INSTRUMENT CARE AND MAINTENANCE (for Violin and similar instruments)
Try not to touch the bow hairs with your fingers or hand. The natural oils on your skin will soak into the hair, and after you have touched it a few times the bow will slip off the string when you play.
Put a small amount of rosin on your bow hair regularly (twice a week). Rosin provides the bow hair with friction in order to produce a sound when the bow is pulled across the strings. Too much rosin can produce a raspy, scratching sound, and can result in rosin caking the strings.
After playing, clean the violin and bow stick with a dry, soft, clean, and lint-free cloth to remove dust on the strings, fingerboard, the top surface/side of violin, as well as sweat on your chin rest. Rosin dust can accumulate on part of your violin and bow stick. Rosin build-up can mar some varnishes and can make strings sound poor.
After playing, gently loosen the hair on your bow before putting the bow back.
Never use water or commercial cleaners to clean your violin.
When a hair does break off, never pull or cut it at the very end, leave a 2-3 cm and cut it carefully with a scissor.
Never leave your violin in hot or cold locations, direct sunlight, or inside of your car on a warm/cold day. Expansion and contraction change the tuning of your violin, or can cause minor inconveniences such as buzzing, open seams, or even major problems such as cracks.
Replace your strings regularly to ensure your instrument always plays and sounds to its full potential. Strings gradually lose their warmth and brilliance sound even if an instrument is not played frequently. Students should generally replace the strings on their instruments yearly.