My main flute is a Copley Delrin keyless and I really like it. I also like the sound of bamboo flutes and I got a couple used, one is a billy miller winwood flute in E and the other I believe is a Barna Gabos in F but I’m not sure because there is no signature or marking on it. I really like the Barna Gabos so I will post a photo and maybe someone can confirm the maker.
Top: Billy Miller Low E
Bottom: Barna Gabos Low F
And here is a comparison of the two:
The two bamboo flutes are quite different. The Gabos is very responsive and I can play fast tunes with it. It has what seem to be a normal embouchure hole, not too big. The Billy Miller has a lovely sound but it’s a challenge for me. It’s a very wide bore and has very large tone holes, and the embouchure hole is very large as well. I’ve been using it more for airs. It just feels huge to me.
I’m curious what effect the size has on a bamboo flute. Why is the Miller so much bigger than the Gabos? I was also researching Pratten & Rudal Rose and I forget which, I think it was RR, I saw one in a video and it seemed gigantic compared to the pratten. My Copley is a custom design but I think I remember it being closer to the Pratten and it doesn’t seem large to me. Are all RR really big?
It’s been fun for me to play both and experiment around. Well not just both but all 3.
My last question is what makes a bansuri different than other bamboo flutes? I love the sound of the Bansuri. I was listening to the “Life of Pi” soundtrack and the bansuri flute on the soundtrack was just amazing. To my ears a bansuri sounds different than regular bamboo flutes. I also listen to Hari Prasad Chaurasia and love his sound. I was considering getting a bansuri to satisfy my curiosity but I have enough flutes & whistles not to mention violin. So I’m wondering what the difference is. The good news is these bamboo flutes aren’t too expensive so it’s not too costly to experiment a bit. If I do get a bansuri I’m not sure which key to get. I have flutes in F,E,D and so I was thinking of getting a bansuri in C (which would be a F in the way they name their keys). I’m not sure if it’d be too big. I had an overton low C once and that thing was a monster. It was amazing how much bigger the low C was than the Low D. But I sure love the sound of the low flutes. I understand Low B (irish naming convention, E in bansuri naming) is a popular key but very difficult to finger.
Unfortunately our C&F expert on bansuris, talasiga, has been banned for quite a while now.
My knowledge about bansuris is very limited, but I can try to answer.
Bansuri just means bamboo flute. I am not sure how you make a distinction between bansuri and “regular” bamboo flutes. It depends very much on the maker what design characteristics and quality you may encounter in a bansuri. Good bansuris can be expensive. The better bansuris are made out of a piece of bamboo with a single (plant) node at the embouchure end, so it acts as a stopper, and also provides a bit of a taper at the top end. There will be no nodes in the length of it. The bamboo will be quite thin-walled, and the finger holes quite large, to allow half-holing and the micro-tonal subtleties of Indian music. The sixth finger hole (R3) may also be much larger (and further down) than what we know from Western simple flutes. So it can be challenging to stretch the fingers. Holes are often shaped elliptically and are produced by burning with a hot iron. The embouchure hole can be also quite large.
I think Hariprasad Chaurasia mostly plays a “low B” bansuri. A lovely key! But a “C” bansuri (bottom note is “C”) would be easier for a start, so I think that would be a good choice.
Thank you for your feedback Hans. I like the silky smooth sound of the bansuris when I listen to them in recordings, it sounds quite difference than the Irish flute sound. So I thought that there might be some physical characteristics that give bansuris a difference sound. It’s hard to say having never tried one. Perhaps a “normal” bamboo flute would be fine. I’m also not sure about the tuning on bansuri. With simple systme flutes, the tonic is the bell note but on bansuris they call the tonic what we’d call a G (top 3 holes). so if the bansuri uses just intonation, would that make the tuning very different from a simple system flute?
Compared to a wooden flute, the bansuri has not much height of the walls at the embouchure hole. A wooden flute with its thicker walls will deliver a different and darker tone just because of that, apart from the player who aims for a harder, reedier sound by adjusting the blowing technique.
As to tuning of bansuris: I don’t think there should be a problem because of just intonation based on the three finger ‘G’ note. It will still be possible to play just intoned on the bottom ‘D’ note. The ‘B’ may be flat for a D major or E Dorian or E minor scale, and would need to be pushed up. The basic scale from bottom note upwards is a major scale, and the C natural can be cross-fingered just as on a wooden simple system flute.
