Myanmar Music
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Traditional Myanmar music is based mainly on percussion. Various kinds of music, songs, and dances are named after the kinds of drums used. Large sidaw (see-daw) drums are used for formal music, long bonshay drums for folk music, and pot-shaped ozi (OH-zee) and two faced dobat (DOE-bat) drums for village celebrations. Other instruments include oboes, flutes, gongs, cymbals, bamboo clappers, and bamboo xylophones.
The Myanmar orchestra includes a drum circle of nine to twenty-one drums suspended on a circular wooden frame. A gong circle of up to nineteen gongs is arranged in scale on a wooden frame around a single performer. Westerner instruments, such as violins, guitars, and accordions, sometimes accompany the traditional instruments.