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i'm looking for some advice about cleaning slides and valves really well. any suggestions? i've heard some trumpet playing friends talk about cleaning their slides with kerosine, and i've heard of using white vinegar for calcium.

White vinegar will remove calcium desposits and it's pretty hard to damage your instrument with it. Slides can be cleaned with valve oil or lamp oil, or just good old soap and water. Keeping your instrument's valves and leadpipe clean is very important--if you don't own a valve casing brush and a trombone snake, get them--they're inexpensive.

Some folks give their instruments a yearly bath in warm water, but you have to be very careful--a tuba filled with water is very heavy (a pint's a pound the world around, you know).

Check the archives--the topic comes up regularly.

I don't knwo much about rotary valve cleaning....can you do anything at home with them? I have them chem cleaned every so often....but its a little pricey.