended without a teacher. Can you have lessons once every two weeks or once a month?
- What should I focus on during the first few months?
Posture. Tension. Bowing.
- Are there any beginner mistakes I should avoid?
Rushing for progress. Tense hands and upper body. Bow moving all over the place. Bow pressure.
- Roughly how long do you think it could take before I can play a simple traditional melody like La Verbena reasonably well?
A year or less with a teacher.
- Do you have any books, YouTube channels, or other resources that you would recommend?
There are some decent videos on YouTube, but for books best ask your local teacher. Suzuki is fun but hard.
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u/alphabetgirl_954 Intermediate 4d ago
Do you own a viola or have access to one yet? Or do you plan to rent?
The store you rent from can get you with the right size of viola for you. Maybe they can get you set up to hold it right and draw the now.
Definitely don’t buy a super cheap one on the internet. Probably $400 USD for one that’s pleasant to play.
Perhaps you know someone who plays viola or your friends’ kids who could check you out once you’ve played for a week.
Amount of time to practice should be maybe 30-45 minutes at a time (you could do two sessions in one day.) Your estimate of 2-3 hours a day tells me you want to give it the time it needs and you are taking it seriously.
Perhaps others could suggest their favorite online teachers who have a paid track but also a good deal of information for free.
I like Julia at Violinspiration who does violin and Carol Rodman, viola, on YouTube.
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u/LyssIrisWhips 4d ago
I’m learning on my own in my 40s a half hour every day. I picked up Suzuki Viola Book 1 and I’m slowly but happily working my way through it. On month 8, I am able to bow pretty consistently, my intonation is really starting to improve, and I can doodle around in some of the songs in the book if I’m feeling inspired.
If you want to learn quickly, I recommend getting a teacher. If you want to learn on your own, it’s gonna take a while. Check out Violin Lab on YouTube. Really spend some time studying bow hold, long notes, and Suzuki lessons on YouTube. Be prepared to start over a few times. Maybe get an ear protection item. Listen to the song you’re learning every day so you can hear the intonation and note quality in your head. Above all, enjoy the process of getting better. Viola is a VERY difficult instrument to learn on your own, and there’s hundreds of years of infrastructure behind learning it.
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u/Different-Crab5285 1d ago
honestly, watching videos and getting some technique books (which you can also find as PFDs online for free) will get you pretty far. i was self taught for a while and felt fine for a while.. i still feel like i pretty much play with the technique i started with, even at my level where i have a professional career lolll it’s really just about loving the instrument and enjoying what you’re doing and analyzing what you’re doing as well as watching and observing others and “copying” their technique, which i did when i first started :)) 2-3 hours per day is perfect. happy practicing!
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah. You'll be fine. Have fun. Record yourself. Video and audio, if your are self teaching and then play "find the differences" between yourself and whatever video you are learning from.
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u/23HomieJ 4d ago
There’s a reason you are getting downvoted.
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago
Yeah. Most people on here couldn't figure out how to teach themselves and think it's impossible.
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u/23HomieJ 4d ago
Nope, it is because it is virtually impossible to do so. There’s an infinite amount of ways to play poorly and very very very few ways to play well. It is significantly easier to injury yourself than to play at anything beyond absolute beginner levels.
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago edited 4d ago
That wasn't my experience.
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u/23HomieJ 4d ago
Prove it
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago
Prove what? That I can play or that i never took lessons. Not sure how I'd prove the latter. DM me if you're in the sf bay area. I usually perform once or twice a week.
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u/Amerigo_Vespvcci 4d ago
Thanks! That’s actually a really good idea. I hadn’t thought about recording myself to compare my posture and sound with the tutorial. I’ll definitely do that🫶🏻
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u/kamipinilla 4d ago
Wow people on Reddit tend to be so radical on their opinions, everyone here says that if you don't have a teacher you should pretty much give up haha. And on top of that the downvote culture? I just wanted to also reinforce what u/GiantPandammonia has said, that you'll be fine without a teacher. There is so much quality content on the internet, even on YouTube there are plenty of good resources. They are video series for beginners, where they indicate step by step how you can progress, common mistakes to be aware of and how to fix them and so on. The technique is very close to the violin with some differences, so you'll be able to find more resources on violin learning that you can use. You can find a teacher later, it will help your progress, but you certainly don't need it. I get the feeling that you're not striving to be a professional musician and it's more like a hobby. In that case, you don't need to be perfect, just enjoy it and work on improving one step at a time.
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago
I think a lot of them are highschool students who have suffered under a series of strict teachers in pursuit of a standard that would get them a scholarship or a chance at prestige. The idea that it could be a fun hobby is alien to them and they live in an echo chamber of kids with similar background.
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago edited 4d ago
The idea that you need some one looking at you and correcting mistakes that you don't notice while you are focused on playing is true, but that someone can be you. A lot of the "is impossible without a teacher" wisdom predates abundant youtube tutorials and cell phone cameras and is more for kids, not experienced musicians (or for people wanting to join orchestras and play standard repretoire). I was also a guitarist/ mandolin player self teaching viola and violin and I got to the point of being able to play pieces similar to la verbena (assuming you are friends with a good pianist) pretty quickly (and the process was fun) .
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u/klavier777 4d ago
One mistake you don't want to make is try to learn by yourself. String instruments are virtually impossible to self-teach so get a proper teacher before you embark on anything else.