Gamelan notation ladder-like vertical staff allowed notation of the balungan by dots and also included important drum strokes. "Kepatihan" is widely used in ethnomusicological studies of the gamelan, sometimes accompanied by transcriptions into Western staff notation with approximate mapping of slendro and pelog tuning systems of gamelan onto the western staff, with and without various symbols for microtones. The relative merits of "kepatihan" and staff notation are sometimes debated, but staff notation is essentially incompatible with the 'end-weighted' nature of melodic structures in Indonesian music. In this respect, "kepatihan" is more suitable, although the usage of overscores (taken from the Galin-Paris-Chevé system)
Gamelan outside Indonesia named Kyai Udan Mas, or Venerable Golden Rain. The Indonesian Embassy in Washington, DC hosts another Javanese gamelan, as well as offering classes in Balinese gamelan and various styles of Indonesian dance. Canada's oldest gamelan is the Toronto-based Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan (with Sundanese degung instruments), founded in 1983. Another early gamelan ensemble is Kyai Madu Sari (Venerable Essence of Honey), donated by the Indonesian Government after the 1986 Expo in Vancouver, which resides since then at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. A gamelan gadhon, Alligator Joy, was commissioned from Pak Tentrem of Solo, Central