How to Make Musical Instruments With Household Items
Lots of household items can be repurposed into musical instruments. Kids love to make noise, and letting them do that while encouraging a love of music is not only beneficial, but fun. Think outside the box and repurpose items to create a homemade band.
- Make a tamborine or a shaker. For the tamborine, use heavy duty paper plates. Glue the plates so they are facing one another. Use a hole punch to make holes every 2" or so. Tie jingle bells to the holes. Decorate as desired. You can also staple the plates together if you would rather. For the shaker, put beans between the plates before gluing or stapling.
- Use empty canisters for drums. Several metal cans can be turned over and glued together to make a steel drum sound. Old oatmeal canisters can serve as drums, too. Alter the sounds by filling the inside with paper, or inserting a sheet of aluminum foil with beans or rice just below the lid.
- Find two pot lids the same size and use them as cymbals to be crashed together. You can also make cymbals from a double thickness of aluminum pie plates by gluing two together and adding a hand strap. You need four pie plates to makes two cymbals.
- Create a guitar from an empty shoe box. Discard the lid and strecth rubber bands around the perimenter of the box and over the opening. Glue a ruler to the back to serve as the handle. Add tape to the back of the shoe box to keep the rubber bands secure.