Gamelan Sneak Peek

Hari ni angin blogging tiada mari, nak cerita psl kerja pon x brp ada mood, sbb kepala otak ni lately drifting around so many other stuff. But for today, just nak letak gambar sekeping of our Gamelan class that we had on Wednesday. Impressive kan alatan dia? I am always awestruck tgk alatan2 muzik tradisional spt ini. Yg berdiri in black tu our instructor, and she is about 30-weeks preggo. Masih smgt sih mengajar.

We are due to perform a gig in mid May, so skang it's a bit serious lah, altho it's still only a two-hour a week practice, but we are working around that gig. We have sussed out what songs to play, including Gambangan, Longgoran, Gopola, and maybe even Sekatian. Each piece will roughly be about 5-7 minutes long. I must say I am quite excited. At first I was a bit stressed out because I was struggling with my playing, I was constantly lost and lagging, and what's worst, I am the only postgrad student in the class, the rest are undergrad Music students. Sungguh isolated. Rasa mcm x leh nak relate sbb diorg kept talking psl assignment dued in, or exams blah blah membuatkan generation gap tu terasa lebih jauh. Bab the only head-covered Muslim girl tu jgn cerita la, mmg aku sorg aje dlm kelas tu, tp smg punya psl buat2 x tahu je la.

Having no professional music training myself, I had volunteered to play the bass, but peliknya, despite my struggling, cikgu aku ni menaruh keyakinan jitu gitu kat aku, suh main jgk Kantil (it plays the melody, of medium difficulty, but much, much harder than the bass, especially tang kena damping laju2 tu). Normally I play the onbeat note. Alhamdulillah, I think I have improved quite a lot, and even sama par dgn a few Kantil players yg lain, so x la rasa mcm dragging the whole team down. As for being isolated tu, aku rasa dah x de masalah dah sgt skang ni, we have bonded and gotten to know each other better now, although masih belum sampai takuk minum2 coffee after class sesama lah for me (I always make a mad dash back to the lab or if not, straight home kena masak plak). But I feel much comfortable in the class now, and realized that, bkn aku sorg je kena shout at, semua org pon had a fair share muahahha...

Sayangnya x sempat nak record lagu yg kitaorg prektis smlm, but I nicked this from YouTube. Lagu Gambangan jg, but the one we play is of a different arrangement a bit. Plus we are not that groovy yet, but hopefully we'll get there soon.