Strike the bronze bars of the saron and the kettles of the bonang, and let the great gong close each cycle. Switch between slendro and pelog, two tunings that exist nowhere else, start the gong cycle and play a melody over it, or follow a balungan note by note.
A full gamelan fills a room and needs twenty players. This one keeps the essential instruments, and lets you hear how they fit together.
The saron, a row of thick bronze bars over a carved trough, plays the core melody, the balungan. The bonang, a frame of small kettle gongs with a raised boss, plays an octave higher and decorates it. Strike the bars and kettles with the mouse, your fingers or the keyboard.
Gamelan music turns in cycles called gongan, and the great gong, the gong ageng, sounds at the end of each one. Switch on the gong cycle and hear the structure: the kenong every four beats, the kempul in between, the great gong on the sixteenth. Then play your own melody on the saron over it.
Neither tuning fits the piano. Slendro divides the octave into five almost equal steps; pelog into seven unequal ones, of which a piece usually uses five. Every real gamelan has its own tuning, so the values here are typical ones, and the two systems sound unmistakably different from Western scales.
A free bronze bar rings at overtones about 2.76 and 5.4 times its note, which gives the saron its metallic shimmer; the kettles ring rounder. The great gong is synthesized with two partials a few hertz apart, so its sound swells and fades in slow waves, what Javanese musicians call the ombak.
Gamelan melodies are written in numbers, the kepatihan notation: 1 2 3 5 6 in slendro, 1 to 7 in pelog, with a dot above for a higher octave and below for a lower one, in groups of four beats called gatra. The bars and the melodies use the same notation.
Four balungan written by GOONS, two in slendro and two in pelog. Listen as the saron plays, the bonang doubles it and the gongs mark the cycle, then play it yourself: the next bar glows, and the gongs answer at the end of each phrase.
Click the great gong, or press C: listen to its slow waves. Every cycle ends with it.
Press Gong cycle: kenong, kempul and gong mark sixteen beats, over and over.
Over the cycle, play the saron bars with the middle row of your keyboard, one note per beat.
Choose a piece and press Play along: strike the glowing bar, and the gongs answer the phrase.
| Type | Javanese gamelan (saron, bonang, kenong, kempul, gong ageng), playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Saron | 7 bronze bars: slendro low 6, 1 2 3 5 6, high 1; pelog 1 to 7 |
| Bonang | 7 kettle gongs, an octave above the saron |
| Tunings | Slendro, cents 0, 231, 474, 717, 955; pelog, cents 0, 120, 258, 539, 675, 785, 943 (typical values) |
| Gong cycle | 16 beats: kenong on 4, 8, 12, 16; kempul on 6, 10, 14; gong ageng on 16; 40 to 140 BPM |
| Notation | Kepatihan cipher notation with octave dots, in gatra of four beats |
| Sound | Modal synthesis: free bars, bossed kettles, beating partials of the gongs, large room reverb |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
A gamelan is the traditional ensemble of Java and Bali in Indonesia: mostly bronze metallophones and gongs, with drums, a bowed rebab, a bamboo flute and voices. Its instruments are made and tuned together as one set, often with a name of its own, and an instrument from one gamelan rarely fits another. In 2021 UNESCO added gamelan to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Gamelan music is layered. The saron plays the balungan, the skeleton of the melody; instruments such as the bonang elaborate it faster and higher; and the gongs mark the structure, from the small kethuk to the gong ageng that ends each gongan. Musicians call it colotomic structure. The drummer leads the tempo, which can slow down so the elaborating instruments have room for more notes.
Gamelan bronze has a cousin in the steel drum of Trinidad and Tobago, and a relative in spirit in the handpan, both struck metal tuned by hammering. For another Asian tradition, try the koto.
Yes. The gamelan at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs in your browser with the Web Audio API.
Slendro has five notes per octave at almost equal distances; pelog has seven notes at unequal distances, and a piece usually uses five of them. Neither matches the notes of a piano, which is part of the unique sound of gamelan.
A great gong rings at two very close frequencies, which beat against each other a few times a second. Javanese musicians call these slow waves the ombak, and gong makers tune them carefully.
Each number is a note of the tuning: 1 2 3 5 6 in slendro, 1 to 7 in pelog. A dot above means the octave above, a dot below the octave below. Beats are grouped by four, and the note at the end of each line falls on the great gong.
No. The four balungan are originals written by GOONS in the style of short gamelan pieces, so you can play them freely.
The gamelan is free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a looper, synths, drum machines and a sequencer that play together - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the online steel drum →