Tuesday 6 October 2009

October Activity: Gamelan Music

This activity is from
Cool Cats Cross Arts Adventures Level 3

Gamelan music

The gamelan is the Javanese and Balinese orchestra.
It uses from a few to several dozen musicians, playing different melodic and rhythmic patterns on tuned and untuned percussion.
Find out more using the links at the bottom of this page.

Some examples of patterns can be heard on the audio file Gamelan Music.
Download scores and mp3 track below
The score and music are from
Cool Cats Cross Arts Adventures Level 3

Gamelan orchestra
Students in 8 groups
Using the score, students make a gamelan orchestra.
Groups 1 - 4 play tuned percussion instruments
using a 1 bar repeating pattern.
Groups 5 - 8 play untuned percussion instruments
using a 1 bar repeating pattern .

Try bringing the groups in one at a time .
Also - have a conductor bring the different groups in and out (except for groups 3 and 7 who must play ALL the time, to provide the pulse).

Students can invent their own 4 beat patterns.

You will find the mp3 track and the page from the book with the score here
and you can purchase Cool Cats Cross Arts Adventures Level 3 here

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