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 style steel slendro pelog gamelan, and a Javanese slendro bronce gamelan, both owned by the Embassy of Indonesia in Mexico City; and gamelan Asep Mangsa, a Javanese pelog gamelan, and gamelan Barudak, a Sundanese degung gamelan, both owned by Indra Swara. The first gamelans outside of Indonesia were in the Netherlands, the country which had colonized the islands. Before World War II, the Javanese dancer Jodjana had a small gamelan group in the Netherlands, which accompanied his performances. He had to train Dutch musicians. Early during the war, the resistance fighter Bernardus IJzerdraat was killed by the Germans. His son