Here are some suggestions for quick, cheap, and easy ways to make “musical instruments” for your family or students, for music classes, informal concerts, or just exploration.
Drums – Real drums (instruments in which you beat on a thin, taut membrane) are quite sophisticated, difficult-to-construct instruments. Here are some easy stand-ins.
* Empty plastic milk jugs
* Upside-down pails, buckets, basins, or large cans
* Empty plastic tubs (like margarine or ice cream tubs) with the lids on – usually, the bigger the tub, the better.
* Lid or bottom (or both) of a large, empty coffee can
* A sheet of canvas, plastic, plastic wrap, plastic bag, rubber, wrapping paper, waxed paper, or poster board stretched very taut over the lip of a wooden bowl or a clay flowerpot, held in place by strong tape, heavy rubber bands, or strong cord. Most “drums” made in this way will be much more delicate than real drums.
*The bottom of an empty cylindrical oatmeal box
*Don’t forget the traditional favorite: pots and pans
*Two of any of these in different sizes is a set of bongos
Fillers for Shakers – Different fillers can make very different sounds. Some will last better than others, and some will be messier to work with than others. You may want to seal your shakers once you have made them.
* Dry rice, noodles, or beans
* Unpopped popcorn
* Beads or sequins of any size (different sizes and kinds will make different sounds)
* Nuts or seeds
* Pebbles
*Sand or salt
*Bottle caps (If you can make holes in the bottle caps you can also string them together to make rattles or tambourines.)
Containers for shakers or maracas - To turn your shaker into a maraca, make a hole in the container, put a stick, pencil, or short length of 1/2″ dowel into the hole, and tape it together.
* Paper bag or plastic bag
* Plastic Easter egg
* Empty plastic tubs with lids
* Dried gourd – very authentic and easy to grow in many places
*Hollow balls, for example tennis balls and plastic “softballs” – you’ll have to make a hole in them to fill them; so you might as well make maracas
*Some seed pods come already filled with dried seeds and make great shakers
*Make your own with papier-mache.
Cymbals, Gongs, Bells and Triangles – The trick to getting a good sound out of these instruments is to let them vibrate freely. Don’t touch the part that is supposed to “ring” with your fingers or anything soft. Hold it by a handle, hang it from a piece of string (make a hole in the object, or tape the string to it), or set it on a hard surface.
* Metal bowls that are a single curved surface (with no extra rim on the bottom to steady them) make great gongs. Set them on a hard surface. For a really cool effect, try swirling a very small amount of water in the bowl and strike it while the water is still swirling.
* A metal clothes hanger
*Trash can lids or pot lids
* Metal pie plate
* Hung flowerpots (use a soft beater)
* The chimes from a windchime
* Hammer large nails to different depths in a piece of lumber. Use another large nail as a beater to strike the nails in the wood.
* For home-made wood blocks or marimba, rest hardwood boards or pieces of bamboo of different lengths across two other pieces of lumber.
* String jingle bells or bottle caps on yarn, ribbon, or string to make hand, ankle, or wrist jingles.
Not Percussion
* The easiest way to get a “string” sound is to stretch rubber bands between fingers, nails, or thumbtacks, or around tubs or boxes. An old-fashioned wash tub bass, made using a small metal tub, broom handle, and thick string, is fairly easy to construct.
* Blow across the lip of a glass jug or bottle.
* The easiest “wind instrument” to make is a kazoo, which you play by humming into it. Use a square of waxed paper or tissue paper, and either rubber-band it onto one end of a cardboard tube or fold it over the teeth of a small comb.
* You can make a simple “horn” or “trumpet” by taping a tin funnel to the end of a yard or two of garden hose, plastic pool tubing, or any other flexible tubing about 1″ in diameter, but getting a sound out of your instrument may require a real mouthpiece and someone who knows how to play a brass instrument.
Please share with us what kinds of homemade instruments you have used in your home.
This work is licensed by Catherine Schmidt-Jones under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 1.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.
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There is a group of kids who play the plastic drums in downtown Cincinnati after every baseball and football game. They are quite talented. The picture reminded my of them. don't know if they have a name for their group, or just do it as a glorified version of panhandling.
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