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This is prolly a fac, but here are some views of someone trying to get used to the alto clef.
Here are three paper blank links I kept
https://www.musicaneo.com/blan.....music.html
http://www.musictheory.org.uk/....._paper.php
https://madisonpaper.com/blank.....eet-music/
But in order to understand the alto clef, I've been searching for an 11-line great stave. Printing one out and placing on it the treble, alto and bass clefs is instructive. Unfortunately it's not easy to find a source, and a lot of people understand the great stave to be just the 10 lines for piano.
This site can be edited, though, so play with it: https://www.blanksheetmusic.net/#
(click on the staff to edit)
I still haven't learnt the alto clef, and I've partly forgotten the bass clef. I can still just about remember learning the treble clef the hard way when I was 10-ish (Every Good Boy Deserves Favours, etc), so maybe I should just learn the alto clef in the same way. The bass clef I must have learnt that way, but perhaps always (or for the first couple of years at least) having the bass clef for the left hand and the treble clef for the right had makes it harder to confuse the two?
This is how I've been trying to get my head around it: -
The big alto sign straddling all 11 lines is misleading. Perhaps I shouldn't have included it. The actual alto clef is my handwritten one covering the middle 5 lines. Note that the top line is the G of the treble clef and the bottom line is the F of the bass clef. Also note that all the open strings on viola and violin fall in the spaces between the lines. Middle C, as are G and F, is always on a line, ledger or otherwise, and it is always the third finger on your G string, whichever instrument, assuming first position.
I don't have sufficient permissions on Old Yeller to upload this photo.
Andrew
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Basically, the alto is one up from the treble. For instance, The B on the A string in treble is a C on Alto.
When in doubt, remember the C is where that middle of the Alto clef is touching the middle string. Then young an go from there. Eventually, it will click when to are playing. But the home being the C in the middle will help you find your way.
When I have been away from the Alto clef for a while, I start there to get me back on track.
Probably not what a more experienced violist or a more in depth music theory does, but my playing is strictly amateur in nature.
Great info, Gordon and I love the link for the sheet music.
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Learn Violin and Fiddle
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At the gig last Saturday I was talking to a peripatetic teacher of viola and violin.
She had various shortcuts she tried to teach me, but I couldn't take them in fully, like each note is just two notes down. If you see what would be C on the treble clef, then it's the same string (2nd) but string two notes down (i.e. open D). Thigs like that.
Perhaps a good way to begin is only to play the top 3 strings of the viola, equating them with violin strings. I suppose you might begin with the treble clef then move on to the alto clef with the same tunes? Dunno.
Andrew
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I think it boils down to whatever helps your brain click as to when it sees the alto clef it automatically associates with the notes on the staff for that, and switches to treble clef placement when it sees tbe treble clef, same for bass. Knowing the C placement on the Alto Clef, my instructor told me about it as a starting point, works for me.
I remember in cello lessons, I had a piece that started in bass and then the second page, actually last measure on 1st page, was treble, a the long section, about 2/3 of the page which was repeated, then the last 1/3 of page 2 and the little bit that went to page 3 was back to bass. 🥴 I mean, really! "Hey, teach, I am in bass clef mode, taking cello lessons, and I get thrown to treble clef mode?" Treble is the easy one, one we all start with, but going back and forth, first song that ever did that, messed me up. Maybe it was old brain syndrome!
I love the song and when I no longer took lessons, and was able to play cello regularly, I used to play that song and went further than we did in class. It seemed to click a lot easier switching back, and switching is becoming more automatic.
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@Gordon Shumway -
Best of luck on this!
Will be very interesting to see how this works out for you.
Most of us start out learning the treble clef with a mnemonic device, so why not the alto clef?
LINES: Fast, Alligators, Can, Eat, Good.
SPACES: Great, Big, Dragons, Fly.
I do know that the more you make yourself read alto clef, the easier it will become - flash cards are a great idea. I would 1st use cards showing an individual note with it's identifying letter name, saying that note while seeing it's position on the staff - then move on to the guessing-type cards (name on reverse side). You can take small flash cards anywhere, or use an app.
I'm hopelessly stuck in seeing the alto & bass clef notes as the 'treble clef notes that just accidentally slipped down on the staff' - because I didn't practice reading as much as you will want to.
Once the clef symbol gives me the reference (of G, C, or F) I'll still 'see' treble clef notes, but visually push them up to read the correct names. So, I'll see a 'B', but know it's pushed up 1 note to read 'C' in alto clef and it's pushed up 2 notes in bass clef - so reads 'D'.
I do rely on seeing the ascending, or decending movement of intervals (in any clef), to help me read notes faster - but I'm more than likely going to choose to actually play in a different octave, maybe even a different key than what's notated.
Obviously, my relationship with standard notation could me much better (and at some point, I'll put more effort into it) - though not really a necessity for how/what 'I' play... and at my age it looks like sooooo much to memorize, considering how many clefs there are!
So, I see the whole staff of notes adjusted up, or down - just like these clef positions:
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I was going to ask if you knew the French violin clef. I came upon it in the Insel-Buecherei Bach S&P autograph (actually I came across it years ago in Eric Taylor but had forgotten it, never having needed it). In German the treble clef and French violin clef (I'd forgotten it because Taylor doesn't give it a name - you have to go to wiki for it) are called the Violinschlüssel and Französische Violinschlüssel.
Andrew
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Btw, there are many apps available for learning to read music & sight read notes in different clefs, but I don't know which are the top-rated ones.
I haven't had to use any other clef than treble, alto & bass - doesn't matter though... as long as I can determine where Middle C is located. The clef symbols give me a note location, but it isn't always Middle C.
Was thinking I'd like to make up some special clef-like symbols for 'transposing instrument' notation, cause I do run across parts I'd like to learn (from time to time). It would make my life easier to just change the clef instead of the whole score - again, just need to know where Middle C is located.
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