Team Strings 2: Viola Book & CD

A refreshing shift away from the typical "viola gets the second fiddle part" approach. The pieces span styles and moods, so students experience the viola as a complete musical voice with repertoire worth their full attention and effort.

Viola students at the early intermediate stage, whether you're teaching them individually, in small groups, or as part of a class lesson. Teachers who want to move beyond unison exercises and give violas genuinely interesting material that sits well on the instrument and sounds musical from day one.

• Use the recorded accompaniments during practice so students internalize the harmonic context and develop rhythmic independence from the piano part.
• Work through the ensemble scores with mixed ability levels in the same lesson; pairing a stronger student with a developing one builds both musicality and accountability.
• Explore the improvisation and composition prompts to develop students' ears for the viola's unique voice; hearing themselves create music in real time deepens their ownership of the instrument.

Use Team Strings 2 as your core method for viola students from their first year onward. The graded progression means you can keep students in the book for multiple years, rotating through styles and gradually introducing more complex rhythms and ranges. The ensemble scores work beautifully for student recitals, youth orchestra readings, or informal in-studio performances.

• Viola-specific technique and tone production
• Reading multiple clefs and positions on the fingerboard
• Ensemble balance and listening within mixed-instrument groups
• Playing from chord symbols and improvising over harmonic changes
• Creating original melodies and simple compositions for viola