How to care for your band flute
Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at
11:20 pm
Beginner flute players just learning to play the flute may want to know how to care for it. This video explains about not using fluffy “pad savers”, how to avoid abrading pads when cleaning fingerprints, and how NOT to put your swabbing cloth into the case where the dampness will transfer itself back onto the flute. More info. at www.jennifercluff.com/beginn.htm for beginner articles.
Tagged with: band • beginning • care • clean • flute • how • protect • to
Filed under: Flute Care
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I use the padsaver rod thing and now I’m ready to throw it out and buy the flute flag I’ve been looking at online for the past month or so! When I used the padsaver, I never placed it inside the flute, I actually carry a seperate backpack with all my flute-related to and from school. Thanks for the video!
If you want to gently blow fast air to remove the lint build-up that might be the safest way to get rid of it, but it might be even better to find a highly recommended repair person for a C.O.A. Some players also use a soft bristled paint-brush to clean around the mechanism too. But I think you should be fine until your next yearly repair with just blowing the lint off. J.
Amen to your comment on the cork grease! I very briefly taught at a music store (never again!) and they made one of my students BUY cork grease! I was so mad. They even tried to say the repairman told them to. Not very smart people. I had to tell the kid to NEVER use that, something his parents were not happy about since they just bought the stuff!
Hi there caezura, we’ve been talking about your comment on the GalwayFluteChat. Another teacher mentioned the “care kits” that mistakenly provide beginners with key oil, screwdriver, and cork grease, none of which should be used by student flutists. We should therefore be sure and tell the students why they should not use these items.
More to follow….J.
This is what our fellow flute teacher said:
Pad saver (fluffy stick) is also bad because it gets soaked from being used on the headjoint, and then transfers germs, water and dirt to the body of the flute (pads.)
Key oil is no use because it can’t get into the areas where its needed and gums up the exterior of the flute (attracts dirt.)
Screwdrivers strip screw heads (and students don’t know how to adjust screws.)
More to follow…J.
I better keep up on my readings on the Galway Chat! oops! Yes, i definitely agree.
oh…I always put the cloth in after practise
Thanks for your video.
I won’t do that again
What are these …???..on your keys that look like amber/ stones?
In answer to: What are those things on your keys?
They are glued-on wooden extensions for the left hand. I put these on my flute when I had a hand injury. They extend the keys of a more relaxed left hand. J.
Thank you for your videos. They are the best I have found on you tube. Well done. Just got a flute for my wife and this is so helful. We are both beginers and joining a community band. She learning flute and I am learning trombone.
Thanks again and keep making the videos.
Thanks for the thanks. Really glad the videos are of help. Jen :>)
You cant put the cork grease on the end of the headjoint where its (normally) darker? Without it mine dosnt go in very well, and i only have had to apply once or twice. Same for the bottom near the foot-joint?
Also, sweat dosnt do anything to the metal of a flute does it? Cause now im in marching season and my flute is constantly wet with it.?
Who owns the flute? You or the school? If they will send it to have the headjoint and footjoint fitted properly you won’t need to grease them. They *need* to be fitted properly. It only costs about $20 or so and it’s normal to get them made to fit more precisely. Grease will eventually travel down the interior and end up on the pads. Sweat contains salts that can increase tarnish and pitting. A microfiber cloth is about $5 and removes sweat. Wipe carefully.
What do you advise to disinfect/annually clean your band flute? I’m seeing advice to use rubbing alcohol carefully with Q tips. The band store says it will be about $50 for a cleaning overhaul. My daughter has played it for one year and is adamant that it is dirty and gross in need of a good cleaning. Thanks!
SH
Can’t you use the cork grease on the cork inside the head joint?
Band students with no training in removing headjoint corks shouldn’t risk messing with them, I don’t think. And I’ve never heard that flutists need to GREASE their headjoint corks. Where did you read that? From what I understand, headjoint corks need to be air-tight, not greased for any reason.
Oh my god!! I’ve been doing everything wrong!
Do you know what i can do for a flute that smells very very bad……..I’ve cleaned it and cleaned it and it wont do anything. Also some of my keys sound sticky(actually, one of my keys started leaking some black glue the other day) and I think my flute is tarnishing on the joints(black)
Im pretty much freaking out right now………….I think I murdered my instrument with everything I’ve been doing wrong.
if you get sticky keys, most of them come naturally because if you thinking about it, the moisture from blowing into the flute makes it sticky. However, if you don’t wait for about 30 minutes before playing after you eat, sometimes the sugars and other food stuff will make your flute sticky. The best thing to do is brush your teeth and rinse out your mouth well, and then wait 30 minutes for the stuff in the toothpaste to wear off. If you can’t do that, just rinse your mouth out well after eating
thank you so much! Unfortunately I have a case like yours that doesn’t have a handle. =[ But yes I have 17 dogs and they shed like idk what. When I was in beginning band (which was a long time ago) I put cork grease on the joints, being a clarinet player before I started flute. Luckily there wasn’t much damage done, but the next year I ended up getting a professional flute! man I couldn’t believe how much my mom payed for it! lol since there was no renting available for that kind of flute.
Hi there hockey girl; actually I prefer the handle-less cases, with the outside case cover having the handle. The case covers allow you to put your swabbing cloth, polishing cloth, piccolo flag, flute flag etc. between the case and the cover. Excellent storage pockets. Glad to hear you speak about the dangers of cork grease and pet hair. If only band teachers would say this in September each year, but they rarely do. J. :>)
with the pad saver sticks (the fuzzy ones), you actually aren’t supposed to swipe them back and forth to clean your flute. They are just meant to suck the spit away from your pads. My flute fixer person has never complained or said anything once about it. So if you have the pad savers, don’t swipe them back and forth. A way to stop a pad from sounding sticky is to take a dollar bill, place it under the key, close the key on it, and pull the dollar bill out while the key is closed.
Dear Donnarox2012, thanks for your comment ; interesting take on minimal fuzzy stick use. However, dollar bills are the wrong tool for the job “cleaning” pads.
Bills have on them: finger grease, dirt, ink. They deposit those things on your pads. Ask any repair person.
Also holding keys down and pulling paper OUT from underneathe abrades the pad surface. Ask any repair person. This is one of the MYTHS covered on my webpage about “flute myths”.
Good luck, J.
Help Me Please!!!After my dad putting grease on my new flute[cause it won't come together]I played some notes from Over The Rainbow and all of the sudden the note F won’t play!My dad said it’s nothing,but everytime he says that it frustrates me!Can you help me? Pwetty Pweeze?
Dear cardaptorsophie,
Your dad (or you) probably knocked off one of the tiny steel springs. Look for a spring hanging in mid-air, when it should be underneathe a little shelf that lifts up the E key. Or it could be that your dad bent a key while working on it, or that the F-pad is leaking, and was about to fail anyway.cont’d….
cont’d…
So, in reality, you now MUST take the flute to a repair person to be properly fixed.
Sorry, but NO, you should never ever ever put grease on the flute’s joints.
So, in conclusions:
Don’t, please don’t, try to repair your own flute. It causes more damage than you can fathom if done incorrectly.
J.