Students often ask me about cleaning their trumpet.
All brass instruments need to be cleaned regularly. Just how often depends on how much you play. For the average school/hobby player, every few months should be fine. Players putting alot of hours on the horn may have to clean it out every few weeks. You can get an idea of how ‘dirty’ your horn is by pulling out the tuning slide and mouthpiece and simply looking down the leadpipe.
To clean your trumpet, you will need:
- A sink/tub large enough to fit your horn.
- A few bowls for the smaller components. Salad bowls work great.
- 3 or 4 towels of various sizes.
- Trumpet cleaning brushes (trumpet snake, valve brush, mouthpiece brush).
- Valve oil, slide grease.
The whole procedure should take about 45 minutes.
- Line your sink with a towel. Do the same with the bowls. You don’t want to scratch or dent your horn while you’re cleaning it.
Fill the sink/tub and at least one bowl with lukewarm water. Do not use hot water. Hot water can strip the lacquer off of your trumpet. - Disassemble your trumpet.
Remove all slides (1st, 2nd, 3rd valves and tuning slide).
Remove the valves. Be sure to keep track of which is which. Most valves have numbers stamped on them, but not all.
If you want to, you can carefully disassemble the valves as well. Unscrew the caps, remove the felts, and keep felts and corks in a separate dry container. - Soak all parts of your trumpet. Larger parts can go in the sink, small and delicate parts should go in the bowls. Let it soak for 30 minutes. Feel free to go watch some TV.
- Scrub all parts with the appropriate brushes. You can use any non-abrasive dish soap. I recommend putting a little bit of soap on the brushes themselves. You don’t want to use soap on the outside of the horn if you can avoid it. Brush and rinse all pipes, slides, valves, etc.
- After cleaning, let all components dry on a towel. Oil/grease appropriate parts and reassemble the trumpet.
Remember to take your time, especially when taking apart or reassembling your trumpet. Do not force anything. If parts are stuck, you may want to take it to your local technician.