Paintbrush Arts Program – Thailand
The ranat is a Thai traditional xylophone that consists of 21 or 22 wooden bars suspended by cords over a boat-shaped resonator. It is typically made from rosewood or bamboo and is played with mallets. This traditional percussion instrument is often used in the traditional thai music ensembles know as “piphat”.
There are different types of ranats in Thailand as well as very similar instruments in other asian countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar. The ranat we teach at the Paintbrush Arts Program in Bangkok, Thailand is called the ranat “ek”. The ranat classes have been added to the KTMP music curriculum in 2018 and have raised a lot of interest among our students.
Listen the ranat in a traditional piphat:
