Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Byakuya San is here to ask you a very important question!

So I play the trombone in my school's band, and I have NO idea how to clean it (the band instructor last year wasn't very good at telling us how to take care of our instruments). The only materials I really have to work with are my trombone, a tiny bottle of slide grease, water, and soap, though I could probably get more materials if need be.
Specifically, I'd like to know how to clean the mouthpiece well, and maybe how to clean the inside of the slide. If nobody can help, I suppose I'll have to find out elsewhere, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Well I played trombone briefly (for like, 4 weeks) in my college "brass" class, and from what I remember, this site looks like it has pretty accurate instructions for major cleaning: http://www.trombone.org/jfb/library/jfb-keepitclean.asp
As for more abbreviated version: http://musicappreciation.suite101.com/article.cfm/cleaning_your_trombone
If someone plays the trombone more frequently, they may be able to provide you with more details (or verify if this is entirely accurate or not)....but hopefully that helps!

Music teacher to the rescue!

To clean your mouthpiece, get a mouthpiece brush from your local music store. They only cost a couple dollars. Run the brush through the mouthpiece a couple times with running water and that will clean it out just fine for you. If you want to disinfect your mouthpiece, get some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls or gauze pads.

As for cleaning your trombone, take the slide off and rub the inside slides with just a plain tissue (or a couple depending on how dirty it is). Then apply new slide grease. Also clean your tuning slide the same way.

That's about it. If you want anything more than that done, your local repair shop has some special goo that they can clean your instrument with. My advice would be to never put your trombone in the bathtub and try to clean it with soap and water. Leave that kind of stuff to the professionals.

Good luck! The world needs more trombone players!

Just don't do what I did when the bridge in my violin fell off. I freaked and thought I broke it and superglued the thing back onto the violin!!

O: after your previous post on you Doing It YOUR Way, I don't know whether to trust you or nor, Kym.

D: cannot express my feelings enough.

Thanks Pickles and mayanspypilot, that's exactly the advice I needed (my local music store is tiny and might not have the right supplies, though). There is another person in the band who has been taking private trombone lessons from her grandfather for years, so if what you suggested doesn't work, I suppose I'll ask her for help.