Bansuri - Indian Bamboo Flute: Fingering Chart.

Reproduced here for educational purposes from Bansuri Player - David Philipson's Web Site.

In Indian music, the Sargam system corresponds to the European Solfege system's names of the notes.
Here is a chart which shows the names of the degrees of the Bilawal 'That' [ parent scale ] in Sargam and the corresponding names of the degrees of the major scale in Solfege :

1	Sadhjya	abbreviated as	Sa	corresponds to	Do
2	Reshab	abbreviated as	Re	corresponds to	Re
3	Gandhar	abbreviated as	Ga	corresponds to	Mi
4	Madhyam	abbreviated as	Ma	corresponds to	Fa
5	Pancham	abbreviated as	Pa	corresponds to	So
6	Dhaivat	abbreviated as	Dha	corresponds to	La
7	Nishad	abbreviated as	Ni	corresponds to	Ti

A line below the note lowers the note by a half - step . This is known as a Komal swar :

A vertical line above the note raises the note by a half - step : . This is known as Tivra Ma.

A dot below the note means the note is in the register below middle Sa :

A dot above the note means the note is in the register above middle Sa :

The above chart shows the basic fingerings for the bansuri. This is for the Kalyan 'That', which corresponds to the Lydian mode in European music. [ A major scale with the fourth degree raised by a half - step.]

Sa [Do] is played with the first three finger holes closed.

On a bansuri with seven holes [as shown above] Tivra Ma [] in the middle and upper octave can be fingered with all the finger holes closed or with all the finger holes open [ in the higher octave the first finger hole is uncovered ].

Shuddh [ lit.= pure ] Ma [ the unraised fourth degree ] and all other flattened notes [komal Re, komal Ga, komal Dha and komal Ni] are played by uncovering the necessary portion of the finger hole.

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