How to Clean the Outside of Your Flute

Everyone likes to have a bright and shiny flute. Your flute is silver-plated. Silver plating will tarnish just like pure silver will. Some tarnish will always build up on the flute, especially in hard to reach places. However, you can keep most of the surface area of the keys and the tubing nice and shiny by removing your finger prints with a soft cloth such as one made of microfiber or one of the many brands of cloths that are sold for this purpose at music stores or jewelry stores. If you are purchasing a cloth, make sure that it does not have an overload of silver cleaning powder on the inside of it. The powder can get in the mechanism and cause problems.

When wiping the outside of the flute, make certain that you are NOT rubbing the edges of the key cups. The pads in these cups are very fragile and they can be ripped or torn through intensive rubbing with a cloth. If this happens, the flute will have air leaks and it will be difficult to play. Most likely, you will have to have it re-padded. This can be quite expensive.