Having only 4 keys per instrument would seem a limitation, and certainly no one would claim that gamelan angklung has as great an expressive range as any of the larger bronze ensembles. Yet as a rule angklung music is full of supple melodies and inventive kotekans, which often breathe and flow in quite unexpected directions. A number of angklungs around the island, particularly in the north, use the full 5-tone slendro scale for the additional possibilities it provides, with the size of the instruments expanded accordingly, sometimes up to as many as seven keys. This serves to drastically reduce the constraints imposed by the 4-tone version, substantially altering the personality of the resultant music in the process. There may be more sets of gamelan angklung in Bali than there are gamelan gong kebyar.
Most villages have at least one or two.
But the temple is not the only place to hear angklung. Because of the instruments' portability, they are often strung up on bamboo poles and carried in processions. Some tari lepas and kreasi baru have been adapted for the ensemble, thus creating the secular subgenre of angklung kebyar . One of the most famous traditional angklung gamelans can be found in the village of Sidan, on the road between Gianyar and Bangli.