Hi.
Could anyone tell me the best way to clean a flute please?
After use I usually wipe it down with a duster cloth and I know you are sometimes meant to use cigarette papers or some sort of papers but I'm not sure how and how often or what type?
Any tips would be really helpful please
Maddielou_

Hi Maddielou,

If what I've written below doesn't make sense then ask your teacher or a more experienced player to show you how to clean your flute - it is something which is easier to demonstrate rather than describe.

Dry your flute with a gauze cloth and your cleaning rod.

Polish it with a soft lint-free cloth. Do not use a silver cloth if your flute is silver-plated - these work by removing dirt but also remove a tiny bit of silver each time, so if your flute isn't solid you'll eventually wear it through to the nickel. If your headjoint or the tube are solid silver you may occasionally use a silver cloth on the parts that are solid silver (I have a silver-tube flute and use a silver cloth every 3-4 weeks on the headjoint and tube but not the keys/mechanism which are silver-plated - and I play every day).

The pads can be cleaned with cigarette papers, but this shouldn't be done everytime (unless they are prone to becoming sticky) because it puts a bit of additional pressure on the mechanism. Make sure you use the part of the cigarette paper which does NOT have glue on it. Put the cigarette paper under the key you want to clean, close the key gently and the pull the cigarette paper out whilst exerting gentle pressure on the key.

Some parts of the flute can only be cleaned by removing the mechanism, but do not do this unless you are absolutely certain how to put it back together again - I don't ever do this because I'm not confident enough to (and I suspect that I may be more experienced than you). This is something which waits until my flute is serviced.

PLEASE don't do this. If cigarette papers are used at all, and most flute techs would not recommend this, they must not be pulled out unless the key is fully open. Pulling them out if the key is partially depressed will tear the pads.

The only cleaning you should need to do is to swab the flute out after playing and to wipe fingermarks off with a lint-free cloth. If the joints are stiff wipe the inside and outside of each of the tenons with a dry cloth. I find the blue glass E-cloth ideal for this purpose.

Thanks, Andante - that's different to what all my teachers have taught, but I know that you are a lot more knowledgable about these things than I am.

Thanks for the help
That's really useful
Maddie x

The only time I reach for my stash of cigarette papers is when I'm playing and find sufficient moisture gathers to close off one of the holes (usually the one making the difference between B and Bb). Then I usually just slide it under the open pad, depress the pad lightly (just enough that it picks up the excess slobber) and pull it out after relifting the pad.

If you do obtain cigarette papers for any flute-related purpose make sure you keep them in a safe place and let anyone who might get suspicions know. My mother kept binning mine, without mentioning it, which got incredibly irritating.


(Honestly mother dear, I'm asthmatic and start sneezing when a heavy smoker sits near me... )