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Comment by jffry | Hacker News Reader

Violas are larger than violins, which means they're also longer and heavier. Violins/violas are held up entirely by wedging them between your jaw and shoulder, so a short fat viola moves the weight closer and I imagine reduces the torque needed to hold it up.

The shorter neck on the instrument also means you don't have to hold your tuning hand out so far (a similar torque issue) and it also means moving your hand out of first position to play higher notes is a shorter motion.

edit: The viola is of course also thicker, which means maneuvering your tuning hand around it involves twisting your shoulder more. I imagine the unusual shape also improves that situation.

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Maybe instead of playing violas like they're big violins, we should play them like they're small cellos? Might be ergonomically better?

Violins, cellos etc come from the viola da braccio family (arm viola).

I used to play the viola da gamba (leg viola), which comes in all sizes but you play them kinda like little cellos. They have six strings, frets, and you hold the bow a little differently, but even the small ones are played with it tucked between your knees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_da_braccio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viol

The Viola da Gamba has a beautiful sound, but almost nobody plays them here in the US.

The modern viola is too small to resonate well in its note range, but it's a compromise we make to keep it looking like a violin.

I just think of it as a throaty, smokey violin sound and feel like it lacks nothing, so it’s illuminating to think about from your perspective.

My sister is a professional violist, so I can't be too complimentary to the instrument. It has a very nice sound even though it doesn't resonate as well as the other string instruments.

A violist I knew had a viola from the 1500’s that was originally a viola da gamba that had been cut down a couple hundred years ago (somewhat; was still pretty large for a viola). Had purfling hearts on the bouts. Beautiful instrument.

Carleen Maley Hutchins made a new 8-member family of violin-type instruments[0] which included a somewhat larger instrument tuned like a viola but played on an endpin like a 'cello. It sounds pretty good[1] and improves the ergonomics of fingering and shifting (though not so much bowing), but it has not seen much adoption because a) it has the "looks funny" factor, and b) it requires the violist who trained on a standard instrument to learn a new technical approach to both bowing and fingering.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_octet [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVVh-kNmRcA

> b) it requires the violist who trained on a standard instrument to learn a new technical approach to both bowing and fingering.

Or just have cellists play them, instead of violinists. It seems Yo Yo Ma has played one without much difficulty!

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