MALAY GAMELAN: APPROACHES OF MUSIC LEARNING THROUGH COMMUNITY MUSIC

Abstract

More often than not, community music gathers people from different backgrounds. Experiences are shared and this enables community development in terms of personal growth, self- esteem and self-confidence. These are just some of the aspects that community music promotes, apart from music making. Creativity and expression are important in music making as this will further develop creative thinking skills among musicians. This paper looked into the role of Rhythm in Bronze (RiB), a local music group in Malaysia, in community music work practices that uses Malay gamelan as the medium. The research delved into the different aspects of the approaches used to enhance music learning through community music, particularly the activities used and how they relate to Vygotsky’s theory of socialization in learning.Qualitative approaches are used in this research, where observation, interview and review of the group’s past work were conducted to gather information and data on how music has been taught to children through community music.