The violin and the Viola are two brother instruments. They look like a lot. Only a trained eye (or ear) can tell them apart. But one is preferred to the other. Why is the violin better than the Viola? Its bigger size and lower voice have confined the Viola to an accompaniment instrument. It has…
Don’t wait for your bow to be dirty before cleaning it. Cleaning your bow is part of its regular maintenance. It looks better, feels better, and, why not, plays better. The bow hair has to be cleaned only if dirty with a microfiber cloth wet with alcohol. The stick, especially where it touches the hair,…
Whether you have a new bow or a freshly re-haired bow, it is essential to put rosin on it to make any sound at all. Bows without rosin can’t be played. How to rosin a bow? Break in your rosin with sandpaper. Gather the dust with your bow hair. Do that a couple of times….
Many different materials are used to make violin or orchestra string instrument strings. The best way to understand what they are made out of is to look at the history of string making. The progress in science as in craftsmanship is regular and logical and explains by itself why certain material has been developed and…
You take your violin out, or your bow, and surprise: no sound. But clearly, no sound at all: what a surprise! It is not that the sound is soft, low, or muffled: it is completely absent. The thing is, your violin itself is not at cause here. If your violin does not make any sound,…
When a violin doesn’t stay in tune, it means that the pegs that hold the strings in the pegbox turn freely and don’t hold the tension. Unlike the guitar where the tuning pegs are held in place by a gearing mechanism, violin pegs are held in place by friction only: friction between the wood of…