Gamelan are educationally and musically important for many reasons: Ensemble playing teaches listening, concentration and teamwork as well as being great fun; The instruments are all easy to learn and to teach (and there are no ﾓwrongﾔ notes in the Balinese scale!) and the music is also very accessible as itﾒs rhythmic and melodic and is made up from simple, repeated patterns; There are important links to explore with dance, story-telling, traditional culture, geography and religion.Gamelan are visually as well as aurally exciting. The exotic sounds and scales open doors to new musical worlds and gamelan performances can be quite spectacular, especially if accompanying dance or puppet shows.The Teacher's Guide contains everything you need to know about basic playing techniques, setting up the room, cultural background and more. There are warm up exercises incldued as well as weekly lesson plans and the accompanying CD will show you and the class the sort of results that can be achieved in a single term.

The word gamelan comes from the Javanese word gamels, meaning "to strike or hammer".

A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included.

In Bali, the Gamelan instruments are all kept together in the balai banjar, a community meeting hall which has a large open space with a roof over top of it with several open sides. The instruments are all kept here together because they believe that all of the instruments belong to the community as a whole and no one person has ownership over an instrument. Not only is this where the instruments are stored, but this is also the practice space for the sekaha (Gamelan orchestra). The open walls allow for the music to flow out into the community where the rest of the people can enjoy it.

The standard range is mid-priced and uses the same high quality metal as the Premium range for the gamelan keys, resulting in a completely authentic gamelan sound. The cost savings relative to the premium range arise from the simpler gamelan casings and gongs made from steel, rather than steel and bronze. The gongs are much bigger than in the Budget set and are impressively sonorous. Both the 10 and 30 player Standard Value Packs include additional ﾓchengchengﾔ (Balinese cymbals) & Andy Gleadhillﾒs Teacherﾒs Guide and CD for non-musicians.

The instruments just need to be kept dry and away from extremes of temperature. The paintwork and metal surfaces can be wiped down with a damp cloth from time to time and there's no harm using a very small amount of detergent to remove greasy fingerprints. The metal used is steel and as it's not stainless you may get patches of rust appearing, particularly on the insides of the gongs. This is nothing to worry about and if it bothers you it can be removed by sanding with wire wool.