Well the topic title sort of says it all.
How should I clean my flute and how often?
At the moment its just a quick clean with a clothe every so often, but as my flute is quite new i'd quite like to keep it looking that way for a while.

My old teacher never told me and i keep forgetting to ask my new teacher!
Thanks
maddie x

Every time you use it, without fail.
You don't have to perfectly clean every part of it every time you use it, but just give it a quick wipe through. Just feed your gauze/cloth through the hole in your cleaning stick, make sure none of the stick is showing(could damage the inside of your flute), then give it a quick wipe through to get rid of the split (nice ). If it's very spitty the pads may be wet so you may wanna give them a quick wipe or even better - get some of those rizzler papers (is that what theyre called?) and put them under the pads to dry them - they're extremely absorbant! (i feel like such a geek).
Only takes about 20 seconds, but it stops your flute getting wrecked If you don't clean it the pads'll get sticky and leaky, it may rust, the mechanism will stop working so well, etc.etc.

If its silver plated, I'd add an occasional run over with a silver polishing cloth every so often, maybe once a month? I just do my clarinet keys when they start looking all fingerprinty or just before performances.

Just make sure the silver cloth doesn't have chemicals on it, they can react with moisture on the pads and ruin them.

Sorry, should have said, just the outside. The inside I do with a normal cloth

Pupil, one night last week: "Mum says we're going to give my town band tuba a bath when I get back from my lesson, so I thought I'd get her to do my flute at the same time." You can imagine my response!

I've often wondered, and now seems a good time to ask , what's the difference between all the different Rizla papers??? I use the ones in the red packet for my clarinet, but there's four or five different types and I never know which one to get. I asked somebody behind the counter once but they didn't know and didn't care

At Topwind last autumn, they told me NOT to use any papers at all. Bad for the flute
Bev.

Weight of the paper, and whether or not the corners are cut, apparently...all you could ever want to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizla#Rizla_types

You asked at the cigarette counter for the right papers for your Clarinet???? I just bought the extra large ones form the Pound Shop, goodness knows when we'll get through them all!!!

It's a mistake you only make the once



Thanks for the info Maizie!

I clean my flute every time I use it, use the guaze, then quick wipe over with the polishing cloth that came with it and then clean the pads using the good old Rizlas. Apparently, the different coloured packages refers to how thick/thin the paper is - I asked the person on the ciggie counter and then had to explain that I wasn't a chain smoker but wanted them for my flute. I used to use the silver Rizlas but they were a bit too thin so now I use the green ones and they're fine. Got a massive multipack in the supermarket, just have to keep remembering to keep the sticky bit away.

If you are a Rizzla user, make sure your parents know why they're sitting in your flute case...

It gets really embaressing when they find them else.



(I'm asthmatic, hate the smell, never even tried, and it was still awkward!)

one of my friends, extremely cleverly, thought it'd be a good idea to give her clarinet a bath, and straight afterwards we were on a concert band trip to Italy, where she actually wondered why it wouldn't play properly you'd have thought by 16 you'd know better but....

How do you get into the headjoint properly? I've been debating the merits of a flute flag or headjoint cleaner.

So far I swab it inside with the gauze, polish it outside with an untreated microfibre cloth and use pad papers if they are sounding sticky. I suppose Rizlas are cheaper, but the Yamaha papers didn't cost that much more considering how many there were in the packet.

What about those fluffy brush things you can get for cleaning / drying the inside of the flute? This is what I use, although I was told by a music shop that they're not a good idea, because then you leave it inside, complete with moisture, and it doesn't do the pads any good. Were they right?

Yes these can ruin pads, so I would stick to wiping out with a lint-free cloth. And I agree with Top Wind - rizla papers can do a lot of damage - one pupil's flute needed a complete re-pad due to over zealous use of them. She was pulling them through so often and tightly that she ripped the pad membranes. I always tell pupils to wait for me to deal with it if they have a sticky pad.

I think the best thing to do with the papers is just to close the key on them, then open it before you take them out. I've never had any trouble with pulling them on clarinet pads, but they're smaller Just so long as you're careful, and only use it when a pad is actively sticking.

I was told exactly the same by a well known and respected music shop too

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Fluffy brush things!!!!!!!!!!!

They do indeed leave the moisture inside (any woodwind instrument), can leave bits of unwanted fluff in hard to reach places, and are indeed not exactly great for pads...

For those of you with a bit more money to splash out on flute cleaning things......(not me) the Holman flute and piccolo flags are very good. I got the piccolo one due to problems with water clogging up in tone holes and the problem stopped, its so easy to put the flag down the instrument, give it a twist and the whole interior is dry! Im saving up for a flute one/waiting for my next installment of student loan

That´s good to know. I was thinking of splashing out on a flute flag, maybe after I have done my grade 5.
I actually put flute flag and headjoint cleaner on my Christmas wish-list, complete with links to the relevent places on Just Flutes for Santa. I was given a fluffy cleaner thing, with the note that the man in the music shop didn´t know what a flute flag was .

I don't know what a flute flag is... please someone enlighten me? I have a fluffly thing, though I don't leave it in my flute. It annoys me!

A flute flag.

Thanks

My music teacher was telling me how she used to bath her flute the other day - apparently washing up liquid gives it a lovely shine. No wonder the flute barely works!!! Luckily she had more sense than to bath her wooden clarinet too!! Bathing Tubas is fun though.



Yep - That's what my flute said too (what Trevor James recommends), and I must admit that I have known people who use papers to suffer from leaky pads.



To get inside the headjoint, I normally push my cleaning swab in with the cleaning rod but not have it wrapped around, and then pull the rod out and use it to push it right the way up. Then twist the end a bit before removing it. Make sure you keep hold of the end of the swab though!!



I would second that entirely. I used a fluffy brush on my old flute and it used to stink from the moisture left inside!!