Hi all!

As promised here is a blog all about the Gamelan concert I was in on Tuesday 7th April!

It was a really great concert. There were three Gamelan groups playing in total. Two were Javanese Gamelan and one was Balinese Gamelan. The Javanese Gamelan had one group made up of all first years and the second group a mix of all three years including me! The Balinese Gamelan group consisted of second and third years.

Well, the day all started at about 1pm when we had the challenge of moving all the instruments from the lower floor in the music department up two flights of stairs to the great hall! It was quite a work out! Luckily we did have lifts to use for some of the really heavy stuff but all in all we spent an hour transporting instruments! But we managed it and it looked great.

After we had managed to move everything and set them all up each group rehearsed in preparation for the concert.

The concert was split into two halves: Javanese and then Balinese. The first Javanese group played some cool stuff and a couple of really relaxing pieces. Check out a few of the clips! –

My group followed with a few lovely pieces including one written by our teacher Andy Channing. It finished with a piece written for Gamelan and trumpet (which is a bit more unusual and not an instrument which would normally play in a gamelan group setting) but it sounded really good. I was playing in these pieces so it was a bit hard to film and play at the same time – but here are a few audio recordings.

The concert finished off with the Balinese Gamelan group.

It’s a totally different sound so was really neat hearing it after having played Javanese; it created such a different atmosphere! Some of their pieces stared some guest dancers, which was awesome.

– instead of me trying to describe to you how fantastic it was check out these clips for yourself!

All in all it was a fab concert! It was so enjoyable both playing and listening to it. Learning how to play Gamelan was something totally new to me and I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to learn it whilst doing my degree. Not only have I had such a fantastic time playing each week but it has also helped me develop as a musician. I’m used to relying on sheet music but in Gamelan there is none, it’s more a case of learning your part by ear and listening to the others to see how your part fits in. In Gamelan no one just plays one instrument, instead you learn new parts for each new piece, so it has improved my listening skills a lot. It has taught my ear to listen to music in a completely different way and helped me loosen up and not be so reliant on sheet music. I would definitely recommend giving Gamelan a shot – you won’t regret it!

Well, it’s hard to believe we’re in the last week of term. There’s a bit of running around like headless chickens revising for exams and essay deadlines looming however end of term time also means it’s concert time!

Since everyone takes part in at least 4 ensembles over the course of their degree (many students do more just for their own enjoyment. I have tried out pretty much everything now!) It means come end of term there will be lots of concerts!

We have loads of ensembles to choose from like Gamelan, African dance and drumming, Latin, jazz, chamber music and choir along with ones students organise themselves like big band and experimental music ensemble.

Today at lunchtime in the pub across from Uni, the Jazz Ensemble had their end of term gig so I popped along and it sounded great! They have a range of instruments – for some people their main instrument of study, whilst for others it’s a chance to jam on one of the other instruments they play! They played some really awesome pieces not just your jazz standards but some really cool sounding stuff! I’m posting a couple clips so that you can hear it for yourself instead of taking my word for it! – Enjoy!

It was great to hear jazz band play but I can’t help but feel a little sad! It’s starting to hit me that I’m getting closer and closer to graduation and taking part in ensembles and hearing everyone play is one of the things I have really loved the past three years and I am really going to miss it! We all have such fun playing in our ensembles weekly and the end of term concerts are not only great fun but really satisfying to see everyone’s hard work paying off. In the meantime I’ve got the Gamelan concert next week but this time I’m playing not listening. I’ll tell you about it on my next blog.