Saxophonists, If You’re NOT Doing THIS… Please Start!

If you’re not cleaning your saxophone after you play, it’s kind of gross. You don’t just use the same fork, spoons, and cups without washing them right? I’m going to show you very quickly the daily swabbing you should do on your horn, neck, mouthpiece, and even some of the pads.

How To Swab a Saxophone Body

When I finish playing, first I remove the neck with the mouthpiece still attached and put it down. Then I take a saxophone body swab and pass it through the horn a few times. I go through the bell first, it’s a bigger target for the weighted end therefore easier.

Step 1, put string into bell

Step 2, pull through the top

I know some people like to go through the top of the horn and depending on your swab, it shouldn’t really matter too much which way you go. Some of the swabs that have those plastic things in the middle might be harder to pull through that way though.

Most of the moisture is going to be in the bow and at the top of the tube around the palm keys and left hand keys. We really want to get this as dry as possible and I find that three passes will usually do the trick. You just have to get the hang of getting the weight to go around the curve of the bow, and then this is very easy.

Once I’ve done that I’ll quickly wipe off any moisture that is on the outside of the horn. You’ll usually find some on the bell area and on the top of the bow. This is a lot easier to get off while it’s still wet.

How To Swab A Saxophone Neck and Mouthpiece

Now I put the body aside or back in its case and remove the mouthpiece from the neck. I’ve got a separate swab for the neck and mouthpiece because the diameter of the tube is a lot smaller.

You want an absorbent microfiber swab that can pass through both the neck and your mouthpiece easily. There’s a lot of moisture in here after playing and if we don’t swab it out we will eventually get gunky buildup and calcium deposits which can be pretty difficult to remove and will smell funky. Again, I pass the weight through the larger hole because it’s a lot easier.

Now I put the body aside or back in its case and remove the mouthpiece from the neck. I’ve got a separate swab for the neck and mouthpiece because the diameter of the tube is a lot smaller.

You want an absorbent microfiber swab that can pass through both the neck and your mouthpiece easily. There’s a lot of moisture in here after playing and if we don’t swab it out we will eventually get gunky buildup and calcium deposits which can be pretty difficult to remove and will smell funky. Again, I pass the weight through the larger hole because it’s a lot easier.

Three passes with this swab gets everything nice and dry and clean. I’ll then wipe off the tenon as we need to keep this part of the horn very clean so that the neck always fits smoothly.

Now we put our neck aside or back in the case and we remove the reed. I store my reeds in a good reed case and I recommend you do as well. Now pass the swab through the mouthpiece. Same story here, if you don’t do this your mouthpiece will stink, it’ll get gunk building up inside it and calcium deposits.

And for the person who’s writing in the comments right now, “don’t swab out your mouthpiece you’ll ruin it”, that is complete and utter nonsense. You can swab out a hard rubber, metal, or plastic mouthpiece a million times with a microfiber swab and it’s never going to cause any damage.

Once that’s all dry, I will wipe off the exterior as this part can also get pretty funky.

How To Use A Saxophone Pad Cleaner

Lastly, I will take this little pad cleaner and wipe moisture away from a few tone holes where it typically builds up. Mainly the palm keys and left hand keys but anywhere you find moisture you should wipe it away.

Once your horn is clean and dry you can put it back in the case, but make sure you do not also put your wet swab in there as well. We want to store our instrument in a dry environment so it’s best to keep the swabs in an outside pocket that’s not completely closed so they can dry out too. The whole process probably takes about 1 minute or less once you’ve done it a bunch of times and get the hang of it.

BetterSax Ultimate Sax Swab Kit

As a repair technician I developed a bit of a revulsion to other people’s never cleaned out nasty saxophones. In order to get those working right you’ve got to clean this disgusting gunk slime and crust out of every crevice. Only to give the horn back perfectly clean knowing it’s going to be super funky again in a matter of days.

Not only does keeping your sax dry and clean have an enormous impact on how well it plays, it also helps it retain value. And we’re not even getting into the hygiene part of this. We do not want science experiments growing in our saxophone or its case, so I developed this swab kit that is everything I used in this video in one package.

BetterSax Ultimate Sax Swab Kit

You get the perfect microfiber body swab, the perfect neck and mouthpiece swab, and a pad cleaner all together. I’ve been using these for years on all my saxophones and they are super durable. Thousands of saxophonists around the world are loving using their BetterSax Ultimate Swab Kits, and if you don’t have one yet I recommend you go pick one up.

These are now available to purchase at bettersax.com, sweetwater.com, Amazon in the US and Thomann in the EU. You can click the link in the description or visit bettersax.com to order now. Check out this video next for more essential saxophone accessory recommendations.