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Kids love noise and they love to create. You don’t need to buy expensive instruments for young children. Time enough for that later when they are demanding drum lessons! For now, concentrate on letting them experiment with different sounds. It is all about cause and effect and music is a great learning tool for enhancing mathematical skills. Children will unconsciously find themselves making rhythm and rhythm requires a steady and repetitious sound that in turn helps them learn about order and counting. When they get a little more accustomed to using the instrument, try to introduce the concept of timing. Count four beats over and over and then try to introduce some half beats. Children pick this up very quickly because they are participating in an audio nature, physically and having some fun as well.
To enhance the whole learning concept, try some of these simple homemade ways to make your child some musical instruments for hours of fun. Your children will appreciate it a whole lot more if they have taken the time to produce their own instrument. They will also learn a lot more about how sound is produced and different ways that they can change the properties of that sound. It’s also a lot of fun and time spent together!
DRUMS
Collect all different varieties of containers of different sizes. Stretch some material over the opening of the container and secure it tightly with some heavy-duty tape. Experiment with different materials and different tautness. You can buy a piece of leather at your local craft store; you can also pick up some thin dowel at the craft store or hardware store to serve as drum sticks.
Turn the drum material side up and you have a great homemade instrument. Put a marching CD on and let the kids participate in the pounding rhythm.
Alternatively, young babies and toddler will delight in just about any container being upturned and pounded on with some wooden spoons!
MARACAS
There are a whole variety of sounds that can come from homemade maracas. Try using different types of containers and noisemakers inside to get some different sounds. Here are some suggestions:
Containers:
- Two Dixie cups taped together at the rims
- Empty water bottle
- Empty milk bottle
- Film canister
Fillers:
- Rice
- Beads
- Sand
- Pebbles
- Dried peas
Experiment with the different fillers until you find one just right. Also, remember to put different amounts of fillers into your maracas, you will get different sounds.
WOODEN STICKS
One of the most basic musical instruments that also date back further than most people know, is simple musical sticks. Either find some in your back yard or buy a simple piece of dowel and cut it to size. To get the kids more involved in this you paint or decorate the sticks with something meaningful. You can also nail some bottle tops to the sticks to get a nice clatter each time they are banged together.
Show them how to tap fast and slow and use music of different tempos to accompany them.
CYMBALS
Another of the percussion family – the mighty cymbals! While they won’t produce the same amount of ‘clatter’ as the real thing, you can make a simple set of cymbals out of two foil pie tins with straps or handles affixed to the back. After all, your homemade band is all about imagination!
GLASS XYLOPHONE
Something that everyone already knows about but a great experiment for kids anyway. Fill some glasses with varying amounts of water and line them up from most full to least full. Find a drumstick-sized instrument to tap on each glass. Each glass will make a different sound directly related to how much water is in it. Let them experiment with the levels of water and discuss the differences. Try using eight glasses and talk about what an octave is in musical terms. See if you can work out how to play a familiar but simple tune like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
TAP SHOES
Remember that music comes from all different sources. Try affixing something like bottle caps to the heels of an old pair of shoes and clatter away on the pavement outside. Have your kids dance around to some jazzy music and see if they can’t keep up!
Overall, music is all about having fun. The main thing is that there is no wrong or right way to get some rhythm. You can do something as simple as pounding on a trash can lid and still be teaching some very valuable lessons.
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