Instrument Maintenance

1. Always hold your flute by its main body, where it will not fall apart.
2. Always rinse your mouth of food particles before playing. Never chew gum or eat while playing because the acids, sugars, and your saliva combine to eat away at the instrument.
3. Use your tuning rod & tuner daily to check the tuning of your flute.
4. Always clean your flute after playing. Remove moisture from the inside and wipe away your finger oils from the outside.
5. Always put your flute away back in its case.
6. Never keep music, rags, pencils, etc. in the molded portion of your instrument case since they can damage your instrument.
7. Once a week, check to see if any screws are loose or any springs are out of place.
8. Never let anyone hold or play your instrument unless they are an accomplished flute player.
9. Never set your flute on the ground, a chair, or on a music stand where it can be knocked down, sat on, or stepped on. Use an instrument stand.
10. Never allow your pads to get wet.
11. In order to become a responsible, prepared musician, always bring:
• a pencil for marking music (not pen!!)
• music
• flute flip folder (for marching, until you completely memorize all of your music)
• your instrument, in working order
• a fingering chart (until you completely memorize all of your fingerings)
• a trill chart

1. Always hold your clarinet by its main body, where it will not fall apart.
2. Always rinse your mouth of food particles before playing. Never chew gum or eat while playing because the acids, sugars, and your saliva combine to eat away at the instrument.
3. Always clean your clarinet after playing. Remove moisture from the inside with a swab and wipe away your finger oils from the outside.
4. Always put your clarinet away back in its case.
5. Always cover the mouthpiece with a cap when not playing, even when in the case.
6. Never leave the reed on overnight. Put it in a reed holder, where it can dry flat.
7. Never keep music, rags, pencils, etc. in the molded portion of your instrument case since they can damage your instrument.
8. Once a week, clean your mouthpiece with warm water and soap (or soak it in white vinegar for 15 minutes and rinse).
9. Once a week, check to see if any screws are loose or any springs are out of place.
10. Never let anyone hold or play your instrument unless they are an accomplished clarinet player.
11. Never set your clarinet on the ground, a chair, or on a music stand where it can be knocked down, sat on, or stepped on. Never stand your clarinet on its bell on the floor. Use an instrument stand.
12. Never allow your pads to get wet.
13. In order to become a responsible, prepared musician, you should always bring:
• a pencil for marking music (not pen!!)
• music
• clarinet lyre & flip folder (for marching, until you completely memorize all of your music)
• your instrument, in working order (use cork grease)
• 3 extra reeds (label and rotate your reeds daily or weekly, so that you will always have working reeds)
• a fingering chart (until you completely memorize all of your fingerings)
• a trill chart

1. Always hold your saxophone by its main body, where it will not fall apart.
2. Always rinse your mouth of food particles before playing. Never chew gum or eat while playing because the acids, sugars, and your saliva combine to eat away at the instrument.
3. Always clean your saxophone after playing. Remove moisture from the inside with a pad saver and wipe away your finger oils from the outside.
4. Always put your saxophone away back in its case.
5. Always cover the mouthpiece with a cap when not playing, even when in the case.
6. Never leave the reed on overnight. Put it in a reed holder, where it can dry flat.
7. Never keep music, rags, pencils, etc. in the molded portion of your instrument case since they can damage your instrument.
8. Once a week, clean your mouthpiece by soaking it in warm water and white vinegar for 15 minutes and rinse).
9. Once a week, check to see if any screws are loose or any springs are out of place.
10. Never let anyone hold or play your instrument unless they are an accomplished saxophone player.
11. Never set your saxophone on the ground, a chair, or on a music stand where it can be knocked down, sat on, or stepped on. Use an instrument stand.
12. Never allow your pads to get wet.
13. In order to become a responsible, prepared musician, you should always bring:
• a pencil for marking music (not pen!!)
• music
• saxophone lyre & flip folder (for marching, until you completely memorize all of your music)
• your instrument, in working order (use cork grease)
• 3 extra reeds(label and rotate your reeds daily or weekly, so that you will always have working reeds)
• your neckstrap
• a fingering chart (until you completely memorize all of your fingerings)

Brass Care and Feeding
 

1. Always hold your horn by its main body, where it will not fall apart.
2. Always rinse your mouth of food particles before playing. Never chew gum or eat while playing because the acids, sugars, and your saliva combine to eat away at the instrument.
3. Always clean your horn after playing. Empty your spit valves and wipe away your finger oils from the outside.
4. Always put your horn away back in its case.
5. Never keep music, rags, pencils, etc. in the molded portion of your instrument case since they can damage your instrument.
6. Once a week, clean your mouthpiece with water and a mouthpiece brush.
7. Once a week, check to see if any valve caps or screws are loose.
8. Oil valves once a week and when needed. Use rotor oil for rotory valves. Trombonists need to remove slide cream and replace it (on the runners at the ends of the slides only) once a week.
9. Every two weeks, use slide grease or vaseline to keep the tuning slides from sticking. Never force a stuck tuning slide.
10. Once a month, remove all the valves (make sure they are numbered or label them) and slides and give your brass instrument a bath in warm to cool water (never hot), using cleaning snakes to clean the inside of the instrument. After drying the horn with a soft towel, clean out each slide, put slide grease on, and replace them. Finally, carefully rinse the valves (use Q-tips to remove any gunk), put valve oil on, and carfully replace them.
11. Never let anyone hold or play your instrument unless they are an accomplished brass player.
12. Never set your horn on the ground, a chair, or on a music stand where it can be knocked down, sat on, or stepped on. Never stand a horn upright on its bell. Use an instrument stand.
13. Never hit the mouthpiece to make popping sounds because it ruins the lead pipe and gets the mouthpiece stuck. Do not attempt to pull out a stuck mouthpiece by yourself.
14. Never pull out tuning slides without pressing the appropriate valve to release the air pressure.
15. In order to become a responsible, prepared musician, you should always bring:
• a pencil for marking music (not pen!!)
• music
• lyre & flip folder (for marching, until you completely memorize all of your music)
• your instrument, in working order (use valve oil, slide grease, rotor oil, slide cream, spray bottle)
• a fingering chart (until you completely memorize all of your fingerings)

The majority of percussion maintenance projects will involve changing or tuning heads. Use the following procedure when working with snare, bass, or tom heads:
 

1. Remove the head(s). If they are old or worn, replace them (even if they are not broken). If replacing, be sure to use heads that are appropriate for the drum’s function.
2. Remove all debris inside the drum, tighten any screws, nuts, or bolts attached to the shell.
3. Wipe off or lightly sand the shell’s rims.
4. Clean and lubricate the lugs and tension rods.
5. Remount the head(s), and tighten the tension rods. Use cross-tensioning, consecutively tightening opposite tension rods. Turn each tension rod no more than 1/2 turn before proceeding to the next rod (a 1/4 turn for finer adjustments). Repeat the cross-tensioning sequence until all slack is removed.
6. Seat the head(s) by applying pressure to the center of the head.
7. Set the drum on a soft surface to dampen the “bottom” head. Fine tune the “batter” head by tapping it with a stick or mallet 2 to 3 inches from each lug. (For snare, make sure the snares are off.) Using cross-tensioning, adjust the tension rods in small increments so that each of these points produces exactly the same pitch. Seat the head after each adjustment.
8. Turn the drum over & repeat.
9. On snare, adjust the snares until a crisp, responsive sound is producef at all dynamic levels.
10. Never let anyone hold or play your instrument unless they are an accomplished percussionist.
11. Never set your instrument where it can be knocked down, sat on, or stepped on.
12. Always put your instrument away back in the appropriate space in the percussion room.
13. Always clean your instrument after playing - especially wipe away your finger oils from cymbals
14. Never chew gum or eat while playing because you will not play in time, & will look bovine (like a cow).
15. In order to become a responsible, prepared musician, you should always bring:
• a pencil for marking music (not pen!!)
• music
• lyre & flip folder (for marching, until you completely memorize all of your music)
• your instrument, in working order
• sticks, mallets, beaters, stands, clips, practice pad, pitch pipe, stick bags, etc.
• drum key