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Creating history with the 'rindik' piano
Up close: Rindik piano is Balinese piano-like music instrument with three levels of a bamboo-plate xylophone
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Up close: Rindik piano is Balinese piano-like music instrument with three levels of a bamboo-plate xylophone.
The delicate humming sound of Balinese music was heard among the drone of passing vehicles on the road heading to Kapal, Bali.
The sound seemed to be coming from rindik, a traditional Balinese xylophone. At closer distance, however, one man was
sitting with his instrument, but it was not rindik.
The instrument had a piano-like shape, but was made entirely from wood with three levels of a bamboo-plate xylophone.
'This is a rindik piano,' explained Gusti Rai, the man behind the odd-looking instrument and its creator.
'An ordinary rindik has 11 to 14 plates arranged to the side and it usually takes at least two people to play beautiful music with it.'
Gusti Rai has been playing rindik for the last 15 years. For him, it's a perfect way to escape stress and the melody makes him feel relaxed after earning a living designing wooden structures all day.
He plays effortlessly, enjoying every note. Rindik has changed his life.
'Playing rindik has given me so much, both for my business and personal life. It's not only that I'm entertained, I also don't stress much if something fails at work. My network is expanding and so is my business,' he said. 'I wouldn't have met a lot of people if I didn't play rindik.'
But if playing rindik is a privilege for Gusti Rai, being able to play ' and to create ' such a complicated instrument like its piano version is a challenge.
The simple concept came from an idea on how one person could play rindik but produce a harmonious sound as if two people were playing.
With rindik piano, he said not only could he play one musical instrument but four, producing a beautiful harmony.
Although he said it only took two weeks to build his rindik piano, the entire process from the first idea to the last finishing touch required a year to complete.
Gusti did it all. He designed and studied how to build the instrument from scratch, and unlike most traditional instrument makers who make instruments based on their instinct and hearing sense, Gusti Rai used technology and tuned every plate, studied frequency, the length of each hole and plate, the distance of each plate, the shape ' more or less every detail that could result in a clear, wonderful sound.
His first unique creation was a two-level rindik but he challenged himself by making three-level rindik that was later given a piano shape.
By the end 2013, the process was complete. Gusti is now busy introducing rindik piano to the world.
The rindik piano is semi-portable, with a foldable bottom making it easy to fit in a small car. It can be completely disassembled, but it may take two hours to put back together again.
Its frame is made entirely from wood ' just like ordinary rindik ' but the resonator is made from PVC pipe to simplify mobilization, and according to him, is a marriage of technology and tradition.
Gusti Rai plays the instrument by continuously hitting the bamboo plates and an upper bar where bamboo plates are placed upside down. Amazingly, he holds three mallets tipped with rubber, and while playing, his feet hit instruments called tawa-tawa.
In his free time between working, running his new wooden gazebo business and playing rindik, Gusti also tries to introduce the instrument to the public.
Before he made his rindik piano, Gusti Rai had produced the original single rindik, and sold it for extra cash.
He came up with the idea of creating a rindik piano when he saw a man playing piano on TV. He wondered if he could create an instrument that combined cultural heritage with something that looked familiar to most people.
Gusti said that locally, rindik was often perceived as a musical instrument for members of the low-classes like farmers.
He hoped his rindik piano could elevate the instrument's image to being known globally.
'Young people are less and less interested in playing this instrument because they think rindik is for the lower classes,' he said.
'But the world is familiar with the piano, so I thought maybe I could create something, to make people curious about the rindik piano.'
Gusti Rai is also aware of the importance of copyright and has registered his creation with the authorities, but for this father of two sons, commercialization is not his aim.
'I don't want to make many copies and I haven't set a target for performing publicly. My aim is to create and I want to create history.'
Photos by JP/Anggara Mahendra
