Beginner’s Pack is a great way to start with Bansuri learning if you are a novice. Over last few months, quite a few of beginners of Bansuri bought a Bansuri from this site. Many of them though, struggled to figure out what to do next. Beginner’s Pack tries to solve this problem by combining Bansuri with initial lessons and Alankaar book so that you not only get a great Bansuri but also start making music out of it.

Beginner’s Pack comprises of -

1. One G# Bansuri – which is ideal for beginner students as it is small enough to handle and blow. (You can optionally buy an E Bansuri, but this is not ideal if you are absolute beginner.)

2. First two self-guided lessons which help you learn the right technique to hold and play Bansuri as well as get your fingers moving.

3. Five Thousand Musical Ornaments ebook which provides many Alankaars for fingering practice.

Beginner’s Pack is a combined value of $200 but priced at $175 plus shipping. For any reason, if you prefer an E Bansuri instead of G# Bansuri, you can order that option as well. Finally, if you choose to order both Bansuris together, you will get the two guided lessons and the eBook for free, in addition to the benefit of combined shipping.

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Buy Beginner’s Pack

(includes Bansuri, Two Self-Guided Lessons and Five Thousand Musical Alankaars eBook)

Beginner’s Pack with G# Bansuri

Price: $175.00 Right Handed (Right Hand to Close Lower 3 Holes) Left Handed (Left Hand to Close Lower 3 Holes)

Beginner’s Pack with E Bansuri

Price: $245.00 Right Handed (Right Hand to Close Lower 3 Holes) Left Handed (Left Hand to Close Lower 3 Holes)

Beginner’s Pack with both G# and E Bansuris

Price: $370.00 Right Handed (Right Hand to Close Lower 3 Holes) Left Handed (Left Hand to Close Lower 3 Holes)

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Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia playing a Bansuri made by the flutemaker whose Bansuris are available here.

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.