How to Make Homemade Instruments

Homemade Instruments Improve Learning Skills

Summer time is here, the perfect time to explore and make musical instruments. You can use cans or boxes with strings, rubber or leather, etc. to make them.

Maracas

Use plastic eggs filled with rice or popcorn kernels. Glue them shut with a hot glue gun.

Cymbals

Make cymbals out of old tin pie pans. Attach string or yarn for handles.

Kazoos

Make Kazoos with empty paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls and waxed paper. The children can decorate the outside of the kazoos with markers. Place a piece of waxed paper over one end of the roll and secure it with a rubber band. Poke 2 or 3 small holes into the waved paper allowing sound to be produced.

Sand Blocks

• Pieces of wood (1″ x 4″ plank cut into 6″ lengths).
• Felt rectangles cut to fit blocks of wood.
• Medium grit sandpaper cut the same size as felt pieces.
• White or other glue.
• Polyurethane and brush to seal wood.

Rhythm Sticks

Give two wooden dowels to each interested child. The sticks can be decorated with paint or markers.

Tips for Using Your New Homemade Instruments

Now that you’ve made your instruments, have fun playing them. Can you keep rhythm together? Can you hum together with your kazoos? Which instruments are the easiest to play? Which are the hardest? Which are your favorites? Asking these questions cement the learning experience of making and playing the instruments.