Ok, brass players. Time for a confession. We've all been there. We've neglected cleaning our horns as often as we know we should, slap extra oil in it and pretend everything is fine. Slowly but surely, the valves and/or slides become slightly harder to move, but we don't really worry about it till it gets to the point things don't move at all.
The brass surfaces need to be clean to work as well as they should. Period. End of post.
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Okay, okay, I'll temper that back. Your brass instrument doesn't need to be so perfectly clean that it's as if the horn has never been played. There is a middle ground, and doesn't take long at all. In fact, it will take less time per month than an a typical cartoon episode on tv, and will save you from having to run to a technician to deep clean it just so it will work again.
For cleaning a brass instrument, there are only a few things you need to know how to do. First, you need to know how to completely disassemble and reassemble your instrument. For any brass instrument, this should only take 2-3 minutes (Rotary valves, you are a different set of requirements, so don't worry about most of this, I'll talk about your instrument later) This includes bumper corks and felts on the valve. Being able to take your horn apart gives you the ability to also check on all the parts on their own to figure out what is going on with your brass.
For tools, all you will need for cleaning is soap, a tub of warm water, a rag, an old tooth brush, a 3 inch wide scrap of fabric and a towel. For soap, you need something that will degrease things well. I prefer Dawn dish soap. If it's strong and safe enough to remove crude oil spills from birds, it's perfect for your instrument. The bathtub is perfect for cleaning almost any instrument, as the entire thing can fit in it in pieces.
One of my favorite tools for cleaning is an old toothbrush I don't care about anymore. Put the soap directly on it, and go to town. For piston valves, it's great for cleaning the inside of the valve casings, and all of the valve itself. Don't try to use it inside slides it won't fit in, it'll get stuck and then you'll have to pay to get it removed. The rag can be used for larger sections that using the brush would take forever
Once it's clean, and rinsed, rinse it again. I'm serious. There's more grit left on those surfaces that you can't see. Now, use the dry towel to clean off all the slides, and use the fabric scrap to wipe down inside the casing and in hard to reach areas. Once it's dry, time for oil. Valves and valve casings need oil now, not just one. And get something on the slides. Any surfaces that move when you play need something to protect them.
The oil is there to slow down wear and tear, not to make things move. If there is too much oil or lots of old oil on things, it can slow things down as quickly as anything else. Using it to make things move is a recipe to have lots of work cleaning it off later.
Doing this should only take 20 minutes every month, unless things are bad. This should help to prolong your instruments life and will only need a deep cleaning annually at most. This is like brushing your teeth so your yearly trip to the dentist doesn't result in 20 cavities to be fixed.
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