What’s the two-minute routine that prevents most repairs?

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 the bow stick (rosin caked on the stick is no good for it), loosen the bow hair, lay the case down on its side.

That is the daily two minutes, and most of what crosses our bench would have been prevented by it.

Add one monthly item for brass players, because it is the one that turns into the biggest repairs when skipped: work the tuning slides. Pull each one, wipe it, a little fresh grease, put it back. A tuning slide that sits untouched slowly fuses in place, metal to metal, and after a couple of years the only way out involves heat and sometimes a torch. Thirty seconds a month, or ask us to do it when you are passing; it is a while-you-wait job and we would genuinely rather do it now than free a seized one later.