Darn Those Sticky Pads

Most musicians from amateur to pro deal with this problem. STICKY PADS. And it happens at the most inconvenient time. In today's blog I'll talk about how this problem can be fixed by you the player.

First, lets talk about why this problem happens. This problem is caused eating or drinking sugary substances that are mixed with a person's salvia. This causes build up on the pads, which makes them stick.

Now that we know why it happens, lets see how the technician will fix this problem on a saxophone. First he would take the key off of the horn and then, clean it with towel that has a light coating of pad juice. Pad juice is a special type of liquid that cleans saxophone pads.  After being cleaned the pad is then dried and placed back on the horn. The technician in some case might spray a special plastic coating over saxophone pads. This coating helps keeps the pads from stick, along with pro longing the pad(s) life.

Now here is how you can do it if your out playing somewhere. The tool that you would use for this simple fix can be found at pretty much any store, it can even be found at your local coffee shop. This tool is called a coffee flitter. The coffee flitter will absorb any sticky substances that might be on saxophone, clarinet, or flute pad. Simply fold up the coffee flitter till it looks like a slice of pizza and place it under the pad It can look something like this:

Press the key down in playing position and pull the coffee flitter through. Do this several times till the pad stops sticking. I know a lot of people will say that using a dollar bill will do the same trick, but I say that the flitter is better and a lot more sanitary than a dollar bill.

~MT~