Making Musical Instruments from everyday objects...
Making music is a fun and creative pastime for people of all ages and backgrounds! The best thing about it is that we don’t need expensive instruments or high tech wizardry (although that can be fun too) to get everybody to join in and play a part.
There are 3 main areas in instrumentation available in your everyday environment that you can introduce to your children/group.
1. Percussive – anything that is hit (either by hand or with a stick or mallet)
2. Wind – anything that is blown in or that uses air (including vocals)
3. String instruments – anything with strings of any sort
Here are some inspirational ideas that you use to create an array of fun instruments with your children/group. Though not comprehensive, it will certainly get you started, and possibly help you come up with some ideas of your own, Good Luck!
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• Creating Percussion Instruments:
• Drums and bongos: Cut the “hole” end off a balloon, and stretch the remainder of the balloon over an open baked beans or spaghetti can. The can may have just the top, or top and bottom removed to make different sounding drums. Stretch a rubber band around the top of the can to hold the balloon “skin” in place. The drum can then be played with a rubber ended pencil, or anything else you may choose.
• Clackers: Find two small hard rocks and tap them together
• Clap-sticks: Find an old broomstick and cut off two 10cm lengths to tap together.
• Scraper: Find some stiff card, and cut into playing card size pieces. This can be used to scrape rhythms out on tables or carpet, or even on clothing. The same can be done with stiff plastic, such as the sides or bottoms of 2 or 4 litre ice cream containers.
• Shaker: Take a plastic drink container and add a small amount of rice or peppercorns, seal the top with the lid or tape, and shake out a rhythm!
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• Creating Wind Instruments:
• Vocal Sounds: Have anybody sing!
• Mouth Sounds: Try clucking and humming sounds and any other sound than can be made with the mouth. Remember that “raspberries” of sorts are used to play trumpet and trombone! – You can hum and raspberry at the same time!
• Trumpet: Try blowing sounds through pieces of hose, you can even tape a funnel into the “bell” end to imitate the instrument further.
• Didgeridoo: Use the long inner tubes from alfoil and gladwrap, and the pipes and /or hose from a vacuum cleaner to blow a “raspberry” through.
• Pipes: You can blow across the top of various bottles to get sounds. You may even like to tune up an octave or more of bottles with varying amounts of water. These can also be used for percussion.
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• Creating String Instruments:
• Bush Bass: Take a wooden box and drill a 10mm hole in the bottom. Then take a piece of rope anywhere up to 10mm thick and around 2m long. Tie a knot in one end and pass it through the drilled hole till the knot stops it coming through the hole. Turn the box upside down so the rope now comes out of the top of the box, and tie the other end of the rope to the end of a broomstick, making sure that you can place the free end of the broomstick on top of the box, and pull the rope tight with the broom stick so you can pluck it to make sounds
• Chair Guitar: Tie pieces of elastic from one leg of a chair to an adjacent leg. You can do a few, and tie them off at varying tensions to create different pitches.
• Bullroarer: Tie a piece of string about 1 metre in length to a standard 30cm wooden or plastic rule. Hold the string at one end it so the rule can swing freely at the other end of the piece of string, and then spin around in a large circle. This will make a sound like wurra-wurra-wurra!
• String Ideas: You can wrap rubber bands around various sized cardboard boxes from matchboxes to shoeboxes, and even plastic boxes like lunch boxes, or small ‘Tupperware’ like containers. Use various sized rubber bands, or stretch them in different ways across the open side of the box to get various pitches and sounds.
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• Teachers Notes:
• Preparing for your workshop experience can include...
For JP Students - High, Low, Fast, Slow, Loud, Soft, etc
For other levels please discuss your group level with Rchie.
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Save things like spagetti and fruit cans that have been opened in such a way to not cause injury to the students...
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Have a variety of rubber band sizes handy
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Have some string and elastic handy
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Have a number of balloons (round ones) available
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Know where sticks and rocks may be found out side
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Have some rice or peppercorns available
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Save and wash out plastic drink containers and their lids.
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Tupperware containers, plastic and wooden boxes may come in handy too
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Spoons and other 'hitting' objects
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An old broomstick or two and a wood saw
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A ruler or two with the hole in the end
For further discussion on the above contact:
Richie Robinson
Guitarist/Creative Director
Audio Lab Productions Australia
Ph: 0411 446 507
Email: Management@audiolab-online.com
