‘To create most western music, we use what is known as a chromatic scale and it contains 12 different notes. However, many non-western traditions use a pentatonic scale, made up of just five different notes, and this is much more user friendly and does not lend itself to accidentally playing ‘wrong’ notes.
We will use a five-note or pentatonic scale to play our Gamelan music, using the western notes G, A, C, D and E. The lowest note G will be reproduced an octave higher as the top note in our scale and the highest note of our five note scale, E, will also be reproduced an octave lower two notes below the first note G to become the lowest note of our scale. Together these notes produce the seven note Slendro scale.
Students will learn to play an authentic Indonesian gamelan tune, play some music in a cyclic pattern, understand a pentatonic scale and play together as a group.’
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