1. Breaking in your new flute
You just received your new flute, and the first thing you want to do is… play it! However, this is probably not a good idea. Your flute needs time to adapt to her new environment, this requires a gentle approach.
Leave your flute for at least 24 hours before you start playing it. After that, you should gradually increase your playing time. Start with just a few minutes and increase it little by little every day, up until an hour by the end of the second week. From this point play your flute regularly in the weeks after. By now the flute should be familiar with her new environment and owner.
2. Humidity and temperature
Prevent your flute from getting wet and avoid abrupt fluctuations in humidity and temperature. A wooden instrument should not be kept in the sun, near heating sources, or in extremely dry, damp, cold, or hot conditions. It's advised to store your flute in a breathable bag, but avoid putting it in the bag immediately after playing; instead, wait for it to dry.
Some makers don't recommend playing outside, but for me this is where the flute really comes alive. Taking it on a hike, making music with the birds... Magical! However, it might be wise to stay away from playing it in extreme temperatures. Especially when it's really cold. The condensation, caused by blowing warm air into a cold flute, might damage your instrument and lead to instant cracks. When you want to play in colder temperatures, make sure you warm your flute before playing it. This can be achieved by keeping the flute between your arm and body for a while.
3. Wetting out
This is probably the most common problem with Native American Style Flutes, but also with forest flutes and ocarinas. After playing it for a while, your flute starts to sound 'dirty', makes squeaky noises, or doesn't even make a sound at all. This phenomenon is called 'wet-out'. Moisture has condensed out from your breath and clogged the flue underneath the block.
You can do several things to cure a flute that has wetted out:
Blow the moisture out. Put the flute in playing position, then rotate the entire flute so that the block is on the bottom. Breathe hard into the flute and the moisture should spray out from under the upside-down block. It will also make a loud sound, so you might want to carefully place finger in the area of the splitting edge and sound hole to disturb the normal sound-producing mechanism — causing it to produce a wind sound rather than a tone.
Shake the moisture out (not recommended) . This involves enthusiastically swinging the flute so that the moisture exits the breath hole. There are several downsides to this approach, including spraying moisture on people and things around you, hitting the flute against something hard and unfriendly, and having pieces of your flute (like the block) fly off and do some damage.
Remove the block. This usually involves untying the lacing that holds the block in place. You can then let the flute dry out naturally.
With ocarinas and forest flutes, where the block is glued to the body, you can use the first method.
Warming up your flute before playing, especially when played in a cold environment, may slow down wetting out. With experience, you will begin to hear the impending wet-out before it seriously disrupts the sound of the flute. Learn to hear that characteristic sound, and take some corrective action before the sound disappears completely.
4. Oiling your flute
My flutes are oiled with a special vegetable oil mixture and the outside is usually coated with shellac and carnabau wax. Only natural ingredients are used. To keep your flute in good condition I recommend to oil the inside a few times a year, once or twice should be enough. I recommend using a non-toxic oil like almond, walnut or linseed oil.
There are two ways of application:
Simply pour it inside the flute and make sure it covers the whole surface, including the blowing hole. In case of a Native American Flute, untie the block first and oil both chambers.
Attach a piece of cloth onto a wire by twisting it in. Apply oil to the cloth and move it back and forth into the flute. This method can only be applied to flutes with an open end.
5. Play it!
Keep the spirit alive :)