Make Your Own Instruments
Tips for cheap, easy, fun instruments...
You don't need to be knowledgeable about music-making to help their children experience the benefits at home.
Making simple homemade instruments is a fun and inexpensive activity. The trick is to be imaginative - literally any household object can be used to make a sound. Encourage your child to experiment with the following homemade instruments to see what different sounds they make.
- Fill empty milk bottles with varying amounts of water and tap the rims with a spoon to make a tune. The more you fill the bottle, the lower the sound. Tap out a simple tune and encourage your child to repeat it back to you
- Fill empty screw-top jars with beans, rice, pebbles etc. to make shakers. Make sure the lid is tightly secured before use!
- Empty cartons, pots and pans make great drums when hit with a wooden spoon
- Babies love repetition: sing their favourite songs over and over
- Wrap rubber bands round an empty shoebox or ice-cream carton to make a homemade guitar. Try using different sizes of rubber bands, thick and thin, for the strings
- Two pan lids can be banged together to make crashing cymbals
- Place a plastic ruler over the edge of a table and pluck it to see and hear vibration
- Staple sandpaper to two small wooden blocks and rub them together to make a swishy sound
- Cut a coconut in two, remove coconut and bang together as musical clappers
- Cut old pieces of dowling or pipes into sizeable lengths and bang together as rhythm sticks
- Create a triangle by suspending a metal object (such as a coathanger, pipe or horseshoe) with string and hitting it with a metal spoon
CommunityFor more ideas about music making at home, visit the Resources section of Bongo Club.
Youth Music
Youth Music exists to facilitate and fund high quality and diverse musical experiences for young people up to the age of 18, particularly those living in areas of social and economic need.
