It can be a challenge for a beginner to select Bansuri because it is very difficult to figure out if the Bansuri is tuneful – both because of lack of ear training and because of inability to play the Bansuri properly. For this reason, I am delighted to offer high quality concert Bansuris through Bansuriflute.com store.
These concert quality limited edition Bansuris are personally selected by me from the maker. Depending on whether you play left handed or right handed, these will be fine tuned before shipping.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Buy Concert Bansuri
Concert E Bansuri
Concert G# Bansuri (Great for Beginners)
Your Cart Is Empty
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bansuri FAQs
Pitch
Most leading Bansuri maestros play the base E Bansuri in concerts. This pitch is considered as a good tradeoff between several factors, i.e. lower the pitch, more suitable Bansuris sound for classical music. However, too low a pitch and it diminishes the colorfulness of the sound and makes it mono-dimensional. Also, bigger the Bansuri, it is harder to blow in terms of stamina. Hence E Bansuris are pretty common in concerts. This contrasts with pitch for Sitar, Santoor or Sarod which tends to be either C# or D.
Beginner Bansuris
E Bansuris are pretty suitable for most adults and even teenage students. However, I have also observed that many students make faster progress with initial learning curve when they start with a smaller Bansuri. I recommend many of my beginner students to start with a smaller Bansuri such as G# and then graduate to an E Bansuri in six months time. E Bansuris typically are 32” long while G# Bansuris are 24” long. G# Bansuris are easier to blow and finger and hence they are faster to pick up. If you have no experience with Bansuri or woodwind instruments, I recommend that you start with G# Bansuri.
Finger Size and Bansuri
There are a lot of misconceptions about finger size and ability to hold Bansuri. Some think that having small fingers will prevent them from playing bigger Bansuri like base E. In my experience, almost every adult and mid teenager can play base E Bansuri irrespective of finger size. Typical area of difficulty tends to be when the Bansuri is not gripped correctly. See my article on “The Right Grip” here. It is also true that the grip initially feels uncomfortable and occasionally minor painful. However, fingering exercises make the grip easier and lighter.
Left Handed v/s Right Handed Bansuri
I get a lot of questions around left handed v/s right handed Bansuri playing. Your grip will be considered left handed if your left hand closes the lower three holes of the Bansuri.
There are two relatively minor differences in left handed v/s right handed Bansuris.
The blowing hole – The edge of the blowing hole on which you blow air has to be correctly shaped. If that edge is blunt, then there is some degradation in tonal quality compared to if it is curved. This can be easily corrected however, with use of a sand paper. Before shipping the Bansuri, I shape this edge based on the request made by you.
Position of the tuning hole – This is another, non significant issue. As you may know, most bansuris have an extra hole at the bottom end. This is typically used for fine tuning the last note. Most people who play in Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia style (myself included), do not use this hole for playing at all. In these cases, it is irrelevant on what the position of this hole is.
Some other players, who hold the Bansuri differently, close this hole with their little finger and it is important for them to have the position of the hole appropriate to how they hold the flute. Yet another group of players close this hole with their lap. In this case, the position of this seventh hole will have to be exactly the opposite to if you were to close it with little finger.
If you are one of those who use the seventh hole for playing, please let me know how you plan to use it. If you plan to play in Hariji’s style, this should be a non-issue. If you are a beginner, you should just ignore this position of the tuning hole. I personally do not care for the position of this hole for my own Bansuri.
