Suling

Suling is an Indonesian flute made out of bamboo used in gamelan ensembles.

Depending on the regional genre, suling can be tuned into different scales. Suling can be found in the following regionals:

• Sundanese (West Java)
• Javanese (Central Java)
• Balinese

Sundanese Suling

In Sundanese region, suling is used as:

• one of the main instruments in Kacapi Suling
• accompanying instrument in Gamelan Degung, Tembang Sunda

Suling Parts

Sundanese Suling is similar to that of Javanese.

• Suling's body is made of 'tamiang' bamboo, long tube bamboo which has a very thin surface.
• Sumber, is made of rattan/rotan, is circled around suling’s head to produce air vibration.

Tuning

There are two types: with 4 or 6 holes. 6 holed Sundanese suling can play at least three different scales.

• Pelog Degung: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
  nearly corresponds to do ti so fa mi do [1' 7 5 4 3 1] in western’s diatonic scale.
• Madenda or Sorog: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
  nearly similar to fa mi do ti la fa [4’ 3’ 1’ 7 6 4] in western’s diatonic scale.
• Salendro: da mi na ti la da [1 2 3 4 5 1],
  nnearly similar to re do la so fa re [2’ 1’ 6 5 4 2] in western’s diatonic scale.

One other scale, Mandalungan, is rarely used.

How to Play

There are two factors that affect a fine suling's tone:

1. Fingering position.
2. Airflow speed blown by the mouth.

Following picture shows the fingering for 6 holes suling.

And below is the example of 'more realistic' view of finger positioning for pelog degung scale.

Special Effects

• Slur

Slur is effect of changing from one tone position to one other position without stopping the airflow. For example changing from 5 to 4, 4 to 5, 2 to 1 etc.

• Puruluk

Puruluk is an effect produced by a-repeatedly-fast opening-and-closing of one or more fingers. It is similar to voice of a pigeon. The easiest puruluk can be produced by opening and closing mid-finger as shown by the following picture:

• Other known effects are: wiwiw, keleter, lelol, gebos, petit, jengkat, and betrik.

Famous sundanese suling players

• Endang Sukandar¹, 1996 2nd Winner of International Festival of Wind Instruments in Seoul, South Korea
• Burhan Sukarma,
• Uking Sukri

¹http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/cetak/0504/16/khazanah/galeriseni01.htm