Gamelan, Samba, and how we learn music

Growing up mostly exposed to the music literacy and Western art music way of training, my recent experience with Gamelan ensemble really has something interesting to say. Samba workshop teaches you in a similar way of Gamelan. This different way of how to learn a new piece, even a new instrument is: while others who are already competent to play are playing the cycles of the piece, the instructor teaches you, show you with oral way of transmission or with the aid of the minimum music notation, how to play. Then you try it, and through the cycles you try to pitch in, and finally you can totally play harmoniously together with others. This is playing by ear.

I was not only fascinated by this mere phenomenon. What was interesting to me is that when I managed to play a few tunes on the Indonesian flute (suling) with the ensemble, the instructor gave me a really difficult piece. He played several times (in fact he took three or four shot before regaining the right way to play, especially rhythmically), and then I began, totally clueless. The difficulty lies both in making the right pitch on a higher octave than usual, and making the rhythm right.

I was only given little chance in this rehearsal to play it and I didn't manage it at all. And then I didn't practice before the next rehearsal, which is two days later. But surprisingly, I manage the tune much better at first shot, and then get better and better, finally almost play right in every aspect, even rhythm.

This ability of human to learn music, or acquire music, is amazing. Without practice and thinking about it at all, one could manage to make significant progress after a day or two than the first try. And without hearing more demonstration in the second time, without more instructions, one could figure out gradually and manage to play in the right way through the cycles that others were playing, though in very different instruments and musical lines. One could just follow the musical implication of others and do the right thing. This correspond with the human's ability to learn language, especially children, when they make a creole complete during their growing up through several generations. It is still a mystery. And in regarding to music, how it is linked to language ability seems not to be clear enough. Its own mechanism, of course, still awaits exploration.