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Home >> Strings Week >> May 27, 2011

Learn to Care for Your Most Prized Possession with ‘Commonsense Instrument Care’

Instruction, Information & Inspiration for Players of Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass & Fiddle | May 27, 2011

Learn to Care for Your Most Prized Possession with ‘Commonsense Instrument Care’

This book, by master violin maker and restorer James N. McKean, takes you step by step through the basics of how to care for your violin, viola, or cello and bow. McKean tells you how to get your stringed instrument in top condition for optimum sound and how to treat it properly to ensure that it will provide a lifetime of high-quality playing and enjoyment.

Learn to care for your most prized possession. Buy Commonsense Instrument Care now.

Commonsense Instrument Care
By James N. McKean
Book (paperbound)
Published by String Letter Publishing
Price: $9.95

Inside you’ll learn about:

Basics
Preventing accidents
Insurance
General maintenance
The bow
The bridge
The soundpost

Open bouts
Retouching
The fingerboard
Pegs
Buzzes
Strings
Repairs

After you buy and read the book, “comment” your thoughts about Commonsense Instrument Care and share with your Facebook friends here.

This week from Strings Daily…

What Is a False String? Find Out Now
One of the most common questions about stringed-instrument strings is about the nature of false strings. What is a false string? Musicians often use the term to describe any string that does not sound right, such as a string that sounds dead or won’t bow properly. However, a false string technically occurs when a string doesn’t produce the correct pitch due to a lack of uniformity or defects. In rare cases, the instrument itself may be the source of intonation issues.

How to Dress Like a Pro Onstage
Think ahead about your clothing. Adjust your performance dress for comfort and ease of playing. In our society, women in the music world seem to have more leeway than men about the details of how they dress; they can find ways to be comfortable. Men have to finagle more, but there are things you can do. I wear lightweight, slightly oversized performance clothing, and I have had a pleat put in the back center seam of my jackets. Now there is no fabric tug when I raise my arms to play the viola. Gussets under the arms can also have this effect.

How to Keep Your Violin in Top Form
Consider adding a hygrometer and a humidifier to your case, or buying a case that’s equipped with these accessories. A hygrometer measures the level of humidity, while a humidifier can correct dryness. An in-case humidifier often comes in the form of a small tube filled with water saturated material that releases moisture at a controlled rate. Many violin and viola cases include a built-in hygrometer and a vaporizer bottle.

Play Cajun Tunes for Beginning String Orchestra:
Grand Mamou and Allons a Lafayette
“Grand Mamou” and “Allons a Lafayette” are two tunes from the great tradition of Louisiana Acadian dance music, which draws on French, German, and African American influences. The Cajun fiddle tradition can be immensely inspiring and rewarding for any string player to explore, with its rhythmic energy and unique, expressive vocabulary.

News from the String World

Guarneri Violinist Gives Lecture-Concert on the Bach Chaconne

Violinist Arnold Steinhardt, a member of the revered and disbanded Guarneri String Quartet, will present the lecture-concert “Chaconne Anyone?” on June 7 at the Indiana Historical Society’s Frank and Katrina Basile Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana. Steinhardt, who has written extensively on the work, will share his history with and insight into the Chaconne from Bach’s Violin Partita in D minor, and later play the monumental piece for solo violin as part of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis’s 2010–11 Laureate Series. violin.org/concert.html

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