And sometimes it is a bit difficult to communicate with Balinese musicians who have not had Western training, because their entire concept of the idea of scales and keys, and the terminology used is so different than that understood in the West. A to tune up before the conductor strides onto the stage. Violinist adjust strings, trumpet players adjust their mouthpieces, flutists stretch or shorten their instruments to conform. This does not take place in the gamelan. Except for the lonely rebab, all the instruments have fixed pitches, tuned once and for all when the group of instruments is constructed, and every gamelan is different.
Standardization is heard of, but according to some musicians is undesirable.
Lack of a standard concert pitch, they say, permits a variety of sound and color, even within the same types of gamelans. Although the instruments in a symphony are all tuned to the same note, the tonal characteristics of each combine to produce the lush sound Westerners love to hear-although both may be playing middle C, a cello is warmer than, say, a clarinet. In a gamelan, each of the paired instruments, such as the gangsas, is tuned differently from its partner. Even in single instruments with more than one octave range, the octave notes may be deliberately tuned slightly higher then the matching lower tone. All Balinese will tell you that when the pairs of instruments so tuned are played in unison the sound produced will be rich and appealing.