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Mouse said
Is this what you are talking about? 

Artino Ergo Collapsible Shoulder Rest

  

Yes, that's the one.

Mouse said
Thanks. Is it different than a Kun? They look similar. Maybe the curve is different.

Thank you.

  

Depends how far in you can screw the Kun's feet.

Mouse said
Okay, before I made any changes, I decided to give my current setup another try.

Here is Fiddlerman's version of Brahms Lullaby played on my Fiddlershop Solist 15.5 Viola. It doesn't sound too bad, has its issues, but that is playing, not setup related.

I did not feel the stress I had been feeling. I was away for a week, and hadn't played anything, so maybe I needed a rest? I also did not play for long, but for the time I did play, I am not feeling sore. 

  

Although this isn't a critique corner, I feel I should mention your tone if you'll forgive me.

You are applying no pressure to the string - there's no weight in your bowing. (some object to the word "pressure", but that's probably because they don't know much about physics - pressure and weight are the same thing - mass times force or mass times gravity), but I suppose there are different ways to apply it.

Do some exercises as follows - slow your bow right down and apply more pressure to it until the note crunches. Do this half way between the bridge and the fingerboard, perhaps slightly closer to the bridge. Do that a lot and learn to recognise the optimum sound you get just before it crunches, then try to produce that sound all the time. If you do it enough, you'll develop a feel for the right bow speed and pressure. Do this with long, slow strokes (no more than 4 or 5 seconds per bow pass). When you've got the speed right all you need to do is vary the pressure - all that really matters is the ratio of pressure to speed. Bow shorter notes in the middle of the bow, or the third quarter from the tip - this helps to give the bowing more weight.

Mouse said
I played around with Gordon Shumway's suggestions for bowing on my viola. It is so hard to remember all of this. I am thinking it might be too late, at my age, to get it right. I will give this a while, quite a while. If I don't hear or feel any improvement, I will just go back to the way I did it, at least I was doing pieces, not just bowing. But, if it will improve my playing, I will give it an honest try. 

I do understand that I really do not do it right. The problem is, I do not want to be playing loud, which doing this is. I am just playing for myself, not in any group, or for anyone to hear, and these sessions produce loud playing, which I do not want. I will figure it out. Maybe I can find a middle road to do it and not be loud. I will work on it. 

Right now, it really bugs me that the 1/4 inch difference between two violas I have makes such a huge difference. I can play the 15.5 viola. When I go to the 15.75 viola, wow, my left wrist and arm are feeling really bad. That quarter inch makes a huge difference. My wrist feels like it is broken when I play the 15.75 viola. I need to stop playing that one. I end out not being able to play anything for a while after a session with that one. 

Well, that is about it. Later, I will do some more bowing on my viola. ?

  

I'll play my viola before I write much more, because I don't want to talk off the top of my head too much; and I'm aware that what I wrote made sense to me, but that doesn't mean I wrote it well enough for it to make sense to anyone else. If your 15.75 is that painful, then yes, unless it's technique, you might want to sell it. Or you could play in third position for a while to develop tone and intonation.

Playing quietly involves bowing closer to the fingerboard (not sul tasto - that's a sound effect), but tone management isn't quite the same in that region, as the full richness of sound isn't available. Possibly people when they use practice mutes don't actually give their playing the energy that it requires, on the grounds that, since they want to be quiet, they go for belt and braces. My advice is use a practice mute and power through it to develop confidence. Practice mutes do allow you to generate tonal differences if you try.

I probably confused the issue by mentioning long, slow bowing. The main thing is to use the middle of the bow for weight and articulation of the start of each note. But in the context of the Brahms lullaby that's tricky.

For tone-development I've been doing Kreutzer #2 - bowings an inch at most, in the middle of the bow. Also I do it bending over by putting the music on the floor or on the sofa - that way there's less gravity acting on the bow and you have to learn about RH index-finger pressure. Best not to do it just after you've eaten!