A common sight in hotel foyers, tingklik is a bamboo gamelan instrument normally played in pairs by two musicians who sit cross-legged. A tingklik produces its unique sound from eleven hollow bamboo tubes (12 or 13 in Singaraja) which are tuned to a pentatonic scale. You can play two and a bit octaves on the keys. The tubes are suspended using string over a wooden frame which is customarily painted red and decorated in bright gold paint.
A tingklik is played using a difficult two-handed technique, usually with two beaters, by bouncing on the keys. The left hand holds the melody while the right plays complex patterns called kotekan to fill out the sound. If there are two players the right hand and occasionally the left play different parts to create a bubbling chatter of bamboo brilliance.
The pieces are normally a few minutes long and are played in repeating cycles, the number of which is determined by the players. Tingklik songs are commonly named after animals and the natural surroundings revealing amusing titles such as “Chasing a female pig” or “Frog climbing a leaf”.
Tingklik apparently originated in the 20th century from the rice fields where farmers during their breaks would “tinkle” on bamboo whilst finding inspiration in the panorama. As with all art forms in Bali there is a great deal of regional variation and some musicians even play tingklik with three beaters, thus playing nearly all the rhythmic parts on their own.
Tingklik music is delightfully peaceful and you may have heard it used as background music in local restaurants. Unfortunately for most tingklik musicians they are very poorly paid by the “luxury” hotels and in many places receive less than a US$1 per two hours of musicianship.
