This post will talk about easy cleaning options for saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces. Loads of places tell you how to keep your mouthpiece clean and talk about how you need to wash it out regularly, but it’s often more difficult to find out how to clean it when it’s really disgusting! I’m going to assume you haven’t cleaned your mouthpiece for months (or longer!!) and talk about the easiest way to get it clean, with hardly any effort!
Leaving your mouthpiece to soak in vinegar is probably the easiest way to clean it effectively. You can use any vinegar for this, it doesn’t have to be white vinegar. It won’t damage the mouthpiece so if it’s really dirty, soak it entirely in vinegar over night.
I recently cleaned a mouthpiece I had that had got quite mouldy from being used and put away with cleaning or drying. I got thinking about the best ways to clean a mouthpiece with minimal effort, so that next time I won’t get put off by the thought of having to go to the shops to get the things I need. It turned out to be really easy!
Why is my mouthpiece mouldy?
You might be wondering how your sax or clarinet mouthpiece got so disgusting in the first place. There are loads of ways your mouthpiece can get mouldy. The most common for students is not taking the reed off the mouthpiece when you put it away. The reed and mouthpiece will be wet from being in your mouth and this causes moisture to build up inside the mouthpiece and eventually grow a nice crust of mould.
Even if you don’t leave the reed on the mouthpiece, if you just put a mouthpiece cap on it and put it back in the case, over time it will still start to collect mould from the moisture. The best way to stop a mouthpiece getting mouldy is to keep it dry. But in this post, I’m assuming it’s already too late for that and the mouthpiece is already starting to build up some mould.
What happens if I don’t clean my mouthpiece?
If you don’t clean your mouthpiece, it’s not necessarily just a bit gross. You can actually develop a condition called saxophone lung. I will say here that I’m pretty bad at keeping my mouthpieces clean in general, and I’ve never had any health problems because of it, or known anyone else who has, but there is an increased risk so if you’re asthmatic or a bit more susceptible than other people, it’s definitely worth being really careful.
Saxophone lung happens when you have a build up of fungus on your mouthpiece. If you happen to be allergic to this fungus, it can cause severe coughing and wheezing. You might go to the doctor and get put on antibiotics or other medication but it won’t go away because you’re repeatedly putting the mouthpiece back in your mouth. Although this is a rare condition, it’s easy enough to avoid, so I’ll talk about how to do that.
How NOT to remove mould from a mouthpiece
The most important thing is to not scrape the mouthpiece to get the mould off. It’s really tempting when you see a coating of mould to scrape at it with something hard. Don’t do this. You’ll likely end up with a mouthpiece covered in scratches which doesn’t look great and if you’ve done a bad enough job you could even cause some damage to the sound.
You should also be careful about using the mouthpiece brushes you can buy. Some of these are fine, but some of them have quite a sharp metal end to them and they can sometimes do damage as well. Also, if you do have a mouthpiece brush, make sure you don’t just leave it in the mouthpiece every time you use it. You need to clean the mouthpiece then remove the brush so that you remove the moisture it collects. Otherwise, it’s still all inside the mouthpiece and mould will likely build up anyway.
How do I know when my mouthpiece needs cleaning?
It isn’t always obvious what level of dirty is acceptable. For mouthpieces, as soon as you can see any mould building up, it’s time to clean it (preferably before). Don’t check whether the mouthpiece is mouldy when it’s wet – sometimes when the mould gets wet it’s not as easy to spot and you might think you’ve just wiped it off. Check it before you play so it’s properly dry.
The image below is my mouthpiece before I last cleaned it. This is pretty mouldy, so if yours looks similar, or worse, it definitely needs a clean! Even if it’s not as bad as this, it’s always worth cleaning. Most people say you should clean it out a bit every time you play – just with an instrument cleaning cloth or similar. I don’t do this but it’s definitely advisable!
You can see the mould building up in the edges at the end where you put it in your mouth. These are the typical places that you see mould growing, as they retain the most moisture. When you start seeing this, it’s definitely time to clean it!
What do I use to clean the mouthpiece?
There are loads of products you can use to clean a mouthpiece. Most places will tell you just to use soap and water. This works well if the mouthpiece isn’t that dirty in the first place, but doesn’t work brilliantly on mould. You’ll spend a lot of time scrubbing it if you want to do it this way. It can also taste really horrible if you haven’t quite washed all the soap off!
Because the mouthpiece goes in your mouth, your want to be a bit careful about what you use. Try to avoid any really strong cleaning products, as these could be dangerous on a mouthpiece if you haven’t washed them off properly. The mouthpiece itself is probably made of either rubber or metal, so it’s pretty robust to most things.
This time when my mouthpiece got mouldy, I ignored it for ages and couldn’t be bothered to go through the hassle of scrubbing it down. Eventually, I decided to try and find an easier way. I know that vinegar is good for cleaning in general so I thought I’d give that a go. I didn’t have any white vinegar which is usually recommended, so I just used Sarson’s.
You’ll mostly find that places tell you to just use a small amount of vinegar mixed with water, but they’re not usually for really disgusting mouthpieces. I decided to do all vinegar for mine. I found that the perfect sized object to put it in was a shot glass – it fitted perfectly! This was a clarinet mouthpiece so you might find you need something bigger if you have a baritone sax mouthpiece for example. Make sure you put the mouthpiece in first so you don’t overfill it!
I left this to soak overnight – I think this was overkill but wanted to be sure! Probably an hour would be plenty. It does need a bit of a wash when you take it out. I just rinsed it through and few times and wiped it with a clean cloth to make sure all the mould was gone. Dry it properly and don’t put it back in the case until it’s completely dried through. You can then check all the mould is gone. Mine looked like this:
You can see the mould is completely gone! It does look like there could be a tiny bit in the bottom left corner of the inside bit but this is actually a scratch from where I’ve cleaned it badly in the past! I’ve seen some sites where they say discolouring can be an issue with using vinegar but I haven’t seen that at all, even using undiluted vinegar overnight. I’ve now done this for all of my other mouthpieces and they’ve all been similarly well cleaned with no noticeable discolouration.