The first thing to think of before playing any instrument is to make sure your mouth is rinsed out. Next check to make sure your mouthpiece goes on the neck easily. If it feels tight lubricate the cork with some high quality cork grease. The best greases are all natural or lanolin based. These lubricate the cork without wearing down the glue the holds the cork to the neck. Just alittle grease will do the job. When putting the neck into the saxophone receiver, hold the neck near the part that goes into the receiver and use a twisting motion rather than a rocking motion. Make sure the neck screw is loose. Then lightly tighten the neck screw so the neck doesn't move. When you are finished playing swab out the body and wipe the inside of the mouthpiece. Place your reed in a quality reed guard so the reed dries flat. Rotate your reeds so you use 5 per week. You can mark them for each day of the4 week so they will dry completely. Your reeds will last longer this way. If you have a pad stay down when it is supposed to come up it may be because dried saliva is holding the pad down on to the tone hole. Use a piece of pad paper(sold through music stores) between the pad and tone hole while lightly holding the pad down pull the paper out.
It is good to wipe your fingerprints off the body of the saxophone using a microfiber cloth. Don't try to get underneath the keys as springs may come unhooked. Repair technicians prefer to see an instrument twice per year to keep your instrument in it's best playing condition and to keep costs at a minimum.
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