To get you started, here are two simple ideas from Ankle Bells and a Homemade Guiro.Īnd if you want to add to your collection of homemade musical instruments or you want to play some musical games with the instruments you have made, check out these 20 Fabulous DIY Musical Games and Instruments.
Making your own homemade instruments doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. What better way to celebrate Universal Music Day than with some homemade DIY instrument crafts that don’t cost a lot of money, but will mean lots of together time, happy smiles, special memories, and joyful music-making! Instrument crafts are the perfect way to get young children engaged in hands-on learning, exploring their creative side, and even practicing some early science skills as together you investigate and experiment using different materials to create different sounds. The journey is just as fun as the destination. Remember, it’s all around us! So carve out some time to try one of these little projects with your young one. Pretty amazing, huh? So look around your house…what might make an interesting sound? Have an old tennis racquet? Cut out those strings and add some rubber bands! Some extra PVC pipe taking up space? Cut some different lengths, paint them some flashy colors, and viola! – you have a pipe xylophone! There really is no limit to what you can use to make music.
The groups story is told in the documentary film, The Landfill Harmonic.
This is an entire youth orchestra making music on instruments created from refuse. Speaking of instruments created from repurposed items, if you haven’t heard of the Landfill Harmonic – or the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, you need to! In this Paraguayan where the primary money making activity is separating recyclable materials from trash, Favio Chavez has created something magical. Once again, Wikihow gives us detailed instructions. If you want to get really crazy, you can even make a homemade guitar out of a shoe box. Each will provide a slightly different sound quality. Try empty tubs of margarine or those plastic containers that pre-sliced deli meats come in. Don’t limit yourself to boxes as your sound chamber. Making homemade string instruments is lots of fun. Have fun! Decorate your instrument – make them personal. What do you need? Teach Preschool provides instructions. Strummies are homemade “string” instruments that are super easy to make and very versatile in the sounds they can produce. Okay – I’ll admit it…the name made me smile. But what about something that can make different tones or pitches? The crafting geniuses over at Mess for Less designed a homemade harmonica out of craft sticks and rubber bands! It’s a nifty little project that can be made rather quickly, providing lots of musical fun! This site has countless other ideas for activities and crafts – definitely worth bookmarking. Homemade percussion instruments are pretty easy – you can bang on just about anything.
If you collect a bunch of differently sized items, you can create a drum set! The folks over at Wikihow bring us three different methods of turning a coffee can into a drum.īut don’t stop there! How about creating some shakers, made from various household items. Just about anything can become a drum – a bucket, a pot, a tennis ball can. Let’s explore the possibilities… Let’s Start with Percussion I’m going to give you the answer to the question I’ve posed in the title of this post: YES, IT’S AN INSTRUMENT! Anything and everything can become an instrument if you stretch the imagination. It’s found in the rhythmic drive of jack hammers (albeit a bit annoying) and in the songs of birds. It’s all around you! You hear it in obvious places like the radio and TV, but music is also happening in nature and on the streets.