How to play Calung Instrument

Indonesia’s music instrument has many variations. We can see it from typical music which comes from traditional instrument. From Sabang until Merauke, there are so many musical instruments. Aceh land is famous with Rebana musical, West Java is famous with Karawitan, and East Indonesia such Flores is famous with Sasando Rote. Indonesia has many different cultures. Indonesia is the one of amazing country in the world. Not the one but the only one.
Indonesia has so many types of cultures. Sunda culture attracted us to see what is inside there. Sunda has a unique musical instrument which has been famous in the world. It is made from a bamboo, played by shaking it and we played it such an orchestra. It is Angklung. But what we want to talk about here is the prototype of Angklung. It is “Calung”.

There are two types of Calung that Sundanese established. First is “Calung Runtuy”. Calung Runtuy is Calung which its bamboo was bond each other with a rope and sometimes it put at a piece of wood and we play it by punching it with a stick such a five centimeters stick with a cudgel at the top of it. And the other one is “Calung Jinjing”. Calung Jinjing (Hung Calung) is a type of Calung that the bamboo was aligned and attached by a wooden slat. At the middle of it, there’s a handhold which is set for hanging Calung while playing it.

The way we play Calung is by punching it with a short stick named “Panakol”. Don’t shake it because it is not an Angklung that we usually play by shaking it. Use your feeling while punch it. Don’t punch too hard because Calung’s bamboo is crumbly. Just do it slowly.

The proper music scale has two kinds of type. Both are pentatonic and diatonic. Diatonic is the scale that we know such “do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do”. And pentatonic one is the scale such “C#-D#-F#-G#-A#/Bb”. But Sundanese music has a different scale which isn’t same with them. It is “Da-Mi-Na-Ti-La-Da”. Especially with Calung and other different Sundanese instrument, it has two types of sound. The first is “Pelog” and the other one is “Salendro”. But in fact, Pelog-Salendro is different with Pentatonic-Diatonic scale. It is totally different. And it is only found at Indonesia. Usually, the biggest bamboo means that it has a lower tone scale. And the smallest bamboo means the highest tone scale.

Before we know further about Calung, we should know that the Bamboo which becomes the material of Calung is Black Bamboo. The Bamboo must qualify some requirements such the thickness, power, and the large of it. It was chosen and selected from another common bamboo and then cleaned and dried up for a while. It reached almost two days to drain it. After being drained, the bamboo cut and set with particular scale. Start from the highest to the lower.

Before we play Calung, we have better to know about the type of scale that it has. Whether is it Pelog or Salendro? Because knowing what type is it, we could play Calung well. You have to know that Sundanese song has a different scale. Some song could be played with Salendro scale on the contrary some song could be played with Pelog. But both of them could be collaborated at one performance. As mentioned before, it is played as an orchestra.
Calung Music Group has been established at many generations. Some of them mixed it with Rock Music so it was called as “Rock-Lung” or Rock with Calung. This performance has attracted many people at Indonesian Festival Culture. A musician combined Calung Instrument, Guitar, and Bass instrument in order to make fusion music.

Besides Calung tone scale set as pentatonic, it also could be changed as diatonic. Calung tone scale could be “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do”. So, if Calung scale was changed to diatonic one, it could play many songs. We should not to be confused with “Da-Mi-Na-Ti-La-Da” scale. Although Calung is traditional music instrument, we still could play it as modern song.
Do read and memorize some of song. Differentiate it! Is it was kind of Pelog song, Salendro song, or Diatonic song. After knowing it, do play Calung with your friend and enjoy the bamboo voice which came out from Calung.