Violin Maintenance Videos
Take good care of your violin
Learn how to tune your violin, replace strings, clean your violin and bow and much more
Oh No, Kittens are Killed for Violin Strings! – the Truth about Catgut
Some say that violin strings are made out of catgut...In this video I will show you the truth about catgut. Just to reassure you... violin strings are not made out of the guts of cats. Sissi (starring in the video) is still alive and kicking and I’ve got vegetarian...
How To Soap the Pegs of Your Violin or Viola (and make it easy to tune)
Perhaps you recognize this: when you tune your violin or viola with the tuning pegs, sometimes they squeak or don’t run smoothly or run too smoothly. This can indicate that it’s time to soap the pegs. In this video I teach you how to soap the pegs of your violin or...
How (and when?) To Replace the Strings of Your Violin or Viola
This video is about how to replace the strings on your violin or viola. First I will explain when you need to replace your strings. Averagely for amateurs is to replace the strings about once a year. Why should you replace your strings regularly and not wait until...
How To Rosin Your Violin or Viola Bow
This video is about how to rosin your bow. It’s personal how often and how much you rosin your bow. Some people rosin a little, but often. Some people rosin a lot when they do, but they don’t rosin often. Some people (like me) like to rosin just a little bit, others...
How To (and why?) Replace the Tailpiece of Your Violin or Viola
In this weeks video I’m going to teach you how to replace the tailpiece of your violin or viola. But first... Why should you replace the tailpiece of your violin or viola? If your tailpiece is broken (duuuuh) If you want a tailpiece with four integrated finetuners....
How To Clean Your Violin or Viola Bow
Clean the stick with a dry cloth Tighten your bow, put a clean dry cloth between the wood (or carbon) and hair and wipe the rosin remains of. This is enough to do weekly and keep your bow nice and clean. If you want to clean your bow more thoroughly, you can use a...
Why Vacuum Clean Your Violin or Viola Case
What is Zlata doing with a vacuum cleaner in this video? A lot of hairs, dust and dirt gather in your violin case when using it. Vermin (wood worms) can get into your violin and eat it alive! If you don’t want your violin to be eaten by wood worms, you might consider...
How To Clean Your Violin or Viola
Take good care of your little musical friend! In this video I will show you how to clean your violin or viola:This is what you should do daily: Clean your strings with a dry cleaning cloth Clean your violin or viola with a dry cloth This is mainly to remove the rosin...
How (much) To Tighten Your Violin or Viola Bow
In my violin shop I need to throw away violin and viola bows very often. They are not useable anymore and worthless. Why? Because people tighten their bow too much when they play and lots of times forget to loosen it when they don’t play. It’s a waste of bows and of...
How to Increase the Lifetime of Your Violin or Viola Strings?
4 tips to maximize the lifetime of your violin or viola strings! What is the normal lifetime of a string? I replace my strings every 2 months. If I use them for 3 months the intonation is bad and they don’t sound good so I really have to change them every 2 months. I...
How To Maintain Your Violin or Viola and Bow?
Lots of people invest a lot of time, effort and money to learn to play, but sometimes they forget that their instrument and bow need some love, care and attention too ;). Without instrument and bow you can't play. A good maintained set will support and help you in...
How (and WHY?) to Tune Your Violin with a Tuning Fork?
I got another question: Zlata, can you do a video on tuning with the A? I think you mean a tuning fork, or if you hit the A on a piano or have an A from your computer or whatever. How to tune your violin or viola to an A tuning fork First, you will need an A. You can...
What To Do if the Soundpost of Your Violin Falls Down?
I got a question: Hi Zlata, unfortunately the soundpost in my violin has fallen and is now loose in my violin. I can hear it rolling around and my violin sounds terrible. What should I do? What is a soundpost and what is its function? It is the little stick kind of...
How often should you tune your violin?
I got another question: Hi Zlata, I just recently started playing the violin. Now I know how to use the bow and so far I’m getting good at it. But my question is: should I untune the violin right after I’m done using it? How often should you tune your viola or violin?...
Should you untune your violin after practicing?
I got a question from Ivan: Hi Zlata, I just recently started playing the violin. Now I know how to use the bow and so far I’m getting good at it. But my question is: should I untune the violin right after I’m done using it? Why would you want to untune the violin?...