Taking Care of your Baritone / Euphonium

To clean your instrument you will need :     Cleaning Snake

                                                                    Mouthpiece Brush

                                                                     Valve Brush

                                                                     Valve Oil

                                                                     Tuning Slide Grease

                                                                     Towel for Drying

                                                                     Soft Cloth for washing instrument

                                                                     Bathtub

                                                                     Large Bowl with Water

                                                                      Dishwashing Soap

In preparing to clean your instrument you should do the following:

Fill bathtub with 6 to 8 inches of lukewarm water, no hotter than you would normally take a bath in.

Unscrew top valve caps, remove them from the valve casings and if you need to label them with numbers for valves 1, 2 and 3 it would be a good idea. Also remove the bottom valve caps and springs. Put all of the valves, caps and springs into the bowl of water to soak. Remove all of the tuning slides and when you have that done put the tuning slides and the instrument into bathtub to soak. Go to the bowl of water and get the soft cloth wet and put some dishwashing soap on it Wash each valve, rinse and dry them and put them somewhere that they will not get injured. Also wash all of the bottom valve caps and springs and put them with the valves so that they are all together. Take out your cleaning snake and put one end in the bathtub and get it wet, put some dishwashing soap on it and snake through each tuning slide by applying the soaped end of the cleaning snake to the inside of each tuning slide and work it through until clean and remember to rinse the soap out and dry each tuning slide and set them aside with the valves and stuff.
 Now take your instrument and your cleaning snake and clean out all of the tubes where the tuning slides used to be and rinse out the soap each time you cleaned something with the cleaning snake. Take your valve brush and get it wet, put soap on it and clean each valve casing where your valves used to be and also remember to rinse when you are done. Take your instrument out of the water and flush out all of the water from the inside of it and when all of the water is out of it dry it off with the towel. Get out your bottom valve caps and springs and put them back on the instrument. Take your valve oil and the valves and take the labels off each valve and generously put valve oil on the valve and work the valve back into the instrument and screw it back in. Do this with all of your valves one at a time.
Get out your tuning slide grease and the tuning slides. Put the tuning slide grease on one tube of a tuning slide, work the tuning slide into the instrument, take the slide out and repeat the same process on the other tube and then put the whole tuning slide into the instrument. Do this with all of your tuning slides. Get out the mouthpiece brush and your mouthpiece and get your mouthpiece brush wet in the water and put soap on it. Brush through the mouthpiece with it and when rinsed out you can dry it off with your towel. I would suggest that you give your instrument a bath every 3 months and brush out your mouthpiece once a week. If you keep your instrument clean it will play much better and will also last a long, long time.