Carnatic Flute Set

About Carnatic Flute

Broadly speaking we can divide the carnatic flute set into 3 sets.

• Lower octave (which produces bass sound)
• Mid octave (produces mid frequency notes)
• Higher octave (produces that sharp notes)

In terms of size the lower octave are bigger and longer in size, the mid octave are medium in size and the higher octave flutes set are smaller in size. The higher octave flutes are very small in size and produces a shrill sound and therefore you can avoid them.

Each set theoretically has 12 notes and therefore 12 flutes. So ideally if you want to play songs of all keys, you need all the 12 flutes in an octave. The ideal choice to have full carnatic set is the mid octave. This will help you to play a song in any scale. A lot of professional carnatic flautists also play in bass flute. So it is ‘advisable’ to own a few bass flutes also. The most widely use Carnatic bass flutes are G#, A, A# and B.

Why do you need an entire Carnatic flute set?

Each song is played in a particular key or scale. So if you have to reproduce the exact notes you need the entire flute set. More over when you play in a band the singer will be comfortable in a particular key and therefore you need that particular key in flute. Else the notes will not match. It may be worthwhile to understand that you just need one instrument (Guitar, Piano, Keyboard etc.) to play all the keys unlike flute, which needs specific scale flute to play a particular scale.

Which Carnatic flute set to buy as an beginner?

While there is no right answer for this, it is ideal to start from mid octave flute set (all the 12 notes) and then add few flutes in higher and lower octaves (around 5 -6 notes) to complete your full set. The two factors that you have to be careful is to make sure that the flutes have perfect tuning (concert grade: 440 HZ) and have a great tone. Natural node is a must for carnatic flutes.

Flutes in Mid Octave Carnatic Flute Set

The mid set South Indian Carnatic flute consist of 12 flutes tuned to 440 Hz. The mid octave if C to B. The 12 flutes are

• C (Shruti 1 / Kattai 1)
• C# (Shruti 1.5 / Kattai 1.5)
• D (Shruti 2 / Kattai 2)
• D# (Shruti 2.5 / Kattai 2.5)
• E (Shruti 3 / Kattai 3)
• F (Shruti 4 / Kattai 4)
• F# (Shruti 4.5 / Kattai 4.5)
• G (Shruti 5 / Kattai 5)
• G# (Shruti 5.5 / Kattai 5.5)
• A (Shruti 6 / Kattai 6)
• A# (Shruti 6.5 / Kattai 6.5)
• B (Shruti 7 / Kattai 7)