The two minutes after practice that prevent most of the repairs we do. Swabbing a woodwind, oiling brass valves, wiping rosin off strings, and keeping an instrument away from radiators in winter. None of it is difficult and none of it takes long, but the difference between a student who does it and one who doesn’t shows up on our bench by March.
Five habits would prevent most of it: use a sturdy case and treat carrying the cello as part of playing it, run a humidifier in winter, oil brass valves and grease the slides, grease clarinet corks before assembly, and swab…
Woodwinds: swab it out, take the reed off, dry the joints, close the case. Brass: empty the water key, wipe the outside, oil the valves a few times a week. Strings: wipe the rosin off the strings, the body, and…
A trombone has two slides and they are not the same thing. The hand slide, the long one the player moves, wants slide cream or oil plus a light mist of water, never thick grease. The tuning slide, the short…
The whole job takes two minutes. Take off the reed and ligature, run the mouthpiece under warm (not hot) water with a drop of mild soap, work a mouthpiece brush through it (the small tapered brush made exactly for this),…
Every time it goes away: drop the swab’s weight through from barrel to bell and pull it through a couple of times. Take the reed off and store it flat in a reed case. Dry the tenons after pulling the…
Swab the inside with the cleaning rod after every single session. Not weekly. Every time. Moisture left in the tube is what ruins pads, and it is also why some flutes come back to our bench smelling like last week’s…
The short version: empty the water key and wipe the horn down after playing, oil the valves a few times a week, work the tuning slides with fresh grease monthly, and give it a full bath about once a year,…
Yes. Dry winter heat shrinks the wood, which means slipping pegs, constant tuning drift, open seams, and in the worst cases a cracked top. The fix is cheap: a humidifier in the room where your child practices from December through…