Gamelan with male groups. In the twenty-five countries outside Indonesia that have gamelan, music performed in a concert context or as part of ceremonies for expat communities may also accompany dance or "wayang". The tuning and construction of a gamelan orchestra is a complex process. Javanese gamelan use two tuning systems: "sléndro" and "pélog". There are other tuning systems such as "degung" (exclusive to Sunda, or West Java), and "madenda" (also known as "diatonis", similar to a European natural minor scale). In central Javanese gamelan, "sléndro" is a system with five notes to the octave, with large intervals, while "pélog" has
Gamelan outside Indonesia instruction by a community arts organization, which gave its first performance in May 1978. The organization incorporated in 1980 as Friends of the Gamelan and continues to perform with two central Javanese gamelan sets that it has acquired. Many schools, universities and other institutions in North America own sets of gamelan instruments. These gamelans are typically played by mixed-gender groups of students, a practice that is rare in Indonesia for religious reasons. Among the earliest such groups were Wesleyan University and UCLA. Established institutional gamelan ensembles in the U.S. include Gamelan Nyai Saraswati at University of North Carolina at Chapel