Most programs collect instruments and wait. The result is a warehouse with 500 used flutes waiting for a school to need a flute, while ten schools down the road need a trumpet today. What people donate rarely matches what students need, when they need it.

We start with what students need. Every donated instrument takes one of two paths.

Placed. If a school needs your instrument, we have it cleaned and repaired to playable condition and place it with that school.

Converted. If no school needs it right now, we find it a new home with a musician who'll play it, and what it brings in goes toward what students need most. Often that's a different instrument: your flute becomes the trumpet a school has been waiting for.

Either way, the instrument in your closet turns into music in a classroom.

Nearly everything: band and orchestra instruments, guitars and basses, drums and percussion, keyboards, amplifiers, and related gear like cases, stands, and bows.

Your instrument should be playable, or repairable at a reasonable cost. Tarnish, worn pads, old strings, and scuffed cases are all fine.

What we can't take:

• Used mouthpieces, reeds, and similar items. For health reasons, we can't pass these along.
• Instruments with cracked or broken bodies, serious water or mold damage, or missing major parts.
• Toy or novelty instruments, acoustic pianos and organs, and items that aren't instruments or music equipment.
• Donations with conditions, such as a requirement that the instrument go to a specific school.

Not sure about your instrument? Email a photo to instruments@soundlocal.org first, and we'll let you know!

Music stores know instruments. At each participating store, trained staff check in your donation, record its condition, and photograph it, so every instrument is documented from the moment you hand it over. And when an instrument needs a little TLC before it reaches a classroom, who better to restore it than the people who repair instruments every day?

You also get a drop-off spot with real hours and real parking, not a mystery warehouse across town.