Mr. McGee says: “The conventional stopper distance is one diameter of the head bore – about 19mm for the typical conical flute. A shorter distance will enhance the third octave at the expense of the bottom octave. A greater distance will enhance the bottom notes, at the risk of driving the top of the 2nd octave flat, and making the third octave hard to play and very flat.”
Here’s my newbie question: For a right-handed player, if 19mm is the correct distance, is that measured from the left end (edge) of the flute to the left end of the embouchure hole?
The 19mm (as you will find explained in many places on this forum and on many makers websites etc. is measured from the centre of the embouchure to the face of the stopper, the stopper obviously being up-tube, i.e. towards the closed, “crown” end of the tube from the embouchure. Drying rods are often marked accordingly with a ring-line around them such that when you introduce them up the head-joint bore, the end will strike the face of the stopper and the position of the line in the “window” of the embouchure hole will tell you what adjustment is needed, if any. (Beware that a rod marked for a Boehm flute will have the line closer to the end - they use a different measurement c17mm because of the reverse taper of the head.) If you haven’t got a rod, get a c30cm length of 5mm dowel, square the ends and lightly sand them so there are no splinters or sharp corners, then mark a line 19mm from the end. 19mm is the rule of thumb: for ITM purposes, many players push the cork a little further out (up-tube towards the crown) to about 21mm - you can put another line on your rod, or just judge it by eye.
No, Jack. It’s measured from the middle of the mouthhole.
You can get wooden rods from a good music store which has the distance marked on it. Make sure to get one with the marking at the right distance. Insert the rod and push ever so gently until the mark is at half way of the embouchure. If the cork is already too far up, you will need go in from the other end of course for to push it down again and then do the fine placement back from the “right side”.
Never do this with bansuris however. For instance, some makers of bansuris have the stopper quite close to the embouchure and the bansuri is tuned for the stopper to be there. I was told they do that to facilitate a particular tonguing technique employed by classically trained bansuri players.
It also depends on the style of flute design, a Pratten will tend to have more of a 21mm setting and R&R is right around 19mm. Best to set it with a tuner, between the A and B, and second octave. If second octave is sharp, the cork needs to be farther from the embouchure hole, and visa versa.
Jack, both gentlemen have answered your question quite well, in fact. However, in reply to Talasiga’s remark about the placement of the tuning cork on bansuris much closer to the embouchure hole than one bore diameter’s distance, I would concur that this is often done with cylindrical-bore flutes to improve the second-octave intonation. I noticed that Patrick Olwell did the same thing on the bamboo flute that I recently played. With my pvc flutes, I set the stopper at one bore’s distance from the center of the embouchure hole when the customer is going to play the flute with an internal Fajardo wedge in the flute. If you intend to play a cylindrical-bore flute without a wedge or spike to improve intonation, it is a good idea to position the cork closer to the embouchure hole, in my opinion..
I agree absolutely with Jon that tuning is the reason for setting the cork position. Unfortunately (for everyone, but particularly flute players, in the same session), as mentioned in the quote from Terry McGee, the cork is often moved away from the embouchure hole because it seems to improve the bottom notes. It usually just makes them a little boomier and upsets the balance of tone across the flute and, while I realise that improvers need all the boosting that they can get, ultimately all that practice goes into learning how to blow incorrectly.
Big up to Jack for making sure it’s right! Just bear in mind, when starting out, that you’re unlikely to be blowing the first two octaves in tune with each other and that this will improve as you improve. So the position that you choose initially to get the best tuning result is likely to change as you improve. Happy fluting!
Yes, I still have two Tipple flutes (without Fajardo wedge) and the stoppers are closer to the mouthhole than on the conical bored Irish flute I just measured them.
My comment about some bansuri makers having the stopper closer was about them having them EVEN CLOSER than the normal closer for cylindrical flutes and bansuris by other makers. This makes them evemn more responsive to a certain tonguing techique used in super fast passages of music. I do not do this but I have seen it demonstrated. First on my very beautiful bansuri with “regular bansuri stopper distance” and then on one of these other bansuris.
BTW, Doug, I have never touched your stoppers. I take it they are glued? I think I read this somewhere?
The 19mm (as you will find explained in many places on this forum and on many makers websites etc. is measured from the centre of the embouchure to the face of the stopper, the stopper obviously being up-tube, i.e. towards the closed, “crown” end of the tube from the embouchure. Drying rods are often marked accordingly with a ring-line around them such that when you introduce them up the head-joint bore, the end will strike the face of the stopper and the position of the line in the “window” of the embouchure hole will tell you what adjustment is needed, if any. (Beware that a rod marked for a Boehm flute will have the line closer to the end - they use a different measurement c17mm because of the reverse taper of the head.) If you haven’t got a rod, get a c30cm length of 5mm dowel, square the ends and lightly sand them so there are no splinters or sharp corners, then mark a line 19mm from the end. 19mm is the rule of thumb: for ITM purposes, many players push the cork a little further out (up-tube towards the crown) to about 21mm - you can put another line on your rod, or just judge it by eye.
