Orchestra : The Importance of Maintaining Your Instrument

The basics for maintaining your instrument

Clarinets and Oboe

  1. The small mechanisms and features of woodwind instruments can make them temperamental at times and sensitive to aggressive hands. Setting up and breaking down the instrument is a sensitive operation. Follow these basic guidelines:
  2. Minimize your hand pressure on the keys, avoid touching them
  3. Allow for a playing/breaking in period of time so that wood can contract and expand with the environment – warm, moist air will cause the wood to expand, cold, dry air will cause it to contract
  4. Cracks cause air to leak out and can never fully be recovered to the original state
  5. New wooden instruments can be played often, but only for 15 minutes at a time in the first week, increase playing time over the next few weeks
  6. Dry the bore (inside) thoroughly with a weighted pull-through cloth to soak up excess moisture from the bore pads
  7. Once a month have a skilled technician or instructor put about three drops of bore oil on a pull-through cloth and pull it through the instrument to replace the natural oils that have been lost by the wood through evaporation – avoid the pads in this process
  8. A small paintbrush is recommended to remove fingerprints that tarnish keys over time