My Journey With 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 ...

I was thinking today to start this post in a different way. Always starting with a 'hi' or a 'hello' sounded more like an email. Isn't it?? Another dilemma haunting me was, should I post about basics of Indian classical music first or about Bansuri the instrument itself. Than I thought starting off with the instrument would be a nice idea. So, here we are. Lets see, hmmmm... Bansuri as you all know is made up of bamboo wood and is one of the oldest musical instruments known to humans. It is found in many civilizations. Hence, it has many different versions or types too..Irish flute, Indian flute, South Indian flute(Venu), Chinese flute etc. Indian Bamboo Flute - Bansuri Irish Flute South Indian - Venu Chinese Flute Dizi All of the above flutes are played transversely, but, there are flutes which can be played like a whistle, in a straight way. Straight and Transverse Flutes The instrument that I am learning and the one a...