1.

Pitch and Length

2. Bamboo Quality and Tonal Characteristics

3. Tuning

4. Ergonomics

Pitch & Length

Longer the Bansuri, deeper is the pitch – this is matter of simple physics. In general, deeper
the pitch, more suitable it is for classical music. The reason is simple. When we play long
uniform notes in classical music, we don’t want the flute yelling and screaming. We want it to
create a soothing sound.

Two factors however, limit how big a Bansuri one should choose. Firstly, big flutes are
difficult to finger. If you have short fingers, you will have trouble playing a long Bansuri. Even
when you have long fingers, the objective is to make the fingers “fly” on the Bansuri.
Therefore, if you really have to stretch to close fingers, it will limit your ability to play fast. To
complicate things, fingers do adjust to some extent to the stretching and therefore, usually
you should go for the Bansuri that is slightly beyond your initial abilities to finger.

The other factor is that bigger flutes are difficult to blow. Again, over the period of time, your
stamina improves. But if you choose too big a flute, you will have trouble blowing the notes
for long, playing the Bansuri for long or producing volume related variations on the Bansuri.

Most professional Bansuri players today play Bansuri keyed to Tonic E or safed teen. Such
Bansuri is about 30-32” in length and suits most adults. Children should start with suitable
lengths of Bansuri. Even adults can start with smaller Bansuri such as G# or F# and then
over period of time, move to bigger Bansuri.

The definition of the pitch of a Bansuri can be quite confusing to the beginners. Here’s an
attempt to demystify it.

By convention, the tonic note or SA note of the Bansuri is considered to be the note played
when upper three holes are closed and lower three are left open. It is, of course, possible to
the octave from any hole, but usually bansuris are tuned to the convention mentioned above.
This sound of the SA, when matched to the standard Western keyboard will tell you the pitch
of the Bansuri. For example, if the note with three holes open, three closed position,
corresponds to the note produced by the white key after the two black keys on the keyboard,
then the pitch is considered to be tonic E by western conventions.

The picture of keyboard above shows how notes are named by Western conventions. The
black keys denote the so called sharp notes and are denoted by suffixing the main note with
#.

Indian convention is to call a note safed (white) or kali (black). For example, Kali 4 or black 4
corresponds to G# and Safed 5 or white 5 corresponds to G (counting white keys from C).
Bamboo Quality and Tonal Characteristics

Natural characteristics of bamboo play important role in the tonal characteristics. The
Bamboo of the Bansuri should be as straight as naturally possible. It is a natural material
and slight bends over the length are very common. It should not have any node in its entire
playing length and I personally prefer not to have the node even at the close end.

The bamboo should not appear very dry and woody. Most good Bansuris will have a glossy
appearance. The glossiness is due to buffing and not due to any polish coating. In fact, I
really hate playing Bansuris with varnish or polish applied because they tend to get sticky.

Region from where the bamboo is sourced plays important role in determining tonal
characteristics. Bamboos from north Indian regions of Uttar Pradesh and Assam or south
Indian region of Kerala produce good tonal characteristics. What are these tonal
characteristics? When you play a note on a Bansuri (and for that matter, any other
instrument), depending on the natural structure of the instrument, the harmonic frequencies
of that note are also heard (if you play a note at 440 Hz, the note at 880 Hz is called second
harmonic, the note at 1320 Hz is the third harmonic and so on). Based on the mix of these
harmonics and their intensity relative to each other you get different tonal characteristics. In
absence of these harmonics, all Bansuris or for that matter, all instruments would have
sounded identical – how boring.

Preference of tonal characteristics is a matter of personal choice. If you blow very lightly in a
Bansuri, with intensity well below capable of producing sound, you can hear some harmonic
frequencies. These almost sound like hissing but if you listen carefully, they actually are
notes. More or less of getting these is yet another matter of personal choice.

Tuning

Unlike most other instruments, the Bansuri is tuned when it is built. Once made, there is only
a small room to fine tune it. Therefore, it is extremely important that the Bansuri you choose
is tuned to perfection by the Bansuri maker.

Bansuri used to play Hindustani music should be tuned to the Just scale. People often make
the mistake of testing how tuneful the Bansuri is by comparing notes against the harmonium
or keyboard. This is a big mistake since the harmonium is tuned to the Chromatic scale. The
Just scale is based on the natural ratios of frequencies whereas the Chromatic scale is
based on equal spacing of notes.
 It is clearly not easy to figure out how well the Bansuri is tuned when you are about to begin
learning it. I would be happy to help out anyone who wants help to select a Bansuri.

Ergonomics

A well tuned Bansuri with very good bamboo can still be quite bad, if it is not ergonomically
designed. A good Bansuri maker strikes good balance between the size of the holes and the
distance between them so that the Bansuri is comfortable to finger.

Here are some indicators to good ergonomic design:

1. Top three fingering holes are more or less equidistant and of about the same size

2.

3. The second of the lower three holes is usually closer to the first. However, there
must be a balance between this distance and the diameter of the second hole so that the
distance between the second and third hole is not too much

4.

5. Some big Bansuris, called shankh (conch-shell) Bansuris, usually have fingering
holes in a curved manner instead of linearly aligned. This makes them easier to finger.