Online Bansuri Flute
Play a bamboo flute in your browser: tap the sargam keys, or cover the six holes and blow. Play along to songs and alankars, and share your tune as a link. Free, no ads, no sign-up.
Play the glowing note. The flute shows which holes to cover.
Hold to make sound. Blow hard plays one octave higher. Pressing again while a note sounds repeats it.
Turn your phone sideways for bigger holes, or tick Keep blowing.
Optional and off until you turn it on. It only measures how hard you blow, on this device. Nothing is recorded or uploaded.
Press Record, play something, then Stop. Your tune becomes a link.
Keyboard: A is Sa, then S D F G H J K up the scale, with komal and tivra notes on W E T Y U. Z–B are the low notes and L ; ' go higher.
Keyboard: hold S D F and J K L to cover holes 1–6 (W E R, U I O half-cover them). Hold Space to blow (press it again to repeat a note), add Shift to blow hard. With a mouse, click holes to close or open them (Shift-click for half).
How to play the online flute
- Notes (the easy way). Tap a key and hold it for as long as the note should last. Hold a long note and a gentle vibrato comes in. Slide your finger from key to key for a smooth slide between notes, like a bansuri meend. While you play, the flute above shows which holes a real player would cover.
- Two rows, two breaths. The bottom row is played with a gentle breath, the top row with a stronger one. On a real bansuri each column uses the same fingering; blowing harder lifts it an octave.
- Holes (like the real thing). Choose Holes, cover holes with your fingers (several at once) and hold Hold to blow. Blow hard plays the upper octave. Slide a finger sideways off a hole to half-cover it, which gives the komal notes, or to bend smoothly into the next note. On a phone, tick Keep blowing so your fingers are free for the holes. To play the same note twice, tap Hold to blow again while it sounds.
- Blow into the microphone (optional). Turn on Blow into mic, choose a note or a fingering, and blow gently across your phone's microphone. Blow harder in Holes mode for the upper octave.
- Record and share. Press Record, play, then Stop. Your notes and their timing go into the page address, so Share gives you a link that plays your tune back.
- Play along. Pick a sargam exercise, a raag scale or a public-domain song. The next note glows and the flute shows its fingering. Press Listen first to hear how it goes.
Bansuri fingering chart (sargam)
Holes are counted from the blowing end: your left hand covers holes 1 to 3 and your right hand holes 4 to 6 (for a flute held to the right). closed half-closed open
| Note | Holes 1–6 | On a G bansuri |
|---|---|---|
| Pa (low) | D4 | |
| komal Dha (low) | E♭4 | |
| Dha (low) | E4 | |
| komal Ni (low) | F4 | |
| Ni (low) | F♯4 | |
| Sa | G4 | |
| komal Re | A♭4 | |
| Re | A4 | |
| komal Ga | B♭4 | |
| Ga | B4 | |
| Ma | C5 | |
| tivra Ma | C♯5 |
Shuddha Ma can also be cross-fingered: hole 1 open, holes 2 and 3 closed, the rest open . Players use whichever sounds more in tune on their own flute.
The upper notes use the same fingerings with a stronger breath: all closed and blown harder gives the middle Pa, then Dha, Ni and the high Sa, Re, Ga and Ma follow the chart above, one octave up. On an E, A or C bansuri the sargam fingerings stay the same and only the Western names change.
Sargam in a minute
- Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni are the seven notes of the scale, like do re mi. Sa is the home note.
- Komal means flat: Re, Ga, Dha and Ni can be komal. Tivra means sharp, and only Ma has it. On the keys, a komal note is underlined and tivra Ma has a small mark above it.
- Dots show the octave: a dot below a note is the low octave (mandra), a dot above is the high octave (taar).
- Which bansuri? A bansuri is named after its Sa, the note you get with the top three holes closed. A G bansuri has Sa on G. Here, E is the lowest flute and C the highest; pick the one that matches yours or sounds best to you.
What this flute is, and isn't
- It's a simulation. The sound is synthesized live, not recorded from a real bansuri. It's good for learning fingerings and sargam and for playing tunes, but it can't teach you how to shape your lips and blow across a real flute. Only a real flute does that.
- It's tuned to equal temperament (A = 440 Hz), with a little vibrato on long notes and a slight scoop into each note. Real bansuris differ a little from flute to flute, and players shade notes with their breath.
- Half-holing is easier here. On a real bansuri, half-covering a hole takes practice; the Notes keys do it for you.
- The microphone mode hears how loud you blow, nothing more. It reacts to the low wind noise of your breath, so talking or tapping the phone can set it off too.
Questions
Is this online flute free?
Yes. There are no ads, no accounts and no tracking, and nothing to install. It runs in your browser.
Why can't I hear anything?
Browsers only allow sound after you interact with the page, so tap "Tap to start" first, then check your volume. On recent iPhones the flute plays even in silent mode, which also pauses music from other apps while you play. On older iOS versions, turn silent mode off. With the microphone on, a note only sounds while you blow.
Is my microphone recorded?
No. The microphone stays off until you press Blow into mic, and your browser asks first. The page then reads only the loudness of the low wind noise your breath makes, on your device, to decide when you're blowing. No sound is recorded, saved or sent anywhere, and the microphone turns off when you press the button again or leave the page.
Can I play film songs?
You can play anything you know by ear. The play-along list only has public-domain melodies, traditional sargam exercises and raag scales, because film songs are copyrighted.
How is the sound made?
With the Web Audio API: a soft tone with a few weak overtones, breath noise shaped around the note and at the lip, a short puff of air at the start of each note, vibrato on long notes and a small generated hall. There are no recordings or samples.
How does sharing work? Is my tune uploaded?
Nothing is uploaded. Your notes and their timing are packed into the part of the link after the # sign, which browsers don't send to our server. Recording stops after about 800 notes to keep links a sensible length.