Bansi Links

[talasiga]

I just received a beautiful HP bansuri made by Jeff Whittier. Anyone who has a bansuri would know that they're very delicate and thin-walled. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to apply the twin-wrapped bindings, if a crack should occur. It looks like it shouldn't be to hard to do. Anyone know of the right materials and glue and method to do your own bansuri repair?

My experience with bansuris is that they won't crack if
* bansuri is kept moistened by daily playing
* bansuri is not subjected to sudden changes of temperature (especially in dry air)
* bansuri is lightly oiled inside with almond oil during any prolonged dry spells or if one does not play it daily (oil every 3 months or so).

I have never had to rewrap bindings on my bansuris so I cannot comment.

I would advise you contact Jeff Whittier. See what he says and test my above advice with his comments. If any contradiction arises, follow Jeff rather than me.

Jeff also has some instructional products available should you be interested. (I don't have any intructional books or DVDs for bansuri tuition so I can't comment further on these).

The largest bansuri I currently play is F# Sa (C# key) - one semitone lower than Irish D flute.

Best of luck with your bass bansuri (I think you have an E Sa - B key - bansuri).

[Lee Stanford]

Thank you! I'll contact Jeff. I'm moving out to Northwestern America in september. Very Dry. I'll be sure to keep it oiled.

[Doug_Tipple]

I had a Harsh Wardhan professional bansuri, and it was wrapped with what appeared to be rather thin nylon thread. I also have a shakuhachi that has a modern wrap of monofilament to secure a small crack. I am guessing from what I have observed that nylon is a good choice for wrapping bamboo flutes.

I have successfully wrapped several bamboo flutes, and here is the method that I used. First, hold an end of the cord against the flute with your thumb. The end needs to be plenty long so that you can hold onto it after you have the winding complete. Secondly, start to wrap the cord around the flute, covering the starting end until you are about one third finished with your wrap. At that point you should no longer cover the starting end while you continue to wrap the flute When the length of the wrap is completed, cut the cord leaving a suitable length for you to bury it under the wrap. I use a sewing or darning needle, depending on the size of the thread or cord used, to bury the end under one third of the length of the winding, pulling it through so that the end is sticking out of the wrap. You may need to use a thimble or small pair of pliers to push the needle under the winding. Now, pulling on both ends with your fingers and at the same time twisting both ends of the winding to tighten it, you are ready to cut off both ends at the surface of the winding. The ends can be completely covered at this point with a toothpick or other sharp point. The winding is now complete.

[Lee Stanford]

Monty Levenson the shakuhachi maker, gave me this link. I think it's pretty much what Doug Just said.

http://www.shakuhachi.com/Y-BindingRepair.html

[talasiga]

Just realized today that Hariprasad Chaurasia will be teaching at Boxwood this summer - I love listening to Indian classical music and particularly the bansuri, but I recognize and respect what a complex artform it is - can anyone advise me about the possibilities of learning to play at this late stage in life? Talasiga, Doug Tipple et al, are you out there? I've enjoyed all the bansi links and chat on this forum in the past - does anyone have experience with the Pandit himself? Would you pass up this opportunity?
Thanks,
M.

Dear M,


I don't understand why you posted this in the "World/Folk Winds Forum " which is

A place for players of other folk/world music wind instruments.

I take it that to mean wind instruments other than whistle and flute.

I have a problem treating bansuri as a something that comes under an "other" forum because bansuri is a mainstream transverse simple system flute and along with the Chinese dizi one of the oldest diatonic transverse flutes of the world traditions.

Bansuri is not only played traditionally with indic folk and classical music but increasingly throughout the world in jazz, pop, and other traditions. Likewise the Irish flute is not only used for Irish music. You will see from my profile that I like to interpret indic music with mine. So as far as I am concerned this "flute forum" is here for all players of simple system keyed and unkeyed flutes.

I have also had discussions with more than one traditional Irish flute maker about making bansuric type wooden flutes for a clientele that includes a large proportion of Irish players.

Getting back to your Hariprasad prospectus, how much time do you have before the classes begin?
And what is you fluting background in terms of instrument size?

[MJS]

<Getting back to your Hariprasad prospectus, how much time do you have before the classes begin?
And what is you fluting background in terms of instrument size?>

Hi Tsaliga - recognizing that the bansuri is a flute, I did in fact post this inquiry here on the flute forum - it was moved to the folk winds forum almost immediately by the moderator.

So, in answer to your question, the classes are held in late July.
I have played Boehm flute for 14 years, nothing for 24 years, and keyless for the last three years. In terms of instrument size, I'm not sure what you mean - length of finger stretch?
M.

[MJS]

Oops, keyboard fingers, sorry Talasiga!

[talasiga]

.....
So, in answer to your question, the classes are held in late July.
I have played Boehm flute for 14 years, nothing for 24 years, and keyless for the last three years. In terms of instrument size, I'm not sure what you mean - length of finger stretch?
M.

Yes, I meant the last.

I suspect that the B key bansuri referred to as the E tonic bansuri
(because of XXX OOO preferred referent) will be the tuition standard.

Can you get hold of a B key bansuri from one of many distributors
in North America - a reasonably cheap (rather than "professional") one for practice?

(I cannot yet comfortably play such a bansuri even though I have no problems with an Irish Bb flute (concial bored). My largest bansuri is a C# (indic tonic F#). So, at this stage, I would not attend a class that required me to play a B key bansuri).

[MJS]

So, I just called Boxwood and spoke to Chris Norman (!! I thought I'd get an answering machine - I probably woke him up!!).

The class standard will be the E tonic banusuri - Chris suggested Anubodh as a supplier - he also suggested that there would be others there with little or no experience - so I may take the plunge!!

Can you suggest any favorite or must-have recordings or ways to get started?

Best regards,
M.

[bang]

i just finished doing some additional wraps on the Harsh Wardhan bansuri that Doug mentioned above. the hardest part was getting the first several wraps tight. here are some pix of how i did it:

http://www.pacificsites.com/~dog/tmp/flutewrap.html

enjoy! /dan

[talasiga]

.....The class standard will be the E tonic banusuri ..............

Can you suggest any favorite or must-have recordings or ways to get started?

.......

Seeing as my suspecting about the tuition standard E tonic was correct I will suspect a few other things in my advice, but, hopefully, not to give so much advice as to great a barrier for your "empty tea cup approach" at the course.

POSSESSION
Obtain a reasonable B key bansuri in the pitch that HC prefers (probably A440, given he plays with a lot of Western music also).
by May Day

PRACTICE
A. While you are waiting for the flute research the "pipers' grip" as executed by bansuri players. I will call this the "HC bansuric grip" because there are a variety of pipers' grips and a variety of bansuri type pipers' grip. It is not just about the phalanges covering the holes rather than the finger tips. It is also about the best posi for your thumbs (and this may change depending on the size of the tube) your head and neck posture and your arms etc. There are many good sites around on the internet by professional bansuri players who will advise on this. Check out first that they are Hariprasad disciples before you follow their advice. Practise this on your current keyless Irish flute until the alto bamboo one arrives.

B. I suspect the first raags you will be taught will be Yaman and Bhoopaali (Bhoop/Bhupali). These are easy (scalewise) because the former is a Lydian Mode raag which means it can be played with
XXX OOO keynote without needing any half holing for any of the notes
and the latter is a pentatonic major raag which is also easily played with
XXX OOO keynote.

(However NB: just because you can obtain the notes for these pieces naturally doesn't mean the raag treatment will not not utilise sliding techniques. Slurring or glissando is a feature of north indic music)

I will not give you the particular raag exercises here because there are different trads or historical schools of indic music and their approaches to interpretation differ and I do not want to introduce you to something which may interfere with HC particular style.

Just practice the scale of these raags using the bansuric grip on your current flute which if it is a D flute will go like this:

G A B C# D E F# G+ (Lydian for Yaman)
G A B D E G+ (Pent. Major for Bhoop)

This may sound boring on paper but it is not this but the new grip that you are practising. Once you can play this easily with the new grip work down to the lowest note and up to the highest. You may like to do any western classical scale practice with these modes. Again its not the music but getting used to the grip. (More later, but first:-)

LANGUAGE
Tuition will be most likely conducted on the basis of tonic solfeg sytem, referring to notes by the indic = of doh, re, mi etc. I doubt whether he will be saying play "note E now slowly". If you go into the link in my profile you will find one (of several) way of recording this approach.
Or you may wish to read up on it at a good internet site (some have already been provided in this topic).

I will stop for now.
Good Luck!

[talasiga]

this site by Prasad Bhandarkar, a San Francisco based disciple of Hariprasad Chaurasia, contains a very nice, unbiased article on bansuri grips

[MJS]

Perfect, thanks! That is very helpful.
Incidentally, I am still wondering about the finger reach - the only way I can think of to ask about this is, when I stretch my right hand fingers out fully along a ruler, the tip of my thumbnail on 0 cm, the tip of my little finger reaches 20.5 cm. Any thoughts?
Cheers,
M.

[talasiga]

That is why I suggested you first get a cheaper (but appropriate pitched) practice bansuri first. One of the earlier posts here by, I think, Jonathan, contains a US link for a range of bansuris from prof. to practice.

You could even ring that person at Boxwood and ask him the bore diameter, length and hole placements on the E tonic (B key) bansuri and model this on a cardboard tube. Then you can try out the bansuri grip over a couple of days and see how you go just on the question of reach.
I think that would be reasonably cautious.

Believe me, the reach will develop daily as your approach becomes a full body thing. As I said earlier I cannot play the B bansuri BUT I can reach and cover the holes and can, without practice, play (sound a note) down as far as XXX XOO. To develop it I would need to buy one but I have neither the time nor inclination for it as my Irish D, bamboo C and C# bansuri as well as other flutes already demand at least 3 hours of my day and night as is.

Try the cardboard thingie. It can't hurt.
I think my hands are a tad smaller than yours.

[talasiga]

Here is a young bansuri player with some verve
doing some drut (fast) exposition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2LAz72K_no

Note how the tabla (percussion) has a central role and how,
sometimes, the flute will take a supportive rather than lead role
to allow the tabla to improvise elaboration of the rhythm.