Zig Ziglar often refers to cleaning our mindset as much as we bathe – i.e. daily.
Why is that?
Because we can easily let all sorts of unhelpful, even harmful thoughts take hold and grow, and that can significantly affect not only us, but those around us, too. We might even end up believing things that aren’t actually real, as a result.
It’s the same with our instruments
Especially our voices, brass instruments, woodwind instruments, and even string instruments.
In the same way that we bathe our bodies and minds daily, we should also clean our instruments regularly!
Photo courtesy of Frederick Symphony Orchestra
Here are some simple steps
These are from a product manufacturer (no affiliation with DMS. If you want to support the DMS when buying products, use smile.amazon.com and select the Dunedin Music Society as your charity of choice! We earned almost $400 from Amazon donations last year!)
Some detailed PDF downloads
Mr. Rhymes seems to run several ensembles in California, mostly for kids, and has some sound advice about cleaning (pun intended!)
General advice for string players
These are from the American String Teachers Association, primarily for USA string teachers as opposed to all the Americas, but just as useful for players, too!
And, of course, there is always
YouTube!
So please do take care your instrument(s) as much as yourself. Multiple scientific studies in recent years resulted in wildly varying assumptions about instruments carrying and spreading diseases and viruses, and we continue to explore and learn more by consensus on a daily basis.
But the bottom line is this: clean your instrument regularly, regardless!
