What kind of basic saxophone maintenance should I do?

The short answer is: keep the horn and pads clean.

There are a couple of easy steps you can do to help your saxophone stay in good playing shape.

If you eat or drink anything before (or while!) you play, your saliva is going to carry this through the mouthpiece and neck and down into the horn. It will slowly coat the pads and shorten their life – besides increase the likelihood of leaks.

Of course, we don’t always brush teeth right before we play, but just rinsing your mouth with water will go a long way to keep food & sugar from migrating into your saxophone.

Two additional small steps will be of great help in keeping the horn clean:

(1) Every time after you play, clean the saxophone mouthpiece and wipe off any obvious spit platters from the horn.

(2) For cleaning the mouthpiece and neck, you can use a pull-through swab. A small silk swab works well. Make sure it is small enough so it doesn’t get stuck inside the neck, especially where the octave pip can catch it!

A small neck brush works equally well. You can use a little dish washing detergent and water for best cleaning. The swab and brush can be used to clean your mouthpiece as well.

For the inside of the rest of the horn, I recommend using a pull through swab and then let it air dry, preferably outside of the sax case so as not to seal in the moisture.

Besides increasing the chances of sticky pads, packing the horn away “wet” also increases the chance of corrosion.

I hope these basic maintenance suggestions will help keep your saxophone in good playing shape!