[Listening extract audio not available in printed QP] A Javanese gamelan performs using a scale with five notes per octave. The melody is played on tuned me...

(a) The type of scale commonly used in gamelan music is the pentatonic scale (also accepted: slendro or pelog). [1]

Javanese gamelan uses two main tuning systems, both of which are pentatonic or related to pentatonic structures. Slendro divides the octave into five roughly equal intervals, producing a pentatonic scale with no semitones. Pelog has seven tones per octave but is typically played using five-note subsets (called pathet), with unequal intervals that include some large and some small gaps. Both systems differ from Western equal temperament, and each gamelan set is tuned uniquely, meaning no two gamelans sound exactly alike.

(b) One tuned metallic percussion instrument found in the gamelan is the saron (also accepted: gender, bonang, kenong, or metallophone). [1]

The saron is a metallophone consisting of a row of bronze bars laid over a wooden trough resonator. The player strikes the bars with a mallet and damps each bar after striking the next, producing a clear, bright tone. In the gamelan, the saron typically plays the core melody (balungan). Other metallic instruments include the gender (thin bars suspended over tube resonators, played with two mallets), the bonang (a set of tuned gong-kettles arranged in rows), and the kenong (large horizontal gongs that mark structural points in the cycle).