Confusion in Base, Scales and Sargam

Question

I am learning and playing flute from Youtube on my own for over 10 months now but there are some questions and doubts that still confuse me. Now according to me no matter what the bass of flute is the Indian Sargam remains same on it. I mean SRGmPDNS' remains same whether it be A or Bb bass flute. According to me the bass of the flute gives us the base note of Sa. For example if I am playing on C scale Sa will sound C, Re will sound D and so on.

Now secondly I was learning a song on E bass flute on Youtube. Now the instructor said he had kept the scale of the song composition to A# on the same E scale flute and this is where I got confused.

Question 1: Have I got the first concept right? And if not what is the difference between different bass flutes in terms of Sargam? For instance what is the difference between C and D bass flute in terms of Indian Sargam?

Question 2: What does the instructor mean by that? I mean I know any instrument can be tuned to any scale keeping a base note but my doubt is are the sargam notes that he gave keeping A# scale on E bass flute universal and can be played on any bass flute? Or do they account for only A# scale and I will have to change them according to A# scale while playing on any other bass flute?

Answer 1

1. As stated in the comment, the first concept is absolutely correct that basically when you have a 'x' bass flute then according to Indian notation your 'Sa' (three holes covered on flute) or according to Western notation your 'Do' will sound exactly the equivalent of that 'x' western note. For example if you are playing on C bass flute your Sa/Do will sound C, Re/Re will sound D and so on.

2. Now coming to second answer we can play notes with reference to any scale on any bass scale flute. If you have a 'x' scale flute then your normal SRGmPDNS' (western equivalent - Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do') on flute will be played in natural scale of your flute i.e. in C scale. But if you want to play a song, in 'y' scale then your SRGmPDNS' (western equivalent - Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do') will shift on your flute according to the scale difference between natural scale ('x') and your desired scale ('y'). For an example let us say that you have a D scale flute then your normal SRGmPDNS' (western equivalent - Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do') will be played in D scale but if you want to play in C scale then you will have to shift your every note 2 scales higher as there is a difference of two scales between C and D (C, C#, D) i.e. your Sa (Do) will become Re (Re) and Re (Re) will become Ga (Mi) and so on.

References:

1. notesandsargam.com/indian-sargam-vs-western-notes

2. bansuriflute.co.uk/p/beginners-how-to-play-bansuri.html