Percussion instruments play a very important role in Oriental music. The gamelan or orchestra of Java or Bali, for example, includes several types of metallophones, gongs, cymbals and drums. We have studied the modes of vibration, timbre, and tunings of a number of these instruments, and we compare them with percussion instruments of Western origin. Although they show considerable variation in tuning, Indonesian instruments tend to follow one of two tonal systems, known as pélog and sléndro. Included in the orchestra which accompanies Chinese opera are gongs, drums, bells and cymbals. Gongs are frequently constructed so that they sound one pitch when struck, then rise or fall about a semitone, large gongs (hsiao‐lo) usually falling in pitch and small gongs (da‐lo) rising in pitch.