I've been playing Viola for about a year now and I had a private teacher but we stop having lessons a few weeks ago and I just started Suzuki book 3, and it seems i'm not really improving. Since their is not an orchestra or anything near me I usually play along with Finale on some quartets so I can get used to blending (A lot of this is video game music so its fun for me as well)

What can I do to improve my tone because at the moment it sounds like the A is really scratchy at times, the D is fine, the G is way to strong, and the C seems to be more of a sound pressure wave than actually notes being played. It is really depressing to have to think about if I sound better than when I first started playing Viola.

You know, you probably sound loads better than when you started, but the change has been so gradual that you don't realise it. A year is only a very short time to have been playing and to get a good tone from a viola requires you to really play in the string (that's a French expression, I don't know whether it's the same in English) - but you can't skitter across the string lightly - it all comes from the bow. Do some bowing exercises, or practise long, slow, even bows on open strings - aim for thirty seconds per bow. Record yourself playing before doing this, then do it for a week as part of your practise and record yourself again, you'll be surprised!

Once you can do this, try doing the same thing on the tonalization exercises that are in the suzuki books, every note (regardless of actual duration) on a long slow, thirty second bow.

Have fun!

Is it really a year since you first mentioned that you wanted to learn a stringed instrument and chose viola?? Seems like only a few months.

I've been playing just over a year too and wish that I'd made more progress. Still, it's as Allan says, you'll have done better than you think and, yes, the A string often sounds scratchy, but a lot of that is being so close to your ear. I used to find the notes there sounded strained. It helped when we did a lot of work on plain bowing and I find the scratchiest sounding notes occur when you play close to the heel of the bow.

General scratchiness can be reduced by maing sure that your bow hand is relaxed, esp the wrist. Are you more tense when you play your A string? You might be for postural reasons or even just expecting it to sound bad. See if you can get another teacher anyway. You just can't do it without one.