A few days ago I was browsing YouTube and happened upon a violin maker and repairman and found the subject of violins to be compelling. These tiny instruments are made of Maple and topped with Spruce and even those two or three hundred years old can still sound beautiful. Famous brands like Stradivarius sell for millions of dollars, even though very old. Antonio Stradavari, the maker, died in 1737. About 650 Stradavarius violins still exist and are sought after by collectors who are rich enough to buy one as an investment. Great violinists seek to play them whenever they are offered the chance.
Intrigued, I bought a beginner violin off of EBay, a German 4/4 full size violin made of Maple and have been slowly getting it, and myself, ready to operate the instrument.
My first tasks were to rosin the bow and tune the strings. Rosin is something like tree sap that is rubbed on the horsehair of the bow, otherwise the bow cannot make any sound. The rosin grips the strings and makes them sound when the bow is drawn across them.
The second task was to tune the strings. Seeing how thin violin strings are, I became worried about breaking a string if I tuned it too tight. So I bought an electronic tuner from Adobe and proceeded with caution. Now the violin is tuned. The next task is to make nice sounds with the bow, then start practicing scales. It should be fun and there is plenty of videos on YouTube to educate me in each task.
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