Assembling the flute is not a very difficult task but there can be a few pitfalls and awareness of these can save a lot of money and frustration later on down the road.

When assembling the flute first make sure the case is facing up or the entire flute will fall out of the case. Take the headjoint of the flute and gently place it in the body. The hole on the mouthplate should line up with the keys of the flute. Patricia George describes a great guideline for how far in the head joint goes in the body. She recommends putting the head joint all of the way in the body, drawing a line and then pulling it out 1/4" of an inch, adding an extra 1/8" to that for Yamaha brand flutes. If the flute does not easily and gently assemble, you can rub the contact points with a clean cloth which should help the problem. If this still does not help you can take the tip of a pencil and rub it gently on the contact point, the graphite will rub off slightly and act as a lubricant. The foot joint is now put on to the body. Line up the rods on the foot joint about halfway through the keys on the body to make it more comfortable for the pinky on the Eb key when playing most notes.

A major pitfall of beginner assembly is grabbing the body of the flute where all of the delicate rods are: This will lead to damage quite often from the pressure on the rods, do not do this!

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