I feel like a lot of violin players at the beginning don’t give much thought to the cleanliness of their instrument. It doesn’t need to be cleaned everytime it’s played like a wind or brass instrument and since we are the only ones touching our instrument we don’t think about how much dust and dirt buildup there can be.
Right now is a great time to think about cleaning your violin since there is all this talk of keeping clean by washing your hands and all the things around you. I already made a post on How to Clean Your Piano so now it’s time to clean my other instrument.
There are two reasons to clean your violin.
The first reason is because we are touching it! We have our face on the chin rest and are breathing onto the body. Our fingers walk over the entire fingerboard, and when we’re not playing we might end up touching all the other parts of the body and the bow.
The second reason is because our violins can have a lot of dust buildup from the air and rosin. This can show up under the strings, fingerboard, and any other small nooks and crevices. The buildup of rosin dust can affect the sound quality making it important to clean off regularly.
When cleaning your violin you will need a slightly damp rag (with a very small amout of mild cleaner on it). Wipe over the whole body, chin rest, scroll, bow, and shoulder rest with the slighty damp rag. It shouldn’t be overly wet so that when you are wiping your violin it doesn’t come out wet. You shouldn’t have to dry it off afterwards. Any excess water can damage the wood. You can also gently wipe off the top of the strings but I would be very careful about this part as we don’t want them to get wet. Next, you will need a dry rag to dust underneath the strings and fingerboard if need be. Keep the dusting rag in your case at all times to wipe off excess dust after playing.
I would recommend cleaning your violin fully around once a week. If you have any questions contact me and I will be happy to help!