Playing your first note

As with any other woodwind instrument the first step is the toughest. You will
need a lot of patience initially and you might have to put in a lot of effort to
play your first note properly. Once you are able to do that, then the fun
begins.
The first step is to get a clean tone out of your flute. I'm sure, at some point
or the other, you would have tried blowing into a bottle or a pen cap; Blowing
into a bamboo flute is exactly the same. So try that out - just blow into the
blowing hole and see if you are able to produce a sound.
Remember that you cannot get a sound by blowing straight into the hole, you
have to blow at an angle in such a way that some portion of the air goes
inside the flute and some of it goes outside. It is a personal thing and I have
seen that this comes very naturally to some people and some people like me
have to struggle with this. Personally, I spent about three months just
blowing into the flute and trying to get the correct tone out of it.
I suggest you do not worry about how you are holding the flute at first and
concentrate only on getting a clean sound without covering any holes.

How to hold a bansuri

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 see
what portions of the fingers are used to cover which holes. Also, keep in
mind that the lines on your fingers should not be over the holes as that will
lead to leakage of air.

Sargam
Sargam is the Hindustani or North Indian equivalent to the western solfege.
The seven notes of the sargam are Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni.
Now that you know how to grip the bansuri and get clean sound out of it, you
can start playing the sargam. The notes are played by closing one or more
holes starting from the top of the flute.

Playing Sa
For playing Sa you need to close the top three holes of the instrument and
then blow into the flute. In case you cannot get a clean sound in the first
attempt make sure that the holes are covered properly by your fingers and
there is no air leakage.

(Blowing into the flute with the first three holes closed)

Playing other notes

The fingering chart for playing all the notes of the sargam is shown below.
Note that for playing Ma the first hole needs to be closed partially, but for all
other notes the holes are fully covered.

Note: The black circles denote closed holes.

Pa, Dha and Ni are played in the middle octave or madhyan saptak of the
bansuri. What this means is that by keeping the same position of fingers and
by adjusting the air flow you can produce a note which is an octave higher
than the previous note. A common mistake while trying to play the madhya
saptak is that people think that they have to blow harder to play higher
notes. That is not true. To play higher notes you have to make the air flow
out of your mouth sharper and more concentrated. You can try blowing on to
the palm of your hand and see how concentrated your air flow is.
The dot above the Sa at the end signifies that it is the Sa of the higher
octave or taar saptak.

Putting it all together

Initally you should just try to play one note at a time till you are able to get a
clean sound and then proceed to the next note. This process requires a lot of
patience and could take a good amount of time.

When you are able to play all the notes you can try playing them together in
ascending order(aaroh) or descending order(avroh).
Here is how I play the sargam. You could have a close look at the finger
positioning and let me know your views on this.

Practicing Scales or Alankaars

The literal meaning of the word Alankaar in hindi is 'ornament'. These are
exercises based on scales and rhythm. Most Indian musicians spends many
hours practicing alankaars everyday. Alankaars are also called paltas.
Alankaars can have varied levels of difficulty. In this lesson we will practice
some simplealankaars. This will help us in getting a better hold of our
instrument.
These scales require a lot of patience and practice and can sometimes take
many days or even weeks to master. If you find you cannot play an alankaar,
do not go to the next one till you are confident of the previous one. If you
find the tempo of the recorded clips to be too fast you can start by playing
slower and build up speed gradually.
The audio clips accompanying the instructions have been played with a Gmedium bansuri. It is advisable for you to get a bansuri of the same scale if
possible.
We will start by playing the sargam but this time we will play each note
twice.
Aaroh(ascent): SaSa, ReRe, GaGa, MaMa, PaPa, DhaDha, NiNi, Sa'Sa'.
Avroh(descent): Sa'Sa', NiNi, DhaDha, PaPa, MaMa, GaGa, ReRe, SaSa.

Listen

Similarly you can play each note four times.

Aaroh: SaSaSaSa, ReReReRe, GaGaGaGa, MaMaMaMa, PaPaPaPa,
DhaDhaDhaDha, NiNiNiNi, Sa'Sa'Sa'Sa'.
Avroh: Sa'Sa'Sa'Sa', NiNiNiNi, DhaDhaDhaDha, PaPaPaPa, MaMaMaMa,
GaGaGaGa, ReReReRe, SaSaSaSa.

Liste
n

Please note that being able to play all the notes in succession is not enough,
it is important to maintain a rhythm while playing. Listen to the audio clips

carefully and notice that there is a fixed rhythm on which the pattern is
played. If you can't keep up pace with the recording you can play at a slower
pace.
Now we are ready to begin with our first real alankaar. In this we will play
three notes starting from a particular note (say Sa). Then we will play three
notes starting from the next note(Re) and so on.
Aaroh: SaReGa, ReGaMa, GaMaPa, MaPaDha, PaDhaNi,
DhaNiSa'.
Avroh: Sa'NiDha, NiDhaPa, DhaPaMa, PaMaGa, MaGaRe,
GaReSa.

Normal
pace

Faster
pace

Your target should be to be able to play this as in the faster pace audio clip.
It is absolutely normal for you to take a lot of time on this. It can take many
days for one to be able to play this comfortably. Just go at your own pace.
In the next palta that we will practice, we will play alternate notes. We will
start with Sa and then play Ga(instead of Re), then start with Re and play Ma
and so on.
Aaroh: SaGa, ReMa, GaPa, MaDha, PaNi, DhaSa'.
Avroh: Sa'Dha, NiPa, DhaMa, PaGa, MaRe, GaSa.

Listen

Once you are able to play these paltas you should start feeling confident
about the instrument. And it generally becomes a lot easier learning more
advanced stuff after you overcome this initial hurdle.