How to Take Care of Your Violin | Violin Lessons

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Learn how to take care of your violin from musician Julie Artzt Becker in this Howcast video.

Proper violin maintenance. It's important to take good care of your instrument.

Most violins are worth a good amount of money, and also because, they will sound best and look best if they're taken good care of. So they do need to be taken care of in different ways. Every day, after you practice, there will be a little bit extra rosin residue on your instrument and on your bow. And you’ll need to take a little handkerchief or rag and clean it off.

So, after you practice and before you put it back in your case, you clean it off. You put the handkerchief that you have, underneath the strings and underneath the finger board as well. And go back and forth, then you keep it under the strings but now go underneath the fingerboard all the way to the top and back out. And then you do the same thing, behind the bridge, underneath the tail piece and the chin rest...

And that's how you clean your violin. And your bow, you just go right between, the pair and stick a couple of times... And it's clean. Now every couple of months you also want to just put a little shine on your violin, and you also want to make sure, for shifting purposes. Your hands start to sweat a little bit when you play, you also use a little bit of rubbing alcohol on your handkerchief and only put that rubbing alcohol on the fingerboard. You don't want to put that anywhere the varnish of the instrument. You can put it on the fingerboard, and you could also put a little bit on the neck as well so it's nice and smooth for you left hand to shift and play nicely.

And then the other thing is that every, depends on how much you practice. But every three or four months you want to change all the strings and you also every three or four months want to change and get a bow re-hair. And so, find somewhere hopefully local to yourself that does a good bow re-hair and the strings you can change.

And then there's other things, something else called just adjusting the sound post. There's this little pole underneath the F holes, inside the instrument. You probably cannot see it, but in every instrument you'll be able to see it There's a sound post and every couple of months that needs to be adjusted as well and that you would need to take into a violin shop and it helps keep the violin sound really beautiful and ring-y.

So, all these things will help to keep your violin in good shape. Make sure you keep it in your case, strapped up nicely, not loose at all. And always zipped, never keep your violin in a car in the winter or actually anytime because it can be stolen. Or in the heat, it's too hot so it's really best to bring it wherever you go or leave it home in a nice, well ventilated area.