As many of you musicians or music lovers know, a part of playing your musical instrument is keeping it properly maintained. It’s a crucial and often under appreciated part of playing an instrument. The care with which you treat your instrument is equal to the care with which you play the instrument. Let’s explore some reasons why maintenance of your musical instrument is so important!         

SOUND

Music is a vibration and is built to emanate sound waves! A clean, well maintained instrument sounds better and allows for it to vibrate at it’s best. Even the smallest thing can impact the quality of your sound as a player of the instrument and how you hear and respond to music within a piece. Think of a person wearing glasses that have slowly become dirty, or a house with an ocean view whose windows over time have slightly dirtied; when the glass is cleaned, suddenly everything sparkles, and you wonder how you could ever have withstood that lack of clarity. So, let your instrument sing as clearly as possible, and the clarity of your playing will follow!

FUNCTION

Every instrument functions its best when clean and well-maintained. This goes beyond the sound and more so into playability. A worn or soiled tone hole pad can result in a slight stickiness and impact its playability, which can impact how you play. Human beings are so adaptable, and sometimes a player will adapt his or her playing style without even knowing it and trying to overcome an instruments mechanical issues.

MAINTENANCE VS REPAIR

And finally, remember there’s a big difference between maintenance and repair. The universal law of maintenance versus repair applies equally to your car as it does here music instrument. A car just like a saxophone will have oil built up and eventually become more harsh and less like a lubricant. You can’t just keep adding oil, you need to change it. If you keep playing with old oil, you’ll damage the instrument and the repair will cost too much, much more than fresh oil would have. Keep your instrument functioning as it was intended to and you’ll avoid big fixes later. And if you maintain your instrument, you’ll sound better, play more, and be more inspired. So just be cool: maintain your instrument.