I'm having sound issues on my IPhone 4S?

I have had my iPhone for a couple years now and it's been in great shape. However, lately I have noticed my sound to play music decides when sound should be played. It doesn't allow me to turn up or down the sound at all. It simply does not play sound. Then after sometime it plays sound like before. When it decides not to play sound it can play through headphones. I was listening to a song and it shut off. I grabbed headphones and plugged those in and the music continued playing. The I noticed where the sound bar is located was words when you unplugged the headphones. Those words said dock connector. What's wrong with my sound an how can I fix the problem?

I had that happen to me a few weeks ago. You probably need to clean out the speakers and the connector at the bottom. Gunk can get really built up in there, so use a very very light pressure blower or just blow into it manually. For the thicker stuff, both bobby pins and cotton swabs used gently usually get them off. Work at it a bit and toggle the sound settings some and it should come back on.