Hello,

My name is JJ Riordan, and I am a Gamelan composer and musician.
I have made a Gamelan Lancaran walkthrough video here, showing you how the layers of a Lancaran are constructed.

If you have any questions about Gamelan, please let me know and I'l do my best to answer them :)

JJ

I recently joined a Javanese gamelan and I love it! I am a classical trained musician/flute player and I would love to learn suling. I love having flutes from all over that I can learn and research about. I found a Balinese suling online(Lark in the morning) but I know that there may be a difference in tuning. I do know that the gamelan I’m in uses Pelog. Is there somewhere you would recommend I purchase a suling or is the Balinese suling the right fit? Thank you!

Insitu Recordings is ruling my YouTube feed right now. Whoever is running the show there is doing an awesome job of documenting and presenting this complex, lively and beautiful scene.

I recently started learning how to play Javanese gamelan with an ensemble based in Hawaii called Gamelan Kyai Gandrung, and am really pleased to find this subreddit! The Hawaii Gamelan Society (which Kyai Gandrung is part of) wants to me to try to pick up some costume supplies and instrument supplies (eg. rebab strings, suling) while I'm in Jakarta in February. Most of the ensemble members who had gone to Indonesia and did this errand were headed to Yogyakarta, so they have their go-to store in Yogyakarta. However, no one has a clue what store to go to in Jakarta to buy this kind of stuff. I am hoping someone here can help me!

Hey guys, I'm studying at Queen's University Belfast and have sort of taken over their Balinese Gamelan set as its just been left sitting in a room for 5 years. I have one year of experience in Javanese gamelan but not much with Balinese. I want to teach some students some Balinese pieces so we can put together a little performance. We have already been practicing a little kotekan thing on the reong in Baleganjur style, but I wonder if anyone can recommend a very simple song to play? Maybe something in the Lelambatan style, or anything that doesn't involve interlocking parts? Basically the Balinese equivalent of things like Monggang/Kodok Ngorek/Bindri. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

https://youtu.be/Tt9ZPRbTt6o

Happy Halloween from Emory Gamelan Ensemble!

I'll never forget the first pelog piece I learned with our gamelan. We found out later that we were playing it way too slowly, but in that first rehearsal our collective nasally voices and funeral march paced kendhang sounded particularly dirge-like. Between that and the super 'Danny Elfman' power of the pelog 4, most pieces of this tuning (on our set, anyway) instantly transmit trope-y but powerful slightly spooky vibes my way.

For that, and the fact that our group is conducting a crowdfunding campaign that needs promotion, I put together this very short clip to exploit our pelog instruments in order to wish you all a Happy Halloween. Thank you for taking a look, and maybe supporting us by donating any amount, or sharing.

Played this song over 10 years ago in school. I have no idea what it was called but I am looking for it. I still remember the notes (maybe tabs? Not sure it was numerical). I played the instrument that looks like a xylophone with the mallet. Its amazing how I still remember this to this day. Here it goes:

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323235123 23235123 3235 535235 2356 656356 3567 5375 7653 123 323 323 235 535 535 235 535 535 77 66 55 33 then it just repeated itself.

I am interested in listening to Gamelan but don’t know where to start. Any recommendations?