Gender
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The Gender is an Indonesian instrument, similar to a xylophone, but with a row of tuned bronze bars. It is one of the main instruments that decorate the tune in the Indonesian orchestra known as the gamelan. Playing the gender involves holding a mallet in each hand to strike the bars, and then stopping the sound by pressing the little finger, or the heel of the hand, on the bars.
| Family |
| Percussions |
| Pitch range |
| Two-and-a-half to three octaves. |
| Material |
| A wooden frame, with bronze bars suspended by cords over tubular resonators of metal or bamboo. |
| Size |
| Three sizes : this example, the smallest, is about 35 in (89 cm) long and 17 in (43 cm) wide. |
| Origins |
| The gender is one of the key instruments in the gamelan, an Indonesian orchestra thought to date back as many as 1,300 years. |
| Classification |
| Idiophone: an instrument that produces its sound through the use of the material from which it is made, without needing strings or a stretched skin. |
| And also... |
| Nothing else. |
