Have A Go!

You can make a musical instrument using everyday items you should be able to find in your own home. Have a go at making your own!

Percussion Instruments

Rattles: try a tin or plastic container with its lid (something like a yoghurt pot or a margarine pot) with some rice, dried peas, lentils, gravel or sand inside it.

Scrapers: plastic bottle with ridges (like a squash bottle), sandpaper with a small wooden stick, or hit two sticks together. For another scraper, file some grooves into some bamboo canes and use a small stick to scrape along the ridges.

Drum: a biscuit tin or large plastic food container makes a good drum, or if you can, get some tyre inner tubing and stretch it over a plant pot. A baking tray also makes another good drum.

Castanets: tie three small strips of wood together (need to have holes in the wood) with a piece of string and give it a shake!

Xylophone: see if you can find some glass bottles: fill each one with a different quantity of water then find yourself a stick to hit the bottles (not too hard!). See if you can change the note that the bottle makes by changing the amount of liquid in it; can you make a running scale of notes like a real xylophone?

String Instruments

Violin: use a plastic food container with an elastic band or piece of string. Try making different sounds by stretching the elastic band different amounts.

Brass/Wind Instruments

Trumpet: can you think of a way of using a drinking straw?

Trombone: try a garden hose with a funnel stuck in one end, blow at the other!

Didgeridoo: an aquarium hose with funnel at one end.

Harmonica: how about a comb with some paper over it?

Have a go at playing some music with your friends. How does it sound? Can you think of any way you can improve it?