Muswell

One of our local boys went from playing in a small community orchestra in the middle of nowhere to studying with Rachel Podger. It did seem to have a beneficial effect.

I like to browse through my CD library then wander down to the workshop, turn on the lights, open the shutters, turn on the CD player and amp and off we go.

I had some of the purple stuff sitting around on a shelf and found that it lost its colour after a few years.

That's a good question.

I'll go along with that. I suspect that it is a visual thing. Coincidentally I had the same discussion with someone last week.

A string has minimal flexural stiffness and so tension is all that can make it resist lateral forces. The plate of a violin has flexural stiffness as well as arching action and these will be much more important than the effects of tension, given the extremely small amplitude of vibrations.

The forces induced by the kind of taper we are talking about are trivial compared with those from the downwards load of the bridge.

Maybe he was showing off that he went to MIT?

It might be worth checking whether they are slipping by putting some tape with tell-tale marks on the peg and the pegbox. I had the same thing and found I could push them in a bit further, they seem a bit different from wooden pegs in that respect, maybe it's the ridges that do it.

I bought some Melos some years ago when I was away from home and borrowed a violin. I never finished the old Goldflex rosin and just keep with the Melos, just bought another cake. Only the dark because it doesn't usually get very hot here. It suits me.

I play 2 violins. One has a string length of 320 and the other 326. The difference doesn't bother me at all and I would place the bridge at the notches.

Use the second finger, it's longer, and then depending on how you hold the bow you don't have to do anything with the stick.

I saw a video of A-S Mutter playing when a cloth she was using ended up draped over the crook of her elbow. She doesn't use anything now.

I don't need padding on my bony collarbone but that doesn't work with a Hill style chinrest which digs in.

I suggest you start off with a chamois leather on your shoulder to give some friction. You can do without in time. Or you can fix a bit to the violin with elastic bands... only one thickness, not a pad.