Hi Camille and string luver. Hopefully you are enjoying your beginning viola experience. You are absolutely right, a brand new cake of rosin does look more like gel or glass than powder. To get it started, it helps to slightly damage the surface of the cake with some sand paper. That`ll get it to apply better to the bow hair as well. There are some wonderful low-dust rosins out there that will not collect as heavily on the instrument varnish. Guillaume is my personal favorite - a few internet shops carry it, just run a search. Along with cleaning off the rosin dust from the viola and bow stick after playing, it is also a good idea to occasionally clean rosin off the strings with an alcohol pad, but do not let the alcohol touch the varnish. As for how much to put on - 8 swipes will usually do the trick. Hope this helps.

you should scratch the rosin with a penny before using it. scratch it till a bit of powder residue appears. otherwise the rosin will have no effect on the box. ne more questions feel free to ask.

<3 lauren

i tryed rubbing sand paper on a bit, now it looks like white scratches. is this wat its suppose to look like? will it still work

if u hate answering these beginner questions, why did u go to the rosin thread? face it, i got caught showing ur true colors.

i hate to say it (but i will anyways because this guy get`s on my nerves way too much)... they guy is so friggin rude. if only people could reach into their monitors and slap the people on the other side... ¬_¬``` whenever s/he goes to bassoon chat he tries to give a good answer (sometimes he knows what s/he`s talking about), but then always has to be rude about it... by adding useless crap like:

"i knew that and i don`t even play the bassoon!"

WELL GOOD FOR YOU! but a lot of the times you`re wrong... o_O;; and one time he said that to someone who didn`t even play the bassoon before? does this person have ANY mercy for n00bs?!?!??! *sigh*

and what was with that post, with something like:
"oh, and might as well rent one instead of buying one in case you pull off a bassoonist, deciding to play something and then changing your mind"
what, did a bassoonist beat you up when you were a kid? or did a bassoon beat you up when you were a kid? i mean you are so awfully rude in ALL of your posts that it just needs to be put out there. out of all these trolls on this site, you`re the one that`s said the most negative comments on the bassoon. what is your deal?!?!

jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.

forgot to change all the HEs to S/HEs... w/e... probably a guy anyways, never met a girl that rude ¬_¬

To "string luver"

Yes, now that you see the white scratches, the rosin`ll work great. That gets the powder going. If you want to see that it`s getting on the bow hair, you should see a white residue on your strings. If you draw the bow across the leg of your jeans, it should leave a white streak (washable, of course). If you have any questions about anything, I`d be happy to help. I have some experience (two university degrees in viola, play professionally, and have a private studio. I will not give a rude answer, as you`ve had to deal with before. Here`s the adress corrinayadon@bresnan.net

you know, godzilla violist, there are a lot more people who have just as much knowledge as you but are willing to give it without the bad attitude.

...like c.n.y for example. thankyou, c.n.y for giving some useful advice to String luver. I think it was really nice of you.

U may just wanna use rosin dust for the first time, as it`ll take very long to get enough bite on a new bow.
Or relatively, if yr rosin is new as well( like someone had already mentioned), just scratched it with a penny or anything that`ll make the dust particles come out. U don`t want to rub a new bow on a `glossy`/ glass like rosin surface... it`ll take forever( no, not that long, but long enough to bore u)
Happy Learning.

Jay, you made the second quote up entirely. I`ve never said that.