Hi All, I am a beginner flautist, although I have played the piano, clarinet, saxophone and trombone. I have always wanted to play the flute. I like the sound of the bansuri and have found a couple of songs that I particularly like (Akmal Qadri) so I would like to learn to play the Bansuri. Here is the problem. I don’t know what to beware of: (I have read the cheapy flute forum) and how much a bansuri flute should cost. I would rather have one with seven holes instead of six because (others say) you can reach more notes. I am also blind, so pictures of certain flutes mean little. I want to make sure that I am getting the right type of flute!-- there are so many. From what I understand, I would get the standard G key. Any help is greatly appreciated!!! Oh, no I don’t think that I will be Akmal Qadri, just was quite impressed with his playing and I found some other Indo/pak songs that would sound extremely expressive if played by flute.
One world trading has a ton of flutes including those by Jeff Whittier (which are highly recommended).
http://www.one-world-trading.com/index.shtml
You could also check out the FAQ and Forum at Knowyourraga
I have a question. Is there any difference between a bansuri musical scale and a western musical scale?
I have another question. Do you real braille sheet music? The few musicians who I have run across who have been blind, some of whom even read braille, haven’t even seen braille sheet music.
mutepoint, you may find an answer to your first question
here
yes it did. thanks.
How come janwright has “0 posts” when janwright posted the OP?
the “0” is a summary field stored with the user information
it is prone to not being correct (see it is a summary field)
a correct (dodgy concept) would involve counting all of the user’s posts
counting the user’s posts would be data base intensive, drag down the server, etc.
rich used to reset the “0” field, once every year or two, to match actual
Also … New users are subject to moderator approval before they appear on the board. Occasionally, we may allow a first post to appear without graduating the new user from approval status. In which case, posts will show a zero count until the user is approved. I don’t remember if that’s the case here.
I have some bansuri made by Jeff Whittier. They are very nice, and reasonably priced. I’m especially pleased by the ones I got made with somewhat more select bamboo (they cost a little bit more, but not too much). You can google him and find them. He’s also very responsive: I believe his email is: Bansijeff@aol.com. I sometimes use them instead of my 6-hole flute for ITM, just without playing the 7th hole. One thing to consider is that the 7th hole is very difficult to reach–a very long stretch with the right pinky finger. I bought one in D (I can’t recall how long it is) and there is no way I could cover the 7th hole. It took me two more tries, and I got one that is I think in G (with 6 holes covered). It’s smaller than my D Irish flute, but I can just reach the 7th hole.
Indian bansuri music is indeed moving and beautiful. I pretty much abandoned trying to learn how to play it for now (the Tai Hei shakuhachi site has some learning resources, records etc. you might check out–there’s even a video of Sachdev, a terrific player), because I can understand ITM a bit better. I still enjoy listening to bansuri very much, and might give it another try down the line, but all my tooting time is on Irish flute and whistle for now…
Best wishes,
Jaydoc