John P

Up until seventh grade, I didn't even know that a trumpet required cleaning. Not that I played it enough to really get it dirty...But after two years of playing it in band, there was some seriously nasty stuff in there. One day, I went to play into the horn and, to my surprise, I could barely move any air through it. I took the horn to my lesson teacher and asked if it was broken. He took the tuning slide out and looked down the leadpipe. He then showed it to me. I couldn't believe what I saw. There was so much gunk built up that the opening in the leadpipe was about as wide as the throat on my mouthpiece! My teacher took it to the bathroom and ran a snake through it. He nicknamed the green mass that came out of the leadpipe "a dead rat."

Ever since then, I've been sure to keep any horn I own squeaky clean. It makes a huge difference in every aspect of playing.

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JP