Thai classical music
To the uninitiated, classical Thai music sounds like a jarring and ear-piercing mishmash of contrasting tones without any fixed pattern. The key is to listen to it as one might listen to jazz, picking out one instrument and following it, switching to another as the mood moves you. The music is set to a scale of seven full steps, with a lilting and steady rhythm. Each instrument plays the same melody, but in its own way and seemingly without regard to how others are playing it. Seldom does an instrument rise in solo; it is always challenged and cajoled by the other constituent parts of the orchestra.
A classical phipat orchestra is made up of a single reed instrument, the oboe-like phinai, and a variety of percussion instruments. The pitch favours the treble, with the pace set by the ching, a tiny cymbal, aided by the drums beaten with the fingers. The melody is played by two types of ranat ek, a bamboo-bar xylophone, and two sets of khlong wong, which are tuned gongs arranged in a semicircle around the player.
Another type of phipat orchestra employs two violins, the saw-oo and the saw-duang, which usually accompany a Thai dance-drama. A variation of the phiphat orchestra performs at a Thai boxing (muay thai) match to spur the combatants to action.