I'm not a violist, nor am I a mandola player. I'm a folk musician (lots of instruments), along with trumpet, piano/keys, and French Horn and *some* Classical training and knowledge.
Alto clef, for me, is a royal PITA because I'm not used to it. If presented with it, the first thing I'd do is write it out in Treble clef. I can transpose C instrument to Bb instrument in my head on the fly well enough (and have - at Bristol Ren Faire, playing court dance music, we finally got tired of not being able to hear the recorder starting out the Pavane, so I tried out an experiment and brought out my trumpet, just turning the thing into a brass quartet (Minstrosity was supported by a couple of trombones for the court dancing); as the music is written out for a C instrument, I eyeball transposed it to Bb for the trumpet - worked like a charm, and sounded really cool to boot, so we kept it for the rest of the season). But I'm not used to the Alto clef because I haven't studied it long enough for it to be second nature. And too many ledger lines fry the synapses if you're not used to them.
For folk musicians, you probably want to go with the Treble clef8 as your best option. (If it doesn't show up right, that "8" should be subscripted.)
(no subject)
Alto clef, for me, is a royal PITA because I'm not used to it. If presented with it, the first thing I'd do is write it out in Treble clef. I can transpose C instrument to Bb instrument in my head on the fly well enough (and have - at Bristol Ren Faire, playing court dance music, we finally got tired of not being able to hear the recorder starting out the Pavane, so I tried out an experiment and brought out my trumpet, just turning the thing into a brass quartet (Minstrosity was supported by a couple of trombones for the court dancing); as the music is written out for a C instrument, I eyeball transposed it to Bb for the trumpet - worked like a charm, and sounded really cool to boot, so we kept it for the rest of the season). But I'm not used to the Alto clef because I haven't studied it long enough for it to be second nature. And too many ledger lines fry the synapses if you're not used to them.
For folk musicians, you probably want to go with the Treble clef8 as your best option. (If it doesn't show up right, that "8" should be subscripted.)