I see where a bansuri flute is given it’s name for the Key it plays in when the top three holes are covered. Now, when playing a native American flute they are tuned in a minor pentatonic scale. Can someone simply explain to me the scale of the bansuri and is the range of a bansuri also a little over an octave in range? Thanks for any info. Considering one for playing western style music here in the U.S. The sound from the bamboo models sounds very mellow.
I don’t play bansuri but my understanding is they are essentially diatonic and have a range over two octaves.
I do play NAF and despite the limited range, a good NAF is almost fully chromatic over its limited range. I play lots of jazz, pop, rock on NAF.
I don’t know what you mean by “western style” but I’m sure either can be used for a wide variety of styles if approached correctly.
I don’t play bansuri for real, but I do own one and from time to time dip into the huge wells of youtube instructional vids to learn a bit of basic raga.
Yes- they are named according to the 3-holes-down pitch.
Holes are bigger than an Irish flute, so half-holing accidentals is more of a viable option than on an Irish flute.
I can pretty comfortably get a 2 octave range from the lowest note (6 holes down, an E) on my A bansuri.
A lower-pitched bansuri might potentially be able to overblow a bit into the 3rd octave (I’m guessing here), but be forewarned if you’ve got small hands- the finger spread gets pretty wide as you start getting into larger flutes.
As for the scale, starting from 6-holes-down gives a diatonic (major) scale.
A well made bansuri played by a capable player will go several notes into the third octave, much like a conical bore (keyless) wooden flute. And they are also capable of fully chromatic play. Joshua Geisler wrote an excellent book on that subject:http://thechromaticbansuri.com