How to Clean Wind Instruments

Summary: A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. Wind instruments usually fall into one of two categories: woodwind or brass instruments. Although brass instruments were originally made of brass and woodwind instruments have traditionally been made of wood, the material used to make the body of the instrument is not always a reliable guide to its family type. A more accurate way to determine whether an instrument is brass or woodwind is to examine how the player produces sound.

When you play wind instruments, it's important to remember that they have to be cleaned like anything else for top performance. In this free video series, a music repairman will teach you how to clean a trumpet as an example of wind instrument cleaning. You'll learn different types of instruments first, then move on to tools, taking apart trumpets, cleaning, lubricating, and finally polishing trumpets. If you follow these cleaning instructions and techniques, you'll keep your trumpets, woodwinds, or brass in great shape. So, keep on playing!