I've now been doing my right hand exercises almost daily for two weeks now, and the bow seems much easier to hold. I've also been playing the open strings slowly for 6, 4 and 3 beats with a metronome at 60 BPM, trying to make the transitions between bows smooth and even sounding.

During the first lesson, the teacher played my viola a little bit (it sounded good!), and said that it had nice 'overtones'. What are overtones?

This week I was shocked when I opened the case and saw that several hairs had snapped on one of my bows. The teacher told me 'that happens', and it isn't a big deal since there are still enough hairs on the bow to play.

I have the 2nd lesson later this week - I wonder when I will start playing notes with my left hand?

Thank you for the links on how to care for and properly maintain the viola bow. I love musical instruments, and want to care for my equipment properly.

I discovered a violin maker just 10 minutes away from my apartment. I'm thinking of stopping by with my viola and bows, and getting their feedback with regard to general maintenance issues like string changes and rehairing the bows. 

Fiddlerman said
@New2Viola - Congrats on the progress. Great to hear. Also, welcome to the forum!

  

Thanks for the welcome.

I did stop by a violin maker to have them take a look at my viola and bows in order to see what kind of shape they are in.

The viola is in fine shape, but the two bows need to be rehaired.

Unfortunately, the better bow, a 'Special Edition Viola bow stamped C Chagas - silver mounted on ebony frog' (https://dolceviolins.net/produ.....viola-bow/) can't be rehaired until a crack in the tip plate is repaired. The crack is so fine I can barely even see it with my reading glasses on.

The shop told me replacing the bone tip plate would cost EUR 250 and the rehairing costs EUR 95.

To get a second opinion, I went to a second shop and was told replacing the plastic tip plate would cost EUR 150 and the rehairing costs EUR 95.

I don't know whether the tip is plastic or bone, so I'm unsure what to do at this point. Any suggestions?

My second lesson is tomorrow.  I'm very curious what the next step will be on the journey to learn viola after several weeks of right-hand only exercises.

Just an update - I had a luthier rehair the bow for EUR 90, and he said the crack in the tip plate wasn't bad, so he 'stabilized' it. As a beginner, I can't really tell a difference between the sound and feel of the old bow vs. the new bow. But it certainly looks fresh and clean compared to the discolored, sagging old bow.

Yesterday I had my third lesson. For the first time, I am using all four fingers of my left hand. After the second lesson, she had me doing exercises with only my first two fingers, so it feels good to use the whole hand.

My biggest challenges at the moment are keeping the bow parallel to the bridge, and not hitting sour notes with my left hand. I've been working on this daily for weeks, but there's still a 50% chance that any note I play on the fingerboard will be too sharp or flat. The teacher said my form is good and that she is happy with my progress - constant repetition is needed to improve the accuracy of my playing.