Handmade Children's Musical Instruments

Do your children love music and marching bands?

Of course they do.

At our house we learned to count while marching, and we use music to learn about sequence and composition.

My son likes to draw sounds as colorful waves while he listens to music.

So while searching the web for some creative handmade instruments, I came across The Mudcat Cafe.

This is a site dedicated to the art of blues and folk music and while this is not a children's site, they do have a page for children on how to make your own instruments. You'll be surprised how much fun you will have making and playing some of these instruments!

Here is an example:

Flower Pot Bells

(reprinted with permission)

Materials:
Clean, unglazed, earthenware flowerpots, Heavy cord or twine, Mallet or striker Pole or broomstick.

Assembly:

1. If you want a set of bells to play a scale or tonal pattern, you will have to hand-pick several sizes of pots and compare their relative pitches. Flowerpots of the same size can differ by one or two scale degrees. Size and thickness determine the pitch.

2. Suspend the pots upside down from a cord attached to a broomstick or other framework. Don't strike them too hard.

Options:
You may either tie a large knot in the cord and insert through the hole in each pot before tying to the pole, or if the cord is too thin for a good-sized knot, tie it to a small (2") section of dowel before threading though the pot hole.