Jennifer Grucza

Well, my friend Arny and I braved the rain Saturday morning to go viola shopping. After a quick stop at McDonald’s to grab some breakfast to eat in the car, we drove over to Reuning & Son in South Boston.

The shop was empty except for us (you have to make a special appointment to go there on a Saturday), which was nice, because then I didn’t have to feel too self-conscious as I was trying out violas.

They had three violas there for me to try out - I guess those were the only ones available in my general price range. I was sort of disappointed that there weren’t more to try. All three of them were smaller than my existing viola (which is sixteen and a half inches). They were all at least sixteen inches, which isn’t bad (not like those little baby fifteen-inchers!), but there was still a noticable difference in how big they felt to play.

Now, it wouldn’t necessarily be bad to get a smaller instrument than my current one, but I’m six feet and two inches tall, and I sort of feel like I should be playing as big an instrument as I can handle, if only to leave the smaller instruments for shorter people to play (kind of like my feeling that short girls should date average-height men, and leave the taller ones to tall girls). Also, bigger instruments tend to have a bigger sound, which is good. Though all three of the violas I tried on Saturday had a bigger sound than my current sixteen-and-a-halfer.

But the point was not just to get a better viola than my current one, but to get one that I can absolutely fall in love with, that I would love to play on for a long long time. Unfortunately, I didn’t fall in love with any of the three I tried that day. They should be getting a viola from maker Marilyn Wallin later this summer, so maybe I’ll try that then. Otherwise, maybe I’ll check out some other shops in the area. Or get something from Shar on approval.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2005 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Classical Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.