Flute

Assembly and care tips

The flute is comprised of 3 parts – Head, Body and foot.
To assemble, take the head joint (the part you blow in to) from the case and hold in one hand. Now take the body (the largest of the 3 parts), holding it near the top by the tenon joint so as not to squeeze the keys with your hand. Insert the head joint in to the body with a gentle push and ‘shuffling’ motion.
The lip plate should line up with the with keys, although you may need to alter this a little to suit you.
Now, holding the flute by the head/ body tenon joint, take the foot joint from the case and join to the body in the same way, taking care not to squeeze the keys too hard.
Again, the keys should line up with keys on the body joint with a small alteration to suit you if necessary.

Swab the inside of each joint to clear your flute of condensation. Use a soft cloth (something like cotton shirt material is ideal, or the thin cloth that is in your flute case) wrapped around the cleaning rod in the case. Make sure that the cloth is not wrapped too many times around the rod or it may become stuck inside your flute!
Polish the head joint of your flute with a soft silver polishing cloth.
Be very careful about polishing around the keys – it is easy to bend a key or spring which will make your flute difficult to play and may need a repair.
Ideally, store your flute in its case after playing, as leaving it out will cause it to ‘tarnish’ over time, giving it a yellow appearance.