There are probably 100’s types of flutes in the world, but 2 of the most common ones are the concert flute (Boehm flute) and the Bansuri (bamboo flute).
What are the differences between these two flutes, and which one should you choose?
Flute vs Bansuri – The Differences
- Bansuri has all open holes. The Flute has keys/pads.
- Bansuri is diatonic. The Flute is chromatic.
- Bansuri is made of bamboo. The Flute is in metal.
- Bansuri has a soft breathy sound. The Flute sounds bright and clear.
- Bansuri is very cheap. A decent Flute is expensive.
- Bansuri is a simple design. The Flute is complex and requires maintenance.
I personally play both the flute and the bansuri, and I love them both. The sound and tone difference is actually huge.
The bansuri, with the bamboo and big open holes, has a very mysterious, soft, breathy and calming sound. While the flute has a bright, clear and focused sound.
The bansuri most often have 6 holes, meaning it is a diatonic instrument, which requires you to learn “half-holing” to access chromatic notes. The downside of this is that you really need a set of different bansuris to be able to play in all keys.
However, by design this makes the bansuri amazing for legato, note bends, slides etc. The flute on the other hand, even flutes with some open holes on the pads, have fingerings to access every single chromatic note. But it can not really do the expressive note bends and slides that a bansuri can.
The flute is much better at playing faster melodies, arpeggios and phrases, since it has keys. But the bansuri is in my opinion more expressive for very soft and mysterious sounding melodies.
The bansuri is more unforgiving to learn the embouchure compared to flute. Embouchure is a technical term for how you shape your mouth, lips and air stream to produce the sound on the flute or bansuri. A flute has a lip plate to help direct the air, while the bansuri only has an open hole.
The biggest difference most beginners consider though, is the price. You can get a good bansuri for around 50 dollars. While a nice student flute starts at over 500$.
Flute vs Bansuri – Which is Easier?
Keyed flutes are generally better for beginners, and since bansuri flutes have all open holes, they tend are more unforgiving to the player.
Also, the bansuri has no lip plate to direct your air, so getting a consistent and good tone is much harder.
A concert flute (boehm) is hard in other ways. For example that you need to learn a lot of fingerings to get to each note, since it is fully chromatic.