Bansuri M Yousuf

Different people have different ways of gripping the flute. The only thing that you should keep in mind is that you should be comfortable while holding the instrument. If you are right handed then you would use the left hand to cover the top three holes of the flute and the right hand for the bottom three or four holes depending upon what style of playing you follow. There are at least two common ways of holding the flute - The Pt. Panna Lal Ghosh style and the Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia style. Pt. Pannalal Ghosh Technique In this style the holes are covered by the tips of the fingers. By using the finger tips to close the holes the right hand can be stretched to cover the seventh hole of the bansuri. The following picture shows Pt. Pannalal Ghosh holding the flute. Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia Technique In this style, the flat portion of fingers, and not the tips, are used to cover the holes. In order to understand this style better, role over the following image to

Parts of the Bamboo Flute (Bansuri) Dandi - The dandi is the body of the bansuri. Mukha Randhra - This is the embouchure, or the blowing hole. Swar Randhra - These are the finger holes.  They are the holes that are used to play the melodies.  For a 7-hole flute as shown in th above picture, the musical intervals are: half-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step.  (Please note that these are approximations; the use of equal-temperament is not to be construed from this discussion.)  The 7th hole (closest to the open end) is optional.  When it is absent, the 6-hole flutes are tuned to: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step. Garbha Randhra - This is the opening of the bansuri .  It should remain unoccluded at all times Rassi - The body of the bansuri tends to crack.  This is simply one of the undesirable qualities of bamboo and reed.  This cracking may be reduced or eliminated by tightly binding the body with twin