How to grease your slides!
(Do this about once a month)
There are two types of slides on your trumpet. We'll refer
to them as the
slow slides
and
fast slides
. Slow slides are
designed to move slowly and placed in one position like
your main tuning slide. Fast slides are designed as fine
tuning slides and are designed to move fast to fine tune
your trumpet while playing. You activate them with your
finger so they must be free to move easily and quickly
while you play sweet music. Therefore you
grease
anything that is meant to move slowly
and
oil
anything
that is meant to move fas
t. If you grease anything that is
meant to move fast, you will slow it down. Grease is
thick like molasses and slows everything down. Valve
oil is very thin and has the consistency of water,
therefore it makes everything move fast.
Greasing "slow slides"
Remember these are “slow slides“, so you must grease
them, not oil them. Take the slides out every month and
put a thin coat of grease on the tubes and slide them back
in place. You can buy tuning slide grease at most music
stores for just a few dollars. You can even use Vaseline.
Here is how you grease your slides -
Remember you do this to all
the slides with the exception (on some trumpets) of maybe the 1st
and 3rd valve slides, which are designed to be fast moving, so you
put oil on them. Remember?.
Remove the slide
- Put a layer of messy and sticky slide
grease on the slide. Spread it around with your fingers.