After years of being fine, my flute has suddenly started leaving me with a huge black mark where the lip plate touches my chin. I look like I`ve got a goatee beard after I`ve been playing....not good.

I`ve given it a good scrub under the lip plate and got all the muck off I could reach. I`ve obviously not got rid of it all though, any ideas how to fix this problem?

Thanks folks.

It quite often happens when the metal reacts to make up..............I get lots of my teenage girl students getting them with the heaps of foundation they put on!!!!

If you clean it gently with some silver polish and use a soft cotton cloth it should get rid of the last of the gunge. It is possible that some of the silver plating has worn thin and it is an easy job getting this re plated if the instrument merits it. If not you could replace the mouthpiece if it is an off the peg model. You probably don't suit a fake beard!

Thanks for your replies and well done Kflute. You were exacty right. I`ve been avoiding make up on my "goatee beard" area for a few days and it`s gone, brilliant! Thank you.

Thanks too Petrat, you assumed it was muck like I did and went for the obvious answer too. Oh well, at least I know I did a good job of cleaning it!

The other thing you can do is stick a thin piece of plastic film over the bottom half of the lip-plate area (the kind of stuff that is sold to protect cell phone or gameboy screens)