How to clear and care for a naughty flute?

Cleanup after every practice

1. Unarm the flute in its three parts: head, body and foot.
2. Pass a tipple of the cloth through the stick slot and wrap it up so that it completely cover the end. If the tipple gets exposed, strap the tube inside.
3. Introduce the rod with a soft body and turn it to absorb moisture. Repeat onto your foot.
4. At his head, his face goes through an open end and without pushing to his bottom: his cork's on the other side and his blow can move him.
5. With another dry and soft cloth, clear out the body, keys and plate from the pursuit, without pressing the keys.
6. Take out the moist cloth before closing the box: if you put it inside, the moisture remains with the slippers.

Wash your cloth while it's dirty and with food or sugar remains and put that dirt inside and before you touch, get your teeth or at least rinse your mouth: saliva with sugar is what's more dirty and pounding your shoes.

How to arm and disarm without clawing the keys

The flute's mechanism is fine: long rods with keys that are broken with a minimum pressure at the wrong place.

1. Take his head through the smooth area, far from the plate of his mouth.
2. Take the body at the upper end, where there are no keys, never squeezing the rods.
3. Unite the parts with a smooth turn to one and to the other, without forcing or pushing straight line.
4. Take his foot at his end, without squeezing his keys, and join him with his face with his face.
5. Reapes the hole of an embocture with the centre of the first key of the body and the foot stick with the centre of the last key of the body. Your teacher may propose a fine tuning as your embocture.

The intermittent (espels) are metal with metal and have no fat. If it costs to put together, clear the espiga and its recipient with a dry and clear cloth: the fat attracts dirt and worse the problem. If it's still bad, or if it's loose and dances, get it to the tech.

The shoes: how to care and what to do if they stick

The slippers are the pads that cover the holes when you press a key. They have felt and a very fine membrane, so water, sugar and chemicals are damaged. If one clicked or clicked by opening:

1. Put a sheet of paper cleaner for slippers between the slippers and the hole.
2. Close the key with a soft, unpressurized and open it.
3. Replay paper to another place and repeat if necessary.
4. Remove paper with an open key and never pull while the key tightens them: you break the membrane.

Do not use bills, magazine paper, moist diapers, alcohol or powder: they leave residue or damage the membrane. If the slippers continue to stick, they are broken or swollen, or a serious note stops coming out, it's time for the technician.

The cork and the crown of his head

At his head, close to his closed end, there's a cork with an influence on his tuning and his response to his sharp record. The crown, the end cover, is connected to him.

• Don't turn the crown to "tighten" or play with it: you can move the cork without noticing.
• To check the place, use the stick: many bring a line marked at the end without a slot. Enter that end onto the head till you touch the cork and look at the hole of the embocture: the line should be focused.
• If it's not focused, do not run by hitting the crown or pushing the cork. Ask your teacher or his technician for help: a resounding cork that moves only needs change.

Signs of a problem cork: the third octave sounds out of tune or costs a lot, the crown turns alone or escapes air at that end.

Technical review: every how and what includes

Although you clear her up well, a flute needs technical review once a year, more if you play every day. The technician looks for leaks to shoes that appear closed but do not seal, fixes the mechanism, changes the corks and small felt that dampens the keys, checks springs and lights the axes. The latter does not do so you: the oil at the wrong place ends up with the shoes.

A leaking flute forces you to tighten and blow more and that gets bad. If you're learning, your [naughty flute] teacher](/clases/flauta-traversa) will tell you if the difficulties are technical or instrument.

Where to save and how climate affects

• Always in his case, unarmed, dry and with his case well closed.
• The case, inside its lining and far from the sun, from the closed car and from heat sources.
• No scores, pencils or tipstick by pressing the keys into the box.
• A microfibre cloth is enough for the exterior glow. The silver cleanup fluids come to the slippers and to the mechanism and if you want a polish, let's have a technical.

On hot ground and on the coast, high moisture swallows the shoes and stains the metal faster, so good drying is even more important. In Bogotá, in cold mornings, warmes the flute with his hands before playing: cold, sounds lower tuning. More details about [how to save instruments according to climate in Colombia]](/blog/como-guardar-instrumentos-humedad-y-clima-en-colombia)And if you're still choosing instrument, look how to choose your first naughty flute.

Frequently asked questions