Make Your Own Musical Instruments to Celebrate World Music Day!

World Music Day is coming and what’s a better idea to celebrate it than playing music? We have gathered the easiest tutorials to make your own musical instruments and create a family band with your kids! You can also take advantage of these activities to talk with your kids about the different types of instruments (string, percussion, etc) and how they work, so that they can choose the one they like best!

Percussion instruments

Instruments that need to be shaken or hit in order to produce sound are called “percussion instruments”. A percussionist can usually play more than one instrument, since almost all percussion instruments need similar skills. Let’s see some percussion instruments you can make at home:

Drum Kit/Bongos/Rice shaker

All in one! That’s right! Using the same materials you can make three different musical instruments in one! Apart from the time and materials you’ll save, this is also a nice activity to help kids understand that the main difference between these instruments is the way they are played.

What you will need:

• Some empty, clean tin cans
• Balloons (as many as the tin cans)
• Elastic bands (as many as the tin cans)
• Rice or lentils
• Chopsticks
• Scissors
• Paint and paintbrush (optionally)

How to do it (detailed instructions can be found at mini eco):

Let your kids express their creativity by painting the tin cans and making various drawings on them. Then let the paint dry completely (if you are short of time, you can skip the painting part and begin from the next step). Once it is ready, put the rice in the tins. Then cut the end of the balloon and stretch it over the open end of the tin. Use the elastic bands to make sure that the balloon stays in place. Your percussion instrument is ready! You can now ask kids to use the chopsticks to play drums or hit them with their bare hands to play the bongos or even shake them!

String instruments

Musical instruments that produce sound when their strings are vibrating are called “string instruments”. There is a large variety of string instruments and come in many shapes and forms. For example, the guitar and the banjo are string instruments.

Guitar

Would you imagine that you could make your own guitar with materials you have at home? Well, you can!

What you will need:

• 2 popsicle sticks
• 6 elastic bands
• glue stick
• transparent adhesive tape
• a stick
• gift wrapping paper
• an empty tissue box
• a cardboard tube
• a box opener
• scissors

How to do it:

Most tissue boxes have a plastic film inside. Remove the plastic and then cut the box so that the hole in the middle gets a little larger. On the top of the box cut a hole of the same diameter as the cardboard tube. Wrap the cardboard box with some gift wrapping paper and make small cuts around the one end of the tube. Then proceed to wrap the tissue box too, but be careful not to cover the holes! Once you’re done with wrapping, apply some glue on the stick and paste it on the tissue box on the right of the main hole. Wrap an elastic band from the top to the bottom of the box and then insert the cardboard box in the hole at the top of the box, securing the rubber band in the cuts you made. Wrap the remaining elastic bands around the tissue box. To complete your guitar, make two cuts on the left and another two on the right of the cardboard paper and insert the popsicle sticks. Your guitar is ready!

Wind instruments

As their name suggests, wind instruments use air that comes from the player’s mouth and flows around or through their body to produce sound. They commonly fall into two categories: woodwind instruments (e.g. saxophone, clarinet, etc) and brass instruments (like the trumpet or the trombone).

Harmonica

The harmonica is one of the first musical instruments a child is likely to play, since it is widely used at preschool. As we will see, apart from very pleasant to play, it is also very easy to construct your own harmonica!

What you will need:

• 2 popsicle sticks
• 2 elastic bands
• 2 toothpicks cut the width or just wider than the popsicle stick
• a strip of paper the same size as the popsicle stick

How to do it:

Put one popsicle on top of the other and place the strip of paper between them. Wrap an elastic band tightly around one end of the popsicles and then put a toothpick inside the rubber band. Put the other toothpick at the other end of the popsicles and wrap with the remaining elastic band. You can have a look at the result here.

Inspire your kids to learn a musical instrument!

Playing a musical instrument has a great many benefits to offer to your little ones! Want to inspire them to learn a musical instrument? Musical Instruments for Kids app has been specifically designed to help kids familiarize themselves with musical instruments and their sounds, so that they can choose which one they like best!