The flame status of a group of gas turbine combustors is acoustically monitored using dynamic pressure sensors within the combustor. Dynamic pressure sensor output signals are received from the sensors and processed to determine flame status. The signals are processed both by performing a correlation analysis within each combustor and by applying a wavelet-based flame detection algorithm to each output signal. A flame is determined to be present based on the correlation analysis and the wavelet-based flame detection algorithm. The wavelet-based flame detection algorithm is chosen based on whether the gas turbine combustors are in an ignition phase or a monitoring phase.