The Alto Clef

Music is language, both audibly and graphically. The printed language of music is quite literally a graph, with Pitch (or high to low sounds) on the vertical axis, and time (rhythms in tempo) on the horizontal axis.

 

The musical graph is known as a staff, which is composed of five lines with four spaces in between. Each line and space represents a step in the musical Ladder known as a scale. Each step is given a letter name ranging from A to G. The simplest scale to examine is C Major which starts on C and uses all the natural note values on our staff.

Often times short extra lines, called ledger lines, are added for pitches above and below the staff's range.

Clefs represent the pitch range in which a singer (or instrument) usually sounds. In Alto Clef, Middle C (or the note named C that is found in the middle of the audible range) is located on the Middle Line. The symbol used for Alto Clef is called the C Clef, just as Treble Clef is the G clef and Bass clef is the F clef, because the arrow pictured in the symbol points to Middle C. The image below is a whole note on Middle C in Alto Clef:

When reading Alto clef on a Viola, it is key to remember where the Open Strings are. This image below shows the notes played on the four open strings of the Viola.

In first position, it is good to remember that notes on Spaces are played with either the 2nd finger, 4th finger or Open String, and that Lines are played with either the 1st finger or 3rd finger. Study the fingerings shown below:

Note that in this C Major scale, the 2nd finger on D and A strings is Low, meaning that it is played next to the first finger in first position. This is due to the fact that in major scales, there are 2 half steps that are half the distance away from each other than the rest of the steps in our "ladder." In the C Major Scale they are located after the 3rd step up (E), and after the 7th step up (B), with the 8th step up being the same letter name as the starting note (C). Also note that in first position, 4th finger and open are the same note. 

Sharps and Flats (# and b)

When these symbols are placed on a line or space either before a note (called an accidental) or in a

Key Signature (found at the beginning of every staff after the clef symbol) they alter that pitch by a half step.

Sharps (#) raise the pitch by 1/2 step

Flats (b) lower the pitch by 1/2 step

Here is a helpful chart to see exactly which notes are played by which finger and where on the fingerboard of your viola.

The above circles that are cut in half, showing # and b, are 

Enharmonic Equivalent Spellings of the same pitch.

This should get you started with recognizing pitches in Alto Clef.