Care and Maintenance for your Brass Instrument

How Often Should I Clean My Instrument?

Clean your mouthpiece with a mouthpiece brush and a little gentle liquid soap at least once a week. If you want to avoid the mouthpiece getting stuck in the instrument, you can oil the lead pipe once a week or so. Generally, you’ll want to give your entire brass instrument a good cleaning once a month. You can tell when this needs to be done if the lead pipe begins to smell. Each month, you should flush out your instrument to clean out the dirt that’s accumulated. Doing so will also prevent corrosion. One great place you can do this is in a bathtub. Start by filling the tub with lukewarm water and a mild soap. Avoid using detergent. Before submerging your instrument, you should remove all tuning slides, unscrew the top and bottom valve caps, and remove the valves. You’ll want to make sure to remove any felts on the valves so they don’t get wet. Use a brush to clean the instruments tubes. After you’re done cleaning all of the tubing, you’ll dry the instrument. Put any felts that you removed back on the valves and reassemble the instrument. Remember to use a quality valve oil.

Jerry Kennedy