There are a number of areas which can be covered by a workshop on the Durham Gamelan. These include the following.

Javanese Music

One of the great advantages of the Gamelan is that a group with no musical experience can be playing a simple authentica piece of Javanese music together by the end of the first hour. For all groups, whether experienced in Western music or not, and whether they are just having a one-off workshop or the first of a series, this will be the first objective.

As they are taught the participants will learn about the music of another culture, the philosophy of that culture as shown in the music and in the way of playing as a group of equals; they will have the valuable musical experience of playing in a group, something not normally accessible to those without a long training on a Western musical instrument, in particualr in a group of this sort where there is great emphasis on listening and playing together harmoniously, rather than on the technical details of their own particular instrument and particular part of the music.

Musical Structure

Gamelan music has a very well defined structure, and the structure of the piece just learned can be easily demonstrated. This structure typically consists of question and answer type phrases of fixed length separated by strokes on the gongs. Each level of the piece may be analysed in this way from the whole piece, which repeats cyclically, to each individual two or four note 'bar'. This sort of understanding of the structure of music is of importance in all types of music.

Group Composition

One possibility is for a group to take this type of structure as a starting point for a group composition, inviing suggestions for the phrases which fit into the structure from the group, until the basic melody of a piece has been completed. Certain rules dependent on the structure of the piece then allow parts for all the instruments to be derived from this melody, and so the whole group can play this new composition together.