Saron

The sarons are struck with a mallet (tabuh). Typically the striking mallet is angled to the right to produce a fuller sound. Demung and saron barung generally use a wooden mallet, while the peking mallet is made of a water buffalo horn, which gives it a shriller sound. The other hand is used to dampen the previous note by grasping the key, in order to prevent a muddy sound. On repeated notes, the note is usually dampened half a beat before it is struck again. The saron barung and demung usually play less often and more simple parts. These are the usual techniques for playing them: • Mbalung: playing the balungan melody as notated, without elaboration • Tabuhan pinjalan: playing an interlocking pinjalan pattern between the saron barung, demung, and slenthem, which fills in the offbeats of the balungan • Tabuhan imbal: playing an interlocking imbal pattern between two of the same instruments, usually either saron barung or demung. Note that the dampening must happen as soon as the other performer plays a note; this is usually twice as soon as when playing by oneself. • Pancer: sometimes a note is added between balungan notes if there is a great deal of space between them (i.e., it is in a slow irama). This is called a pancer. Saron panerus has distinctive patterns which make it different from the other sarons. It usually plays more often, and keeps a constant beat going throughout a piece. Its playing techniques include: • Nacah lamba: playing the balungan (with repeated notes if necessary, depending on the irama) • Nacah selang-seling: playing the balungan in pairs of notes (which may be repeated), making a more elaborate variation on the phrase • Imbal-imbalan: similar to tabuhan imbal for the other sarons