Yes, it's getting chilly outside. Your heater is on. The air is getting drier.
Your body is adjusting to the season change and so is your violin.
It's the time of a year to watch carefully how your violin is doing. Especially, the proper humidity is important to your instrument. Dryness can make damage to your violin and the result would be cracking or the seams of your violin to open. When this happen, you have to go to a professional luthier to fix it and it can be expensive.
So, let's try to avoid that to happen!
What you can do:
- Use a room humidifier. Keep the humidity in between 40 to 60%. It doesn't have to be fancy. I have this one. If you don't have one, just hang a wet towel or place a pot filled with water on your radiator.
- Use "dampit". The green tube has yellow sponge inside that can hold the water, and you insert it into your violin's f hole. Make sure that the outside of the dampit is dry when you insert it.
- Use case humidifier. Some violin case comes with this. Or you can put one inside your case.
- If the pegs are slipping, use this. It's a peg compound. You can put it onto your pegs.
- Keep your violin in your case when not playing. With a dampit or case humidifier would be better.
- Keep your violin away from your heater! This is a must.
And the good news is that it doesn't cost much to do these things. Let's keep your violin happy!
Enjoy the colorful autumn,
