Slavica Ilic: Hello! My name is Slavica Ilic and I will talk about instrument care. The most important thing about instrument care is to keep your violin clean and your strings clean and free of rosin. Every time you finish your practicing or playing the instrument, you have to have a nice and soft cloth and wipe off the rosin from the strings, wipe off the rosin underneath the strings. If too much rosin accumulates under the strings, it will be very hard to take it off unless you clean it every time you finish your playing and sometimes can lead to damage a furnish.

The same thing you have to do of course with your strings because if you have too much rosin on the strings it can change the sound of your instrument. Sometimes, if you have way too much rosin on the strings and you just cant take it off with a simple cloth, you might try, but you have to be very careful about it that that doesnt touch the violin surface, you can put a little drop of the rubbing alcohol and then try to take the rosin off the strings.

The same cleaning you have to do with the stick of the bow when you finish practicing, you take again a dry soft cloth and you wipe off the bow stick. You never clean and never touch the bow hairs neither with the fingers, or with any other cloths or anything else.

My next clip will be about how to hold the violin.