Homemade instruments for kids: 10 to make from things at home

A child can make a working instrument in ten minutes from things in the kitchen and the recycling bin. This page has ten, from a shaker for a toddler to a straw oboe for a ten-year-old. Each one shows how a real family of instruments makes its sound.

Before you start

• An adult does the cutting.
• Dried beans, rice, and beads are choking hazards. Seal shakers with strong tape, and keep small parts away from children under three.
• Glass can break. Stay close for the water glasses.

Percussion

1. Shaker. Put a spoonful of rice, dried beans, or beads into a small plastic bottle. Screw the lid on tight and tape it. Try different fillings. Rice hisses, and beans rattle.

2. Drum. Take an empty tin or a round tub. Stretch a balloon with the neck cut off over the open top, and hold it with a rubber band. Tap with fingers or with the eraser end of a pencil. A tight skin gives a higher sound.

3. Tambourine. Put a handful of dried beans or bottle caps between two paper plates. Staple or tape around the rim. Decorate it, and shake.

4. Rainstick. Take a long cardboard tube. Crumple a strip of foil into a long, loose coil, and push it inside. Tape one end shut, pour in a quarter cup of rice, and tape the other end. Tip it over, and listen to the rain.

5. Water glass xylophone. Line up five or six glasses of the same kind. Fill each with a different amount of water. Tap with a wooden spoon. More water gives a lower note. Add or pour out water to tune a scale.

Strings

6. Rubber band guitar. Stretch four or five rubber bands of different widths around an open box, such as a tissue box or a shoebox without its lid. Slide a pencil under the bands at each end to lift them off the box. Pluck. Thin, tight bands sound higher.

7. One-string bass. Tie a long string to a hole in the bottom of an upturned bucket. Tie the other end to the top of a stick. Rest the foot of the stick on the edge of the bucket, and pull back on it to tighten the string. Pluck. Pull harder for a higher note.

Winds

8. Straw pan flute. Cut eight straws to different lengths, each about half an inch shorter than the last. Lay them side by side in order, with the tops level, and tape them together. Blow across the tops. Short straws sound higher.

9. Straw oboe. Flatten one end of a paper or plastic straw. Snip the two corners off to make a point. Put the point between your lips, press a little, and blow hard. The two flaps buzz. An oboe and a bassoon work this way. Snip the far end shorter while you blow, and the note climbs.

10. Bottle flute. Blow across the top of a bottle until it hoots. Add water, and the note rises. Line up several bottles with different amounts of water for a set of notes.

What each one teaches

Instrument	Family	The idea
Shaker, drum, tambourine, and rainstick	Percussion	Hitting or shaking makes the sound
Water glasses	Percussion	More to shake means a lower note
Rubber band guitar and bucket bass	Strings	A tighter or shorter string sounds higher
Straw pan flute and bottle flute	Woodwinds	A shorter column of air sounds higher
Straw oboe	Woodwinds	A reed buzzes to start the sound

One rule runs through all of them: small, short, and tight things make high sounds. Big, long, and loose things make low sounds. That is why a piccolo is tiny and a tuba is huge.

A puzzle to try

Tap a glass with a lot of water in it, and the note is low. Blow across a bottle with a lot of water in it, and the note is high. Why?

When you tap, the glass and the water shake. More water is more to move, so it shakes at a slower rate. When you blow, the air above the water shakes. More water leaves less air, and a short column of air shakes faster.

Start a family band

1. Give each person one instrument.
2. One person keeps a steady beat on the drum.
3. The shakers join on every beat, or on every second beat.
4. The guitar and the flutes add anything they like.
5. Play along with a march or a dance.

Try classical music for kids to dance to for pieces with a strong beat.

For a class

Set up four tables, one for each kind of instrument. Give each group ten minutes to build and five to practice. End with a concert in which each table plays in turn, and then all play together.

Match them to the real thing

After building, listen to the real instruments. Read percussion instruments for kids, string instruments for kids, and woodwind instruments for kids.

Print and play

Print the instrument families listening chart. For real instruments that suit a young child, read Orff instruments for home. For a drum that costs almost nothing, read bucket drumming for kids. To find more things that make a sound, try the music scavenger hunt.

For more ideas, see music activities for kids.