Essential Items to Care for Your Viola

Violas are like babies – they need to be attended to at all times with love and gentle care. There is a list of essential items that are required for you to purchase as this will help in maintaining the proper and good quality of your viola. Consider this as personal maintenance for the frequent check-ups that your viola needs. Here are some items that can help care and maintain your viola:

Polishing Cloth

Violas, used or unused, are prone to being dusty. It is best to have a polishing cloth to wipe off dirt or any filth on the surface of your instrument. Polishing cloths are normally associated with gentle cleansers so the suitable material would be microfiber cloth ones. 

Microfiber polishing cloths absorb unwelcome stains and keep your viola clean and polished. There are professional polishing cloths designed specifically for violas. If you feel like buying it, then that is awesome! But you can still settle to just regular polishing microfiber cloths. 

Disinfectant Spray

Keeping your viola sanitized will be beneficial for you and the instrument itself. Violas are vulnerable to harmful materials, especially if you are keen on using it on a daily basis. This may lead to serious health damages that you may want to prevent on happening. 

Take with you a disinfectant spray to mist on surfaces and other parts of the viola from time to time. In situations like this, health is wealth and it essentially needs to be protected. But be aware of the contents of the disinfectant spray you are purchasing as some of these chemicals may deteriorate the finishing skin of your viola. For assured measures, purchase ones that are specifically made for violas. 

Humidifier

If you are a traveler, you are most likely to bring your viola with you. In case you didn't know, different weather conditions affect the quality of the violas. Change in temperature may affect its overall build. It can lead to frosting, cracking, creasing, and reducing the sound quality of the viola. 

If you change places from time to time, you may want to stock on a humidifier. Humidifiers release moisture that forms in the internal part of your viola. They also act as protection during distinctions in the weather. 

Rosin

Musicians are very familiar with the use of rosin. Rosins helps create friction between the strings and bow hair. It also tightens the bow grip on the strings and produces better sound quality. 

Rosin is a solidified form of resin that came from pines and other conifers. It comes in two varieties, dark and light rosin. Dark rosin is soft and commonly used during hot and warm weather while the latter is harder and does not stick as adherent as the dark one. There is no better rosin since this depends on your preference. 

Case

Cases are a significant part of handling and caring for a viola. They act as a barrier to possible harmful materials that may affect your viola. Violas are inevitable to be bumped on, scratched, or creased. Having a case may reduce the chances of these things from happening. 

Cases are also essential when traveling or taking the viola outside. You do not want to expose your delicate instrument to the chaotic public. 

Conclusion

To be a musician, specifically, a violist means involving in activities that revolve around taking care of the instrument. It is the responsibility of the musician to make sure that the instrument is always in its best condition. To be frank, these essential items are just the bare minimum.