Ok, so I have this Blessing Trumpet, and I have had it for approximately four years, and honestly, it is getting kinda dirty. I have cleaned it out and everything, but the outside of it, like the bell and the tubes, are all dirty from like fingerprints or valve oil or anything like that. Can you polish the trumpet without like distroying it, and if so, is there a special type of polish that I should use to clean it with? I have a lot of concerts coming up, and I want my trumpet to look clean.

Musicgal12, It's been a month since your question but if you are still interested in "polishing" here are some answers and questions.

You need to decide if the trumpet is silver or brass, lacquered, plated, or raw.

If there is a lacquer covering the metal you can you cold water and Dawn dishwashing detergent to remove the greasy fingerprints. Then dry it well and be sure to relube any slides that got wet.

If it is plated silver you can use a light silver polish and buff the instrument with a clean soft cloth. But remember that everytime you polish the silver plate you are wearing it down and eventually it will become raw metal.

If it is raw nickle or brass then you probably have oxidation which is a natural occurence. Yes, this can be polished out but it should be done by a professional and maybe only twice in the instruments lifetime. You could probably do some of it yourself with a fine brass polish, but you will leave scratchy marks and swirls which you might like even less than what you have.

If you are just cleaning dirt off it's no big thing, but if you are polishing raw metal there is a lot of metal that is going to come off making the metal thinner.

In a perfect world it is nice to have a shinny instrument, but in reality 95% or more of the audience is only in it for the sound.