Musical acoustics education in Indonesia

Abstract

As the world's largest archipelago, Indonesia has a vast natural and cultural diversity, and hence a huge variety of musical instruments. Musical acoustics is, therefore, an important field of research and study in Indonesia. However, this subject is still rarely touched in undergraduate education. To help improve the quality of musical acoustics education in Indonesia, we have developed several methods. First, we design a series of final projects for undergraduate engineering students, where they can implement various methods and techniques previously studied in class (e.g., system identification, experimental methods, computational analysis, engineering design) into actual practice. These projects help the students to gain a more comprehensive perspective on the various applications of their knowledge. Second, we form inter-disciplinary collaborations, where the students can learn with musicians, craftsmen, scholars, and conservators. Such collaborations help the students to understand that, by studying the musical instruments, they are supporting the conservation of their own heritage. We have been applying these methods with our students in Universitas Gadjah Mada, particularly in our research on the bundengan, a very unique bamboo-based musical instrument. Our experience indicates that these approaches can be effective to help improve the quality of musical acoustics education in Indonesia.