Suling

A suling or Seruling is a Southeast Asian bamboo ring flute especially in Brunei,Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. It is used in gamelan ensembles.

Depending on the regional genre, a suling can be tuned into different scales. Sulings can be found in the following regions:

Sulings are made mainly of "tamiang" bamboo (Schizostachyum blumei, Nees), a long, thin-walled bamboo tube. The mouthpiece of the suling is circled with a thin band made of rattan near a small hole.

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

The fingering position changes the wavelength of sound resonance inside the suling's body. Depending on the distance of nearest hole to the suling's head, different notes can be produced. The airflow speed also can modify the tone's frequency. A note with twice frequency can be produced mostly by blowing the air into suling's head's hole with twice speed.

In the music of Bali the suling is an essential instrument and it appears to be similar to other forms of Javanese suling. The way it is played, however, sets it apart from other forms of Indonesian suling. Namely, it is necessary for the performers to use the technique circular breathing in order to create a highly strung sense of constancy that continues even at moments of dramatic climax by the percussive gamelan instruments.

In the Sundanese region, a suling is used as

Sulings can have either 4 holes or 6 holes. The 6-holed Sundanese suling can play at least three different scales.

The following picture shows the fingering for a six-holed Sundanese suling.

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Wikipedia