The gangsa instruments play elaborate ornamentations (flowers) on the underlying melody ("pokok", or trunk of the tree) of a piece of music. The explosive feeling of the gong kebyar style derives mainly from the dynamic range of these instruments, whose bright, sharp tones can sound anywhere from soft and sweet to extremely loud and aggressive. Each gendered male/female pair of gangsa is also divided into two interlocking melodic parts, "polos" (mostly plays on the beat) and the "sangsih" (mostly plays off the beat) during kotekan, which permits extremely rapid, virtuosic, and complex patterns to be played.