Gamelan!

 My new hobby is Balinese gamelan. If you’ve talked to me since I started attending rehearsals in August ‘25, you’ve probably heard me mention it. I’m writing this in case you want to know more about what it is, because hopefully you find it at least partially as interesting as I do.


Gamelan is an Indonesian genre of music centered around hitting tuned metal instruments with mallets. In fact, the Indonesian verb “gamel” literally means “to strike with a mallet”. The word “gamelan” can refer to the genre of music or to the group of instruments themselves. Gamelan is necessarily played in ensembles, as far as I know you can’t really perform it alone. I don’t even have a real practice instrument at home. The closest American equivalent I can think of is marching band drumlines, where the composite of many quickly played percussion instruments makes an exhilarating atmosphere, and would be boring if you didn’t have all the instruments present.


On the topic of togetherness, I want to talk about my favorite aspect of gamelan before I go into more details, since who wants to read a bunch of details about something that they don’t already think is cool? There is a type of pattern that is commonly played in gamelan called a kotekan which is quite literally impossible to play alone. Gamelan instruments often come in pairs, the polos and sangsih, and the players play different but complementary parts simultaneously. This creates a hocketing effect that no individual instrument could play by itself. See below for a visual representation of a simple kotekan from Wikipedia, but note that most compositions have kotekan that run up and down the scale.


Indonesia is a very diverse country so there are multiple styles of gamelan throughout the archipelago. The two broad styles I’m familiar with are Balinese and Javanese, named after their islands of origin. Javanese gamelan is often described as “court music”, it’s subdued and often features vocals. In addition to metallophones, Javanese gamelan also includes wooden keyed instruments similar to a marimba. In contrast, Balinese gamelan (the type I play) is bold, blisteringly fast, and noisy. Players wear earplugs to prevent hearing loss in rehearsal, since the bronze keys are struck (hard) with wooden mallets. 


We have two sets of instruments tuned to two different scales: pelog (5-note scale) and slendro (4-note scale). As mentioned earlier gamelan instruments tend to come in pairs. This is useful not only for playing kotekan, but also because the pairs are purposefully tuned slightly off from each other. This makes the instruments reverberate when long notes are held, making a cool “shimmering” effect.


Now to the instruments individually. I don’t play Javanese so I’ll only be speaking about Balinese instruments, specifically in the “Gamelan Gong Kebyar” genre. Below you’ll see an image that a member of my ensemble made as a reference guide, so everyone say: “Thank You Kelson.”



Gongs - You’ve heard of gongs, but did you know that it’s actually an Indonesian word? There is only one gong player in the ensemble, but they usually play multiple gongs which are arranged all around the player. Gamelan pieces often consist of passages that are repeated multiple times, and the cycle that they repeat on is called the gong cycle. This is a pattern of gong hits that the players can use to orient themselves within the passage in case they lose track of where they are. The top row in the graphic is all gongs, so a typical gong cycle that you might see in a piece would be something like “Gong-(Kem)Pur-(Klen)Tong-(Kem)Pur”. The gong is considered the most “sacred” instrument in the gamelan and you often want to put someone reliable on gong because if they get off track it can throw everyone else off.


Kajar - This is the metronome of gamelan. Along with the gong, the kajar is used for timekeeping by the rest of the group, but the kajar subdivides much smaller units of time. In western terms, the gong typically plays whole notes while the kajar plays quarter notes. I think the kajar could technically be called a gong, but it looks much different from what you’d normally expect. It lies parallel with the ground and you mute it with your off hand to make the metronome hits distinct and clear. Similar to gong, you don’t want anyone playing kajar that can’t keep a steady beat.


Cengceng - This is a little tray of cymbals that often match the fastest rhythm that the gangsas are playing (usually sixteenth notes), completing the suite of timekeeping instruments with the gong and kajar. The instrument usually looks like a little turtle :)


Kendang - It’s a drum with two sides that is either played with the hands or with a mallet. It sometimes reminds me of an Indian tabla in that there are multiple named ways to strike the drums, but it doesn’t seem to be quite that sophisticated (no shade ofc). There are usually one or two kendang players and they’re kind of the conductors of the gamelan. A drum cue tells the players when to pick up their mallets before playing and can cue the gamelan to perform special variations of their patterns called angsel.


Suling - It’s a flute. The most interesting thing about it is that it is played with circular breathing, and a member of my ensemble is actually able to do it!


Gangsa - This is the lead instrument of gamelan; the violin to its classical, the guitar to its rock, the saxophone to its jazz. A gangsa is a row of tuned keys that looks like a large glockenspiel, and they almost always play the melody of the piece. They have a particular method of play as well: in western mallet percussion, the player generally has a mallet in both hands. Gangsas are played with only one panggul (a wooden hammer), while the off-hand is used for muting the keys once struck. This muting technique allows the notes to not bleed together and for kotekan to be possible. There are gangsas of various sizes and thus pitch: the big, lower gangsas play more slowly while the higher pitched ones play quickly.


Gender - Pronounced “gen-DARE”, this is a special long gangsa-like instrument that is played with both hands simultaneously. I haven’t learned to play this one yet because it’s one of the more technical instruments of gamelan. The reason is that due to playing with both hands at the same time, you have to mute your previous notes with your wrists while also playing the next note. To make it easier, both hands are generally playing octaves so it’s not like both hands are moving independently in addition to the muting technique.


Reyong - This is like a line of tuned kajars, tuned to the same notes as the gangsas. Like the gender, this played with both hands simultaneously. This requires yet another difficult muting technique, where you must lightly dampen the reyong with the same mallet after striking it. Reyong is the only other instrument in the gamelan that plays kotekan besides the gangsas.


Rebab - This is a fiddle. We have not used it in any of the pieces that I've learned.


And that’s gamelan! If you’re interested in hearing more, check out some of the recordings on the FROG website, and if you want to see me play, buy a ticket for our June 7th performance! Ticket linked five times for emphasis.


https://epiphanychi.com/events/thunder-and-tranquility-a-gamelan-journey/

https://epiphanychi.com/events/thunder-and-tranquility-a-gamelan-journey/

https://epiphanychi.com/events/thunder-and-tranquility-a-gamelan-journey/

https://epiphanychi.com/events/thunder-and-tranquility-a-gamelan-journey/

https://epiphanychi.com/events/thunder-and-tranquility-a-gamelan-journey/

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