Taking Care of Your Violin

" Taking care of your musical instrument is the greatest responsibility of a musician."

First of all, you need to know the facts. Your violin and the bow are fragile. Take care not to trop them, step or sit on them. Always keep them in the violin case or place them on a stand.

You can only clean or dust your violin with a soft, dry cloth. Its varnish does not handle wet clothes or normal household cleaners. If necessary, there is special violin polish available to clean your violin.

Your violin is also susceptible to abrupt temperature changes. It does not handle dry air, great heat, or wetness very well. So try to keep your violin in as much of a climate control environment as possible.

PRICELESS YET FRAGILE…

Of course, you cannot protect your violin from everything. After all, you are playing her and you are taking her with you on trips maybe. But be sensible. Avoid the extremes. If you take her in the car, do not put the violin case where sunlight will hit it, but rather store it behind the seats, and or cover the case with a light-colored cloth. When you move the violin from a colder to a warmer environment, allow it to adjust slowly to the change in temperature.

When you play your violin, resin dust from the bow hairs will crumble onto your instrument. So, each time after you finished playing your violin you need to wipe of the resin dust with a dry, soft cloth. Otherwise, accumulated resin dust might harm the varnish on your violin, and clump together the hairs on your bow. Here is a quick tip: rub the strings with the cork of a wine bottle to take off the resin dust.

If you keep these tips in mind, you should be able to enjoy the beauty of your violin for a long time to come.