Students learn to play gamelan in a hands-on gamelan workshop where every student has an opportunity to play an instrument and learns to perform a simple traditional Javanese piece.
Gamelan is a co-operative music-making experience where all students have an opportunity to be involved at different levels of the structure. An important focus is learning to listen to each other. If desired, students could have the opportunity to improvise/compose with the instruments.
This workshop is taught by Budi Putra, resident gamelan expert at the NZ School of Music, or by a local gamelan musician. It can be tailored to groups of any age from 8 up.
What others say about teaching gamelan in schools:
"The accessibility of the music, at its root level,
coupled with the beauty of the instruments and their sound, and the universal musical concepts that are built in to the music, make an extremely well rounded vehicle to use in the classroom. The cultural philosophies surrounding playing the instruments also integrate well
when teaching to the whole child, and when guiding students to consider what it means to be human."
Mike Coffey, teacher of gamelan in an elementary school in the US
This workshop can be conducted at your school for an extra fee, and as long as you book a minimum of 3 workshops. This is because we need to move a large number of instruments to your school.
If neighbouring schools co-operate so that we can base the instruments in one location for more than one school, the transportation fee can be shared.
Alternatively, a school can bring students to the NZ School of Music for gamelan workshops (subject to the timetable fitting with university requirements).