As soon as winter sucks the last bit of humidity out of the Midwestern air, the cellos start making their way up the stairs to the violin shop at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Tom Sparks, who teaches violin making there, knows what to expect before they even reach his workbench: cracks, seams that have come unglued, necks that are moving. Stringed instruments are prone to these ailments, especially in harsh climates where the contrast between indoor and outdoor temperatures is extreme.

Bloomington, Indiana, where the cold Jet Stream meets the warm Gulf Stream air, is home to the largest music school in the country. It is also one of the worst places for stringed instruments, with moldy, muggy summers and several weeks of bone-cracking winter chill.

Remember that wood expands with humidity and contracts when dry. Instruments can withstand both dry and humid environments, given time to acclimate, but quick changes invite trouble. The worst thing you can do, Sparks says, is to over-humidify your instrument in a dry environment. If your apartment or studio is too dry and you have a valuable instrument, invest in an atomizer and an accurate hygrometer that measures humidity.

“If the sponge gets bone dry in 45 minutes,” Sparks says, “it’s telling you that you’re in a dangerous environment.” In-case humidifiers are all right, too, but don’t over-soak the sponge no matter how dry the air gets.

Over-humidifying is worse than not humidifying at all.

Bundle Up
The best thing you can do is to keep your instrument in silk, a tip Sparks picked up by watching the older members of the faculty at IU. Real silk, or tightly woven cotton, seems to slow the transfer of humidity. Synthetics don’t have the same effect. Although he doesn’t have any scientific evidence to prove it, he’s seen the many repairs necessary to his own violin stop completely when he started keeping it in a silk bag inside the case.

Sparks suggests keeping your instrument’s environment as consistent as possible. A relative humidity of 35-50 percent is comfortable for homes. If you know you will be rehearsing or teaching every day in a comparatively dry building, say 20 percent humidity, consider keeping your home a bit dryer, perhaps 25 or 30 percent. If you usually walk or bike with your instrument, consider driving or taking a cab on the bitterest days.

“Use yourself as an indicator,” he says. If you are comfortable your instrument probably will be, too.
“Then ask, how long would I survive in this environment?” he adds.

If you will be comfortable outside or in a parked car for about five minutes, so will your instrument. The surrounding environment comes into the case after about five minutes. And remember, that case doesn’t have its own internal heat source! If your fingers are stiff or the skin on the back of your hands is dry and cracking, use that as an indicator of the condition your instrument is facing.