Interactive Gamelan website

Gamelan Mecanique (Review) http://www.citedelamusique.fr/gamelan/shock.html This is a fantastic interactive website. As most schools own have access to gamelan instruments, this site gives students a realistic exposure to the configuration and sound of a Gong Kebyar ensemble.

Each note can be clicked (or touched when using an interactive whiteboard) and the note will sound. Click play and the full ensemble will perform. You can turn each instrument on or off or solo an instrument so you can hear and analyse what it is doing.

The site also graphically represents the cyclic structure so typical of gong kebyar music.

Again, instruments can be turned on or off at will. Different patterns can be selected and used as the basis for analysis. The colotomic structures used in gamelan are evident here in graphical form.

Here, the same music is presented in a linear representation. Students can create a new arrangement by adding to each instrument layer to build there own performance.