Caring For Your Brass Buddy
Caring for your trumpet should be like caring for a friend. And in essence, your instrument is your friend - a friend that converts your expressions into sounds. You and your buddy create music together.
Some people believe that cleaning isn't necessary, but I believe baths are hygienic and healthy. Nature washes everything with rain, including the air and stones, for a reason.
But your buddy will only be as good as you treat him or her. If you carelessly toss your buddy around, she will develop dings and dents that not only mar the beauty of her body, but can create tuning problems.
If you neglect his insides, he could get clogged up and smelly. Clogs can also affect your tuning, but worse, it will create a smaller airway for you to blow through. This creates a higher chance of back pressure, which can cause you to get dizzy because you'll have to blow harder to get the air through.
Odors can be caused by molds and bacteria that will grow if you don't clean your instrument. These aren't the kinds of molds that can make you sick, but they will get super stinky. You can have bad breath from breathing these molds.
An occassional buddy bath will prevent those clogs and odors (about every six months or so - unless you eat a lot before you play; then you need to clean it more).
Materials You Need for the Care of Your Buddy
You should have a cleaning and maintenance kit that includes:
- a snake (a long piece of coiled metal with two little brushes on either end)
- a mouthpiece brush
- a valve brush
- valve oil (Al Cass Fast Valve Oil is the most reliable)
- slide grease (slide grease should allow your slides to move easily without falling out, prevent rusting and sticking - I like Roche-Thomas)
- a polishing cloth that is either for brass- or silver -plated instruments depending on your instrument
The Buddy Bath
Cleaning your instrument isn't hard. Just a few simple steps and you'll have a clean instrument. Remember to be careful with the parts! Dents happen easily and if you bend something, it won't fit back together again.
1. Fill up your bathtub with about 2-3 inches of warm water - not too hot because your instrument is metal and you don't want to burn your hands - not too cold or the gunk inside won't get loose enough to come out. Grab a few old towels and a washcloth that can get dirty.
2. Pull all your slides off, including your tuning slide, and gently put them in the water. Before taking out the valves, see where the number on the valve goes so you can replace it properly. Carefully take out the valves, including the bottom caps, and put them in the water. Don't twist your valves inside their casings! That can cause scratching inside the piston casing and slow your valve action down and may cause damage.
3. Submerge the body and your mouthpiece into the water. Let everything soak in the water for about 10-15 minutes.
4. Now it's time for the cleaning. It doesn't matter what part you do first. Push the snake through the tubing and pull it out the other side so both brush ends go through the tubing. You can also use a back and forth push/pull movement as you make your way through the tubing - but the design of the snake makes going from one end the other easiest.
When you do your slides you may have to push a little harder for the snake to go around the smaller bends. just be careful not to dig the metal end of the snake into your instrument's metal. Pull the snake back out if it won't go all the way through and do each end of your slides separately. Snake every inch of tubing you can.
As you finish with each piece, you can lay them on one of the towels. Be careful not to step on anything!
5. The valve brush is for the valve casing. The brush material is softer than the other brushes so that you don't scratch the inside of your valve casing. You should use the valve brush for the openings on your valves, too. Be careful not to scratch your valves or casings with the metal end of the brush!
6. Use your mouthpiece brush for the mouthpiece. You can and should twist this brush to clean your mouthpiece shank thoroughly. It's usually the dirtiest part. You can also use this brush for the smaller tubes, like the 2nd valve tube and slide.
7. Once your done brushing everything, dry it all off with a towel. Using a valve stick or a plain old chopstick, wrap the washcloth around to cover the end and gently push it through your valve casing. Be very careful in there - don't scratch the casing!
8. Put oil on your valves (put the valves in the way the came out - remember the number?) and grease on your slides and put everything back together. You don't have to cake the grease on, but enough to coat the slide. Push slides back and forth, then close the slide and wipe excess grease off. I suggest putting some valve oil on the 1st and 3rd valve to thin the grease and allow these slides to move freely and easily for tuning.
9. Use the polishing cloth and make it all shiny. Give it a couple toots and make sure everything is back in place. If you can't get air through or it sounds sick, you have the valves in wrong.
Choosing Your Instrument
Your instrument should be free of dents, bent tubing, or broken valves, slides, and water keys. Your water keys should have adequate cork material that successfully eliminates any air leakage through the water key. The key eliminates the moisture inside your instrument.
If you still need to choose an instrument, I am happy to give advice about rentals or purchasing instruments. I will also inspect instruments, if needed, before you commit to a purchase to insure that you are paying for something worthy of your money.