Drummer Cafe Community Forum

I am blessed with a 40" Sabian Chinese gong I picked up for a song and a dance a few years ago. It mostly stays home, it is too big to pack around.

Besides being very impressive and physically beautiful, it is an amazing instrument capable of a wide continium of sounds.

I like to solo on it in conjunction with Indian bells, bamboo windchimes, a bell tree, tubular windchimes, and a bar chime.

I like to play the gong with my bare hands using conga type technique. The butt of the hand can produce a traditional crashing gong sound, an applied elbow produces a harmonic. A thumb vibrating across produces an erie sound, a sliding finger yet another. The possibilities seem endless.

Gongs must be a very old instrument and I wonder if there is a tradition of gong technique that has been passed down?

Anyone else out there like gongs?

 :)

Yep!  I collect gongs. I have mostly smaller diameter ones.  My largest is a 20" Paiste.  Not all of them are high quality (some are just plain cheap, others just look interesting to me), but I like adding new ones to the herd.  Here's a few of them:

(http://home.att.net/~davidandlisa.heim/wsb/media/209769/site1005.JPG)

I gig with a 28" Wuhan.   Use it every night in several songs.-- Ozzy, I Don't Know--No More Tears (beginning of the interlude), several others.  Bandmates love it, crowds go crazy for it.  It's also excellent for the "big finishes!!!"

                                         Dave

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v95/woody34/dave1.jpg)

Gong technique varies from type of gong to type of gong, and from cultural background to cultural backgroung.

I for one am a huge fan of Indonesian gamelan music.  Balinese or Javanese (there are differences) and most of that centers on various gong types.  As does a lot of other south east asian court music.  

Ive also been known to play a 12x3" Nepalese bowl gong as a frame drum.   Like gamelan in your fingertips.  ;D  

DavefromChicago: That's a real nice collection and some cool looking gongs. I like the one with the raised center. I saw a large 40 inch one that had the most fantastic sound. Do those come from Indonesia?

DoctorTama: Nice setup ... I'd like to see you use that thing. You look like you could turn and take a bite out of that gong.

I think gongs would be good for sound scores in suspense films. All the erie sounds, heavy doors closing shut, twinges up the spine, footsteps echoing up stairwells. All these sounds are in a gong. You can feel the bass notes deep in the gut, like some dark apprehension.

By contrast, gongs can be very calming and meditative. Gongs are hypnotic, the drone inducing a trance like state. I think that is why I'll play it for half hour stretches of time, it makes me feel good. I've noticed my dog and cats seem to enjoy it too, they'll hang around when I'm playing. Of course they are all deaf I'm sure from living with me.

563: What does gamelan music sound like?

The basic symphonic technique for larger gongs is to "warm them up".  That is, striking the gong lightly and inaudibly--even multiple times if necessary--to start it vibrating.  Then striking it as needed to actually play the note.  It takes some of the "crack" out of the attack (if that's you're looking for).

BTW:  Bart's "taped nickel" trick works well on gongs too!

Thanks.  I got that one in the 70s at the NAMM Show (back when it was still in Chicago), from Carroll Sound Co.  It was the last day of the show and the booth rep didn't want to pack it up so it let me have it for $35.  It was listed as a Taiwanese Nipple Gong.  Has a beautiful tone when struck right in the center.

I used that 16" Paiste gong in a few weird numbers.  I'd strike the gong and slowly lower it into a tub of water.  Does a nice pitch bend.

The typical gamelan ensemble is made up of a number of pieces.  A couple of them are like small short range xylophones, metal bars instead of 'gongs' proper.  The rest are typically nipple gongs like the one with the raised center on the 3rd shelf down in Daves pic.  They range in diameter from about 6" to about 40".    The smaller are typically setup as one or two instruments with maybe 15 gongs.  The larger are often in pair or quads.  And often there is one single extra large gong.  

Traditional gamelan music revolves around only 5 tones.  To that end, all the instruments in an ensemble are made and sold together to ensure their tuning is consistant across them all.  

The music itself varies in speed and complexity depending on the region and reason for play.   But essentially revolves around repeating melodic figures on the smaller instruments, with more punctuation oriented parts on the larger.   Imagine the bar instruments playing 16ths, the middle gongs playing 1/4s, the next larger playing whole notes, and the largest only playing a starting note and ending note, maybe with a note inbetween if the piece is longer.  

If you're familiar with Steve Reich's percussion music its heavily inspired by gamelan music.  Phillip Glass's music is as well to some extent.

This site (http://www.gamelan.co.uk/faq.html) has a good image to illustrate it.  

Remind me not to EVER disagree with Doc Tama.  Nice kit btw  ;D

This link on ebay looks very interesting.  It's a gong music cd.  I found it surfing for paistes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1523&item=5530157580&rd=1

Sounds like something I would dig.

Any of you guys ever been to Burma?  Now thats a gong!

(http://www.galenfrysinger.com/asia/burma15.jpg)

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/ancient_cities.htm (http://www.galenfrysinger.com/ancient_cities.htm)

Dave,

Here are some other gongs you may find interesting: (Man, these are sooooooo beautiful.  I could very easily become a full blown gong addict!)


(http://www.indiana.edu/~iuam/wells/wells_images/art/gong.jpg)

(http://www.wailana.com/yogastore/photos/prdb/medchi_gong20_3_p.jpg)

(http://www.fourgates.com/images/gongsbells/tt00155-5.jpg)
(more of these here (http://www.fourgates.com/largegongs.asp))

(http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Indonesian/Budaya_Bangsa/Gamelan/Javanese_Gamelan/gongs/images/gong_ageng.JPG)
(Javanese/Indonesia)

(http://216.74.109.125/images/by-steve/answer-is-no/gong.jpg)

(http://www.nauticaltreasure.co.uk/sub/images/gong.jpg)

(http://www.monroecc.edu/depts/sociology/pluralism/profile2/gong.jpg)

(http://www.zanesville.ohiou.edu/malaysia/images/gong.jpg)
(Malaysia)

(http://www.apocalypse.org/~nicole/images/random_pics/gong.gif)

(http://www.reflectionsofasia.com/copy1roa/_borders/large_gong__medium_gong__stand.JPG)
(Phillipines)

(http://home.earthlink.net/~salat/gong.jpg)

(http://www.cslseattle.org/graphics/Festival/gong.gif)

(http://www.rotarykatowice.as.net.pl/gong.jpg)

Ironforge: http://www.ironforge.com/site/prod%20pages/decacs/images/gong.jpg (http://www.ironforge.com/site/prod%20pages/decacs/images/gong.jpg)

(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Music/mus-Gong-ours.jpg)
(China)

(http://www.crossingworlds.com/articles/gong.jpg)

(http://www.fourgates.com/images/meditation_supplies/JG0-sm.jpg)
(Japanese Zen Gongs)

(http://www.gardnersantiques.com/J-shipment/Gong-Pict0276.JPG)

(http://www.nits.nl/lists/kloets/gong.jpg)

(http://www.veghead.com/bells/gong.jpg)

(http://www.prometheus-imports.com/os7201132gong.jpg)

(http://www.wadayawant.com/EmperorGongZ.jpg)

(http://warungnet.de/Gong.JPG)
(Bali)

(http://www.emeraldcityimports.com/2004/BGongStandBamboo.JPG)

(http://www.molenda.us/photos/san-jose-library-2003-08-16/DSC_0288-r.jpg)

ok, I'll stop now, but its very difficult!!

(http://fasterfineart.com/pics/gong.jpg)

The one in the wooden "ship's wheel" stand is interesting.  Well, they ALL are, but I've never seen one with a nautical motif.

SCORE!!!  This is goooooorgeous!  (Called a "Dragon Gong")

(http://www.prometheus-imports.com/os9201052dragongong.jpg)

here ya go:

http://www.musikkverksted.no/instrument/Gong-stativ/images/6_spill.JPG (http://www.musikkverksted.no/instrument/Gong-stativ/images/6_spill.JPG)

 ;D ;D

oh my goodness---i can't quit googling gongs <say that 10 times really fast>!

heeellllppppp! ;D

<bongo and dave---this is all your fault! ;D>

for those with the resources, a gong/bell like the one below, can be made from a fire extinguisher.  Ive heard a few and they were gorgeous.

(http://www.fourgates.com/images/gongsbells/tt155.jpg)

Sorry you got swept up in Gongland.  But you're great at Googling them!

The bottom left one is most likely the exact same one the school band has at my high school. So, that's a paiste? If not, what is it? Cool collection, dude.

It's a 16" Paiste.  It's also the one that started my collection.  Was a gift from Dick Richardson, the former VP @ Ludwig who hired me back in 1976.

Thanks everyone for the pictures, I did not know there were so many types of gongs.

Xena: Wow I am going to have to get a bigger house for that huge burma gong. I would love to hit that thing, I bet it makes your whole body resonate with the bass notes.

The Guitar Center in Eugene has a large 50" Paiste (so they say, it is not marked that I see). Comparing it to my 40" Sabian it is much thinner, looks like it was hammered and shaped from sheet bronze, and does not have the heavy cast in sand look of the Chinese forging method. I prefer the Sabian, which I think was probably made for them by Wuhan or some other Chinese outfit.