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Suling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A suling is an Indonesian/Philippine flute made out of bamboo used in gamelan ensembles.
Depending on the regional genre, a suling can be tuned into different scales. Sulings can be found in the following regions:
- Sundanese (West Java), Indonesia
- Javanese (Central Java), Indonesia
- Balinese, Indonesia
- Maguindanaoan, Philippine
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Mostly, suling is made of 'tamiang' bamboo (Schizostachyum blumei, Nees), a long tube bamboo which has very thin surface. The head of suling, near a small hole, is circled with a thin-band made of rattan or rotan to produce air vibration.
There are two factors that affect a fine suling's tone:
- Fingering position.
- Speed of the airflow blown by the mouth.
The fingering position changes the wavelength of sound resonance inside the suling's body. Depends on the distance of nearest hole to the suling's head, different notes can be produced. The airflow speed also can modify the tone's frequency. A note with twice frequency can be produced mostly by blowing the air into suling's head's hole with twice speed.
- Slur, is dynamically changing note from one tone position to another position without stopping the airflow. For example, changing from 5 to 4, 4 to 5, 2 to 1 etc.
- Puruluk, (Sundanese term) is an effect produced by a-repeatedly-fast opening-and-closing of suling's hole by one or more fingers. The produced sound is similar to voice of a pigeon. The easiest puruluk can be produced by opening and closing mid-finger as shown by the following picture:
- In Sundanese technique, there are other known effects such as wiwiw, keleter, lelol, gebos, petit, jengkat, and betrik.
In the Sundanese region, a suling is used as:
- one of the main instruments in Kacapi Suling
- accompanying instrument in Gamelan Degung, Tembang Sunda
There are two types: with 4 or 6 holes. 6 holed Sundanese suling can play at least three different scales.
- Pelog Degung: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
nearly corresponds to do ti so fa mi do [1' 7 5 4 3 1] in western’s diatonic scale. - Madenda or Sorog: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
nearly similar to fa mi do ti la fa [4’ 3’ 1’ 7 6 4] in western’s diatonic scale. - Salendro: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
nnearly similar to re do la so fa re [2’ 1’ 6 5 4 2] in western’s diatonic scale.
One other scale, Mandalungan, is rarely used.
Following picture shows the fingering for 6 holes Sundanese suling. 
And below is the example of 'more realistic' view of finger positioning for pelog degung scale. 
- Endang Sukandar1[1], 1996 2nd Winner of International Festival of Wind Instruments in Seoul, South Korea
- Burhan Sukarma,
- Uking Sukri
Also called suling by the Tausug, Yakan, B'laan and Tiruray. Other names for the suling include the lantey (Ata), kinsi (Bukidnon), dagoyong (Higanon)[2] and a babarak (Palawan)[3]
The Maguindanaon suling is the smallest bamboo flute of the Maguindanaon and the only one classified as a ring-flute (the other two bamboo flutes of the Maguindanaon, the tumpong and the palendag are both lip-valley flutes). Air is passed through the suling via a blowing hole found at the bottom of the instrument and pitch is controlled via five finger holes on the top and one finger hole located on the bottom. Traditionally only the palendag was commonly played but because of the difficult nature of playing the palendag, both the tumpong and the suling have come to replace the palendag as the Maguindanaon’s most common aerophones. [4]
- ^ Endang, Bakat Alam dan Cianjuran (html) (2006).
- ^ Amin, Mohammad (2005). A Comparison of Music of the Philippines and Sulawesi (html). Sulawesi. Retrieved on June 12, 2006.
- ^ de Leon, Jr., Felipe M (2006). Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan - 1993 Awardee - MASINO INTARAY and the Basal and Kulilal Ensemble (html). National Commission For Culture and the Arts. 2002. National Commission For Culture and the Arts. Retrieved on June 12, 2006.
- ^ Mercurio, Philip Dominguez (2006). Traditional Music of the Southern Philippines (html). PnoyAndTheCity: A center for Kulintang - A home for Pasikings. Retrieved on June 12, 2006.
- Traditional Music of the Southern Philippines - An online textbook about Southern Pilipino Kulintang Music with an extensive section devoted to the Philippine flutes: the palendag, tumpong and the suling.
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Instruments and vocals used in Javanese gamelan |
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Colotomic instruments: |
Kempyang and ketuk | Kempul | Kenong | Gong |
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| Traditional instruments of the Southern Philippines |
| Maguindanao Kulintang Ensemble |
| Kulintang - Agung - Gandingan - Babendil - Dabakan |
| Other non-ensemble instruments |
| Kulintang a Kayo - Gandingan a Kayo - Kulintang a Tiniok - Kubing - Luntang - Agung a Tamlang – Kagul – Palendag – Tumpong – Suling - Kutiyapi |