Basic Care for the Flute

She has helped me so much with my mouth techniques.

Sorry, for the typo I made recently...too bad some others are not as supportive...

Sarah, thank you for doing this. Too bad some others are as supportive. Keep on doing what you are doing. :-)

want tips? ASK ME

WHAT IS THE MANIAC TALKING ABOUT? SHE DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT SHE IS SAYING! IF THIS WOMEN THINKS SHE AN EXPERT, SHE SHOULD BE GOING TO WWW.PEOPLEWHOTHINKTHEY'REEXPERT.COM! My mom shoud see this! She will SCREAM her head off. She'll say "THIS WOMEN HAS NO CLUE WHAT SHE IS TALKING ABOUT!"

Ill try to be calm.

Ok.

1. Do not rub against your lip plate (“mouthjoint”) like that! The lip plate is not very firmly attached to the headjoint tubing, and such harsh handling can cause minute tears in the seam, causing you to have airy tone, and most of all, a broken flute. 2. When you polish your flute do not touch the keys, do not touch the rods, do not use silver polish... this can screw with your mechanism, requiring you to send your flute to a repair shop, ultimately causing more harm than good. The only thing you can polish is the tubing, and only your right hand thumb and left hand index joint ever touch that.

3. There is no reason any flutist would need to use a duster brush in between keys. Unless you’re playing with filthy hands (which you shouldn’t be; wash your hands every time before you play), a little dust won’t clog up your mechanism. A repair tech can easily get any dirt off at your yearly COA (and you SHOULD have one) while the keys are OFF. Better than inexperienced hands fumbling around and bending all the springs, or as Sarah calls them, “wires”… 4. It’s not spit in your flute. It’s water. You exhale water vapor in every breath. Hold a mirror up to your mouth and you’ll see this. Inside a flute is just an accumulation of this water, which deteriorates the pads. When you swab out your flute with a cloth, push the swab all the way through the flute and pull it out the other end. Don’t pull it out the same way you pushed it in, like Sarah does… this will rip or tear your pads. The exception is, of course, your headjoint, where there are no pads. 5. DON’T USE A DOLLAR BILL TO UNSTICK PADS. The reason many people believe this works is because a dollar’s paper/fiberglass (NOT FABRIC) is like a sponge that attracts dirt… Yes, this gets the dirt off your pads, but how much dirt was already on the dollar bill? Imagine how many hands it passed through before it reached your wallet. Brush your teeth and rinse your mouth out with water before playing, and pad problems should not exist. When a sticky pad DOES come up, use pad paper designed for the job (not powdered) or non-gummed cigarette paper. And don’t close the key while you pull the paper out. This will rip your pads!

Since when does the pads on a flute protect it? hahahahaha!!!

DO NOT use a small cleaning brush to clean out the areas you can not reach! This will end up to a trip to the repair shop if you do this. ESPECIALLY if you are like this girl and do not know what you are doing! Those things that she calles "wires" are SPRINGS and can be broken off if bent around like she is doing.

I don't know about you but I don't get my flute extremely dirty just by playing it!

Sarah says.. "Oils from your fingerprints can actually cause damage to your flute. " NO! What caused damage to your flute is when an idiot as yourself starts wiping it down with a treated cloth while catching the edges of the pads in the process, destroying them and at the same time is getting the powder from the treated cloth in the mechanism gumming it up.

So polish your flute first and THEN clean the inside. Ummm.. yeah okay MORON!!!!!!

What the -- is a mouthjoint?? Do you mean LIP PLATE? If you are going to call yourself and expert at LEAST learn the proper names!

Never use a dollar bill to clean your pads you moron! Special fabric? lol! Yeah.. DIRTY fabric! "and place it underneath the key , squeeze down on the key and pull the dollar bill out." WHAT!! Are you RETARDED? NEVER do that! When you do this, you are ruining your pads! SOMEONE PLEASE GET THIS GIRL OFF OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!