The Balinese Gamelan

This here is a picture of a gamelan, which is an ensemble consisting of all these different instruments. "Gamelan" is also the type of music played on these instruments and comes primarily from Java and Bali in Indonesia. At TWU they have a Balinese gamelan set and in my world music class today we all got to have a lesson. We spread out all the instruments and doubled up on several while sitting on the floor. I won't go into all the details but it's a pretty fascinating type of music to me. (For one thing, they have "male" and "female" instruments. The males are tuned a bit higher than the females, our instructor said, because of the traditional male dominance in Asian cultures.) The different tunings and overtones are really cool. In a way I felt like I was a kid in my classroom from last year, playing the Orff instruments (xylophones) as a class. It was really fun, and definitely beat the lecture we usually have!

Organ lessons are going well, thanks for asking. My teacher's loaded me up with several pieces that are challenging but great! We start our music therapy observations this week and we're getting into the dense part of the semester, so things will be getting a bit busier. If you want to see what else has been occupying my time click on Jenny's blog and read about her birthday celebrations . . .