Create a rubberband guitar by cutting a hole in the top of a shoebox to amplify the sound, fitting a paper towel roll into one end of the box to act as the guitar neck. String rubberbands across the top as your guitar strings. Then, rock out!

Bottle maracas are very easy to make. All you have to do is get an old water bottle and fill it, partially, with uncooked rice. Then, seal off the cap end (maybe adding some tape to ensure the cap doesn't come off).

​

Boom, you have a musical instrument that your kids of any age can have fun with. All they have to do is shake it!

1. Decorate a paper plate with color and patterns, however you wish.

2. Then, use a hole puncher to make clean holes around the outside edge of the plate.

3. Use pipe cleaners to loop through the holes and through a bell, and tie that off in the back of the tambourine.

4. Continue adding bells this way all around the outside of the plate.

5. When done, you have a brightly colored, LOUD tambourine that your kids will enjoy play with for hours.

For our drum, we used a cardboard Ice Cream container...that had never had ice cream in it of course.

​

We painted it, added some Native American symbols and added beads, feathers, and string to it for decoration.

A traditional African instrument, a thumb piano.

Get a small square piece of wood as the base. Then, glue 2 Popsicle sticks side by side in the center of the square. Next, straighten out 11 bobby pins.  Arrange them on top of the Popsicle sticks in the pattern shown below where the ones on either end are left shorter going out a little bit more at a time until you get to the center, with the center being the longest. After that, lay down 2 more Popsicle sticks over top of the others, sandwiching the bobby pins between the 2 sets. Nail the top layer of Popsicle sticks to the lower level, holding the bobby pins into place. Finally, the short side of the bobby pins - bend them up to a 45 degree angle. You can cut the back end of the pins off. 

Hold the square piece of wood with your fingers and play the pins with your thumbs.

A traditional Middle Eastern musical instrument. 

Get a wire coat hanger and bend it similar to this picture. We put tape around the handle, for comfort and safety. Then you string two wires across the main part of the hanger, from one side to the other, and put beads, buttons, and whatever else you can think of to make noise. Decoration lets you personalize it even further.

A traditional Australian musical Instrument.

​

Take a paper towel roll, cap off 1 end with plastic wrap. Stuff the roll down the center with paper or aluminum foil, leaving some space on the sides of the stuffing. Pour in a handful of popcorn kernels and cap off the other end with more plastic wrap. Decorate the roll. You have a rain stick!  Pour the kernels from end to end, as they flow through/over the stuffing, they'll make a rain sound.

• Tie a shoe string around a wooden spoon or paint brush, leaving the handle to be the handle for your drum.

• Find 2 old CD's.

 (Take some time to explain to the kids what they used to be used for!)

• With a few inches of shoe string hanging off either side of your spoon/brush, glue the CDs to either side, covering the spoon or brush head.

  Leave some time for the glue to sufficiently dry.

• Then string wooden beads onto your shoe string ends.

We used beads from a necklace, tying them on instead of running the lace through them.

• Paint whatever design you'd like on the CDs.

We chose to paint solid colors on ours and then have our boys write   their names on each side in Chinese. (Google Translate is a big help    here)

​

Once your paint dries, start using the drum! Simply hold it by the handle and turn back and forth, letting the beads strike the front and back of the drum.