Javanese Gamelan Workshop

On Monday 9th May, Miss Zylinski and fifteen Year 9 students (who have chosen to take GCSE Music next year) travelled to the Department of Music at Oxford University to participate in a Javanese Gamelan workshop, to give them an insight into an area of World Music they may not have experienced before.

The Javanese Gamelan is an Indonesian orchestra of bronze gongs and metallophones (similar to xylophones and marimba). As a group, students learnt to play a traditional Javanese piece in different parts purely by ear, which explored cyclic patterns and pentatonic scales. Carli Green, 9R1, said, “It was a good demonstration, and will definitely help me during the GCSE Music course”, whilst Maddie Lee 9R1 said, “I really enjoyed the workshop, especially learning about a different culture and new instruments.”