The First Sur On Your Bansuri

Summers are picking up here in India, and so is the heat. You do not feel to do much now in this season. You just want to lay around, being lazy.

Well, hopefully, my previous posts have been useful to aspiring flautists like myself.

Today, I shall share with you how to produce the notes. One of the most important lessons as far as any musical art is considered.

What is an octave??? This word is commonly used in the western music. We use the word Saptak in India. So what is a Saptak after all??

A Saptak can be defined as a set of all succeeding notes starting from Sa. Hence, none of the notes are repeated in a Saptak. There are three main octaves(Saptak).

Mandra Saptak ( Lower Octave)
Madhya Saptak (Middle Octave)
Taar Saptak (Higher Octave).

Uptil what notes and octave a performer is able to perform is known as his range. For Hindustani Sangeet vocalists, the range is around 3 to 3.5 octaves. For instrumentalists, this range is dependent on the instrument. Bansuri has a range of 2.5-3 octaves. This means that you can play all the seven sur in almost all the 3 octaves through a Bansuri.

Now, we all know that there are 7 notes in an octave. They are Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha & Ni. Apart from these 7 notes, there are 5 other notes which are placed in between them. In order to learn about them, let us first discuss the different forms of notes.

There are 3 main forms. Shudh(Pure), Komal(Flat), Teevra(Sharp).

Shudh or Pure swara, is one which is played at its designated pitch.
Komal or Flat swara, is one which is played at half note below the pure pitch.
Teevra or Sharp swara, is one which is played at half note above the pure pitch.

Now, let us see which swara are pure, flat and/or sharp.

Sa:- Always Shudh
Re:- Shudh and Komal both
Ga:- Shudh and Komal both
Ma:- Shudh and Teevra both
Pa:- Always Shudh
Dha:- Shudh and Komal both
Ni:- Shudh and Komal both.

As you can see, Sa & Pa are always shudh, Ma is never komal, and Re, Ga, Dha, Ni are never teevra.

Hence in total we get 12 notes in one octave. Which are:

Sa(Shudh)
re(Komal)
Re(Shudh)
ga(Komal)
Ga(Shudh)
Ma(Shudh)
Ma'(Teevra)
Pa(Shudh)
dha(Komal)
Dha(Shudh)
ni(Komal)
Ni(Shudh)


Initially, we do not need to worry about the komal notes and the shudh Ma. The reason is that these 5 notes i.e. re, ga, Ma, dha, & ni are played with half holes open, which is extremely difficult for any beginner. Hence, we should not try it at this moment.

We will only play the other remaining notes.

Before learning to play all the notes, one first needs to know how to play Sa. Please see the below fingering chart for Bansuri.


 Here the black color indicates covered holes and the white color indicates open holes.

Close the first 3 holes from the blowing hole, properly with your fingers and blow with a moderate blow. The resultant sound is the first sur Sa.

Also, check out this youtube video on how to produce Sa and how to play the Sargam.
http://youtu.be/vWWAgCjAQvI

We will practice only Sa for almost one month, daily, until you feel dizzy. Yes, you will feel dizzy and light headed when you play the flute in your initial days. The reason is that your lungs are not used to this exercise. So do not feel scared if you feel dizzy, just pause the exercise until you are normal again and start over.

I have personally felt that practicing Sa is very very important. It is also the best breath exercise for Bansuri. Also, the sound is very peaceful and soothing.

When I was learning, I experienced that some days I was able to play it very nicely while other days I was unable to. I than started making changes in my blowing and the placement of the blowing hole. After 3 months, I have got my permanent position to play the Bansuri.

Also, one most important thing, which I have learned the hard way, is that these is no need to blow with force. Bansuri is all about the technique and not force. You do not need to blow harder. If you feel that you need more power, than simply make your mouth's aperture(opening) smaller. The air will automatically come out with more force.

Do try these pointers.

Also, let me know if you have any doubts.

To summarize, in this post, we discussed about octaves or saptak, types of notes, fingering chart of Bansuri and some pointers on how to play the first note, Sa.

We shall pause here, until next time.

May music bless us all.

See you soon.

Ninad.