The Malay Gamelan (Malay/Indonesian: gamelan Melayu; Jawi: ݢاميلن ملايو‎) is a style of music originated from Indonesia, performed in ethnic Malay-populated regions of Indonesia (particularly in North Sumatra, Riau and Riau Islands) and Malaysia (particularly in Pahang, Terengganu and Johor) as well.

The word of Gamelan derived from the term in Javanese: ꦒꦩꦼꦭ꧀, romanized: gamel, which means "hitting" or "striking" refer to playing of percussion instruments or the act of striking with a mallet, + an (noun-forming suffix). While the word of Melayu refer to the Malays which had its correlation to Melayu Kingdom.

Malay Gamelan developed in conjunction with Malay Joget Gamelan. In the mid-18th century, a team of court dancers and musicians was sent from central Java to the island of Penyengat, the royal island capital of the Riau-Lingga empire (present-day Indonesia). Javanese style court dance and music were, therefore, introduced at the Istana Kuning (the Yellow Palace), the Penyengat palace, the music being that of the gamelan and the dances consisting mainly of the Serimpi and Bedaya, the main classical dances of the central Javanese courts.

The 19th-century Riau-Lingga empire was vast. It included the peninsula states of Johor, Pahang and Terengganu, the Riau Archipelago and the Karimon islands. It was through this association of Pahang with the Riau-Lingga empire that Javanese court dance and music found their way into the Pahang court.

The first occasion for such a phenomenon was the 1811 royal wedding in Pekan, Pahang, of Tengku Husain, the eldest son of Sultan Abdul Rahman of Riau-Lingga and Wan Esah, the sister of Bendahara Wan Ali of Pahang when the wedding celebrations were enlivened by elaborate court dances, to the accompaniment of an orchestra of gongs and xylophones, which were found only at the Malay courts of Pahang and Lingga. While it is not known when this particular form of dance and music began in the Pahang court, it is evident, however, that by 1811 the tradition was known and practiced in the Pekan palace.

Bendahara Wan Ahmad, later Sultan Ahmad (1863-1914), inherited the gamelan set as well as the court troupe of dancers and musicians from his father, Bendahara Wan Ali. The form, now called Joget Pahang, was firmly established at the Pekan palace under the royal patronage of Bendahara Wan Ahmad. His interest in the form was keen. He obtained three separate sets of gamelan instruments and established three groups of four dancers each. Of his five wives, three maintained a group each: one group was under his royal wife, Tengku Ampuan Fatimah, another under Che Besar and the third under Che Zubedah. Sultan Ahmad and his third wife, Che Zubedah, were particularly interested in Joget Pahang. Che Zubedah was a Chinese, and it is believed that she greatly influenced the development of Joget Pahang, spending much time and effort particularly in perfecting the dances.

One can clearly identify many 'Chinese' characteristics in Joget Gamelan. For example, elements of the costume like the manner in which the sarong is tied, and the particularities of the unusual headdress are a clear deviation from other Malay classical dance costume styles and from Serimpi and Bedaya. Also, the music of the dance Timang Burung, one of the most popular from the Joget Gamelan repertoire is, in fact, an old and familiar Chinese folk song.

During the reign of Sultan Ahmad of Pahang, Joget Pahang was introduced into the state of Terengganu. In 1885, a marriage took place between Sultan Zainal Abidin (1881-1918) of Terengganu and Tengku Long, daughter of Sultan Ahmad of Pahang. At this wedding, Sultan Zainal Abidin witnessed Joget Pahang for the first time and was impressed. Eventually, he borrowed a set of instruments and musicians from Sultan Ahmad and began the playing of gamelan music in his own palace.