I have one, that I used to play…lots of years ago, and I didn’t totally stink.
Obviously, most fiddle music is written in treble clef, and isn’t all that viola compatible.
Anyone know of a good use for viola in the realm of ITM?
(all jokes aside–save them for the bodhran!)
Not ITM, but sort of overlapping: Mary Lea plays viola for a contra dance band, Yankee Ingenuity, and an English Country dance band, Bare Necessities. (BTW, the pianist for BN is Jacqueline Schwab, who is known for that fabulous piano playing in Ken Burns’s Civil War Series). Contra dance bands play some ITM, so finding out more about Mary Lea might be a good way to start 
http://www.sover.net/~marylea/
http://www.sover.net/~marylea/bnhome.htm
Couldn’t find a site for YI.
If you didn’t live in MD, and I didn’t live in CO, I"d say come on over, and we can start a viola/oboe I"T"M band.
Well, I guess you are saying the sheet music available doesn’t work for the viola. But wouldn’t any tunes sound nice on the viola? I know it isn’t traditionally used, but it seems like it would be neat to hear any sort of Irish music on the viola. I can’t imagine it sounding bad. Maybe groups of players wouldn’t like it, but for yourself it might be fun. And groups might like it if it was well played.
Peter Laban mentioned (I would never be able to find the thread, sorry) some accompaniment on cello that sounded interesting. I guess it would be sort of arpeggio-ish. That could be nice too, especially if it could replace the whanging guitar chords. I wouldn’t have the first notion of how to do it properly.
I think Cynth was refferring to a thread mentioning the Old Ireland Quartette on a 78 rpm.
That aside, Paddy Glackin played a few tunes on the viola on his first lp, martin Hayes handled it on ‘In Good Company’. Basically playing tunes like on the fiddle but in a lower key. Then there’s the Bowhouse Quintet, Jesse Smith played the viola there I think. You wouldn’t generally bring it out to a session but a bit of fiddling with it wouldn’t harm, forget the sheet music and the idea that music is written in something and therefore not compatible.
Hey I wonder can you play reels on Cello?
I didn’t think you could play reels on guitar until Tony McManus came along and I didn’t think you could play reels on Saxaphone until I saw someone coming to our sessions do it.
So, what about reels on Cello?
Is it possible?
Andy
Reels on the cello? I don’t see why not. Rick Foot of “Broderick” got a massive ovation at the Oxford Folk Festival last year when he took the lead on a reel on the double bass during one of their sets.
And Emm, Clare Garrard played viola a good deal during that performance too, and very well at that.
I wish. It’s a horrible handicap, this visual dependency.
To be precise, if you just play the viola as if it were a violin, the music will come out a fifth lower – exactly like switching from D whistle to G whistle. (Or playing a bassoon as if it is an insane D whistle.)
Well, emmline, could you use some of that transposing software? The trouble is you have to type in all the notes----it wouldn’t be bad for one tune, but for a lot it might be. Oh, I’m all excited. We’ll be giving you a “massive ovation”. Do you know some tunes by heart that you could play by ear on the viola? I think it wouldn’t be so hard if you already had them memorized.
Another thing I was wondering was if you did accompaniment could you be sort of a drone and regulators?
If you hadn’t learned to read sheet music you wouldn’t have learned to play the viola. It is just different training not a handicap.
If you can play a tune on the whistle or whatever you’d be able to play it on a viola or fiddle without notes or read it as written for fiddle/whislte and play it on the viola without transposing. I know I could so anyboby can (my own measure of things, sorry)
When the beer’s flowing at a house session I go to sometimes, Bette will pull out her viola. Usually several fiddle players will take a turn on it at some point, and no one seems to have a problem making the switch (especially considering all the beer!)(or maybe that’s why?)(AHA! more beer, Em!)
Anyway, it’s a neat change for a bit. Nice and rich.
My friend Naka Ishii has a viola that she strung with octave-violin strings (didn’t even know there was such a thing), so it plays an octave below a normal fiddle. In a session it almost sounds like someone’s bowing a tenor banjo.
I believe there were also some viola tracks on the Buttons and Bows albums that the Maguire brothers did with Jackie Daly? I believe both Seamus and Manus play viola as well as fiddle.
Appropriate. If I had chosen a band instrument, instead of strings way back in those olden days, it would have been oboe. I always had to do the odd thing.
Just let the viola be its own instrument. On whistle/flute, we have to shift bits of the music around into different octaves to make tunes fit that otherwise would not. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t do that on viola.
I think it would be a lovely thing to do.
Forget about transposing keys and all that just pretend that you are tuned to fiddle pitch and play from the sheet.
If you are down by a fifth, jigs in minor keys would sound really nice and even more minorish than on a fiddle…if you know what I mean 
Slan,
D.
Looking at the record jacket, it has fiddle and viola listed below Seamus’ name. So yeah, apparently there is viola on it.
Good record, that… Inisheer… ahh… oh, and The first month of summer… very nice reel.
I have to echo the comments about Martin Hayes on “In Good Company.” There’s a track of jigs and one of reels and both sound great. Kevin plays his Bb on them. Good stuff.
I play sometimes with a fantastic bassist who on some tunes doubles the melody “fiddling” on an upright bass. We do some old-time fiddle reels, and she can play them, full-tilt, bowed, way up the neck. Makes me grin every time, sounds great.