Develop mastery and control over the viola fingerboard, in all keys. Whether you are playing classical, jazz, fiddle tunes, or other styles, these twenty-first century strategies can significantly improve your technique and musicality, and provide the foundation for improvisation. Play-along audio tracks are included for accompaniment, as you begin to explore this previously uncharted but essential territory. This approach is core to Berklee’s viola curriculum.

The book covers: Fingering strategies for comfortably playing in all keys; Scale diagrams for easily visualizing your fingerboard; Major, minor, and pentatonic scales, modes, and arpeggios; Etudes applying these scales and arpeggios in an improvisational context; Essential chord and scale relationships that are useful for improvising; Exercises to help memorize and internalize the scales; and more!

Rob Thomas is a professor in the Berklee College of Music String Department, where he has taught since 2002. He has performed and recorded with the String Trio of New York, the Jazz Passengers, Chuck Owen’s Jazz Surge big band, the Mahavishnu Project, the Chris Parker Quintet, Gypsy Jazz Caravan, and many others.