There are guidelines available for musicians to follow all of the time. However, now more than ever, the importance of keeping you and your instrument healthy is something that many musicians are concerned about. In this blog, we’ll share how to best do this.
Keeping You Healthy
We’re sure you’ve already seen plenty of guidelines for how to best avoid catching or spreading Covid.
For this reason, we’re going to just focus on specific things you can do as a musician.
First of all, wash your hands properly – Washing your hands is one of the easiest ways to keep yourself safe. Wash often with soap for 20 seconds. Then dry. This kills the virus by bursting its protective bubble.
Here are some other tips:
– Don’t share instruments or mouthpieces: We understand that this is sometimes unavoidable, so make sure
you sterilise them properly first. Please do not share any reeds (even synthetic reeds) !
– Clean your instrument properly: More guidance on this in the second part of this blog
– Try to eat well and keep moving: Going for a walk, doing some stretches at home, clean your
instrument..etc.
– Try to also be conscious of your own general well being: Finding things that can help you relax and stay
calm…and Love yourself J
Keeping Your Instrument Healthy
A key part of keeping yourself healthy as a musician, is making sure that your instrument is healthy too. This is something that is all too often neglected by musicians, of all levels and ages. As we all know, we should be cleaning our wind instruments EVERY time we finish playing, but this is now even more important, given the current situation.
Drying Your Instrument:
As ever, it’s incredibly important to remove the moisture from inside of your instrument every time you’ve finished playing. The most effective way to do this is to use a cleaning swab/pull-through to prevent a build-up of residue within the instrument – Please wash your cleaning swab/pull-through and pad saver on a regular basis. Please note too that a pad saver is NOT swab and is used after instrument has been swabbed.
Sanitising Your Mouthpiece:
It is also crucial that you clean the mouthpiece of your instrument. This part is more likely to be contaminated with bacteria, yeasts and moulds than any other part of the instrument – This is the part that you put in your mouth! By not cleaning the mouthpiece regularly, musicians are subjecting themselves to possible infections or allergic reactions. Also, please NEVER leave your reed on a mouthpiece.
Bathing Your Brass Instrument:
For brass players, there’s an additional step that should be taken. It’s important to give your instrument a bath every once in a while. To do this, we recommend taking the following steps:
1. Take your instrument apart – Removing valves, slides, valve caps, etc. (it might be helpful to label each part
so you don’t have too much trouble putting it back together again afterwards!)
2. Fill your bath with lukewarm water, and add your chosen liquid detergent
3. Place your instrument inside the bath, on top of a towel so it doesn’t get scratched
4. Allow your instrument to soak for approx 10-15 minutes
5. Use a snake brush and valve brush to scrub the inside of your instrument and remove any build-up
6. You should then run water through the tubing until it runs clean
7. Rinse your instrument to remove any dirty water
8. Rotate your instrument well several times to make sure all of the water has come out
9. Dry with a clean towel
10. Apply slide grease and valve oil when reassembling the parts
11. Play test the instrument to make sure everything has been put back on the right place!
Remember, this recommendation is for brass instruments only – DO NOT soaking your woodwind instrument such as clarinets, flutes, saxophones…etc in the bath, please!
If you are interested in maintenance/care products, please click your instrument as below and then you can see available products from DR TOOT:
Piccolos/Flutes
Clarinets
Saxophones
Oboes/Bassoons
Cornets/Flugelhorns
Trombones
Trumpets
Lower Brass
French Horns
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to contact us anytime – Email: info@drtoot.com
PS Credit to Hannah (BBICO)