Best Ways to Clean and Care for Your Flute

How often do you clean your flute?  And how do you do it in a way that is both safe and effective?  It is incredibly important to know how to properly care for your flute, and done the wrong way, you can end up damaging your precious flute baby!

To keep your flute properly maintained, you need to clean the inside, the outside, and have it regularly checked by a technician.

Cleaning the Inside of the Flute

One of the most important things you need to clean the inside of your flute is a cleaning rod.  Most flutes come with one already, but if yours does not, I would recommend that you get a wooden cleaning rod.  I always prefer wood as it is sturdy, unlike plastic, and will not scratch the inside of your flute, like metal.

You will also need a cloth to use with the cleaning rod to swab out the inside of the flute.  Cotton is my favorite material as it is absorbent but does not get too wet too quickly.  If your flute did not come with one, an easy solution is to just get a cotton handkerchief, and if it is too big to fit inside the flute easily, then just cut it in half.  But if you want a cloth that is a little more jazzy, you can also get some in nice colors and patterns from flute stores.  Please see our recommended resources page for a list of some more options for inside cleaning cloths.

When you are ready to clean, thread a little bit of the cloth through the part that looks like the eye of a needle and then just one time wrap it over and around the stick so that most of the stick is covered with the cloth, including the top.  That is especially important when you are cleaning the headjoint.  Then swab out the inside of all three parts of the flute.  You should do this EVERY time after you finish playing!

There are also alternatives to using the traditional rod and cloth.  For example, there are flute swabs with strings which are nice as you can just pull it through your flute, except for your headjoint.  And there are flute flags with a cleaner glued onto a stick already, and there are even flute flags with extensions on the rods so that you do not have to take your flute apart if you need to swab it out during a practice session or performance.  I do NOT recommend cleaning supplies called pad savers as they tend to get left inside the flute, and sometimes the fuzz on them will shed and get stuck in your flute.

Do NOT keep your cleaning supplies inside your hard flute case with your flute!  Keep it in your soft outer case if you have one or in a separate bag.  And make sure you wash your cleaning cloth/swab/flag every once in a while, about once a month should be fine.  You can just clean them in the sink or, if you are using a cleaning cloth, you can throw it in the wash.

Cleaning the Outside of the Flute

For the outside of the flute, I would recommend cleaning it with a microfiber cleaning cloth.  Or for outside cleaning cloths in extra fun colors and patterns, please see our recommended resources page.  These cloths should be the kind without lots of loose fuzz, and they should NOT have silver polish on them.  Silver polishing your own flute can be dangerous if you polish it incorrectly!  Save that for a technician.

Wipe down the main areas of the outside of your flute, especially the lip plate and the tenons of the flute (where the headjoint connects to the body and the body connects to the footjoint).  If you are having issues with the joints fitting together easily, the best solution is just to keep them clean. Do NOT ever use cork grease, oil, or pencil lead to lubricate the tenons as that just adds additional dirt to clog up the joints even more.

Also, be careful that you do NOT try to clean between or under the keys!  As tempting as it might be to clean there when you see dirt, you would risk catching your cloth on the mechanism of the flute, or worse, ripping your pads.

It is important to clean the outside of your flute frequently, either after every time you play, like cleaning the inside, or at least after every few times.  However, some people have particularly acidic skin which can start to corrode the metal, and if you are one of those people, you should definitely wipe off the outside of your flute every time after playing.  And if you have a flute that is not solid silver but silver-plated, you might notice pitting happening in the metal, where the plating wears off.  It does not really affect the sound, it just doesn’t look that nice.  And if that happens, there is nothing you can do other than to have it professionally replated, although it really might be more cost effective to get a new flute as plating is usually only found on student instruments anyway.

One last thing you might consider when cleaning the outside of your flute is cleaning your pads.  If you ever notice that your keys are clacking or sticking when you play, then likely your pads are dirty or moist from spit or humidity.  But you can get a piece of pad paper, put it under the sticky key, press down on it a few times, release the key, then take the paper out to get the dirt off.  You might need to repeat this process a few times before it is all gone.  Also, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you release the key before you take the pad paper out, because if you slide the pad paper out with the key still down, you can rip your pads.

COAs and Overhauls

As important as it is to keep your flute clean, there really is only so much you can do yourself, and every once in a while you should get your flute looked at by a qualified repair technician, ideally someone who specializes in flute repair.

You will want to get a COA done on your flute every year, especially if you play your flute a lot.  If not, you might be able to stretch it a year and a half or maybe two at the most.  A COA stands for a clean, oil, and adjustment.  This is where a technician will disassemble your flute to clean and oil it.  They will also make sure that all of the keys are closing properly and replace any worn or torn pads.  And they will also replace your headjoint cork, which is necessary as it is a natural substance that shrinks over time and will no longer makes an air-tight seal at the end of your flute like it should.  It is AMAZING how much better your flute can sound after a COA as we just get used to dealing with all the little inconveniences of things not working at 100% while we play.  Please note that if you take your flute in to a shop to get something fixed every once in a while, it is not the same thing as a COA.  A repair job is to just fix that one problem, COAs are much more thorough and therefore still need to happen even if you did get your instrument recently fixed.

A COA is something you should do annually, but an overhaul is something that is done much less frequently, say about every 10 years or so.  Basically, the technician works to make the instrument look and play like new.  The flute is completely polished, all the pads replaced, and every nook and cranny checked out so that the flute functions perfectly.  It is a very laborious and time-consuming process and is therefore much more expensive than a COA.  Which of course is why it is usually done far less frequently than a COA.

Conclusion

There are many things you need to keep in mind to care for your flute.  While cleaning is a huge priority, there are many still other factors you need to consider to keep your flute safe and in good shape.  So if you want more tips on how to care for your instrument as well as what essential accessories you might need or even how to pick out an instrument, please check out our free digital course, “Finding Your First or Forever Flute (and How to Make It Last)!”