How to Make Musical Instruments
If you love music but don't have an instrument, you can make your own from scratch. There are hundreds of different kinds of instruments you can make, including maracas, flutes and box guitars. Although you'll need very different pieces and parts to make these different instruments, the following steps will guide you through the general process.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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1
Decide what kind of instrument you're going to make. Percussion instruments are the easiest, because you don't need to tune them, but wind and string instruments are also really fun.
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2
Figure out how many different notes your instrument's going to play. Simple box guitars, for example, may only have 2 or 3 strings. Homemade recorders, on the other hand, may have as many as 8 notes.
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3
Find something to make the main body of your instrument. Shells, shoeboxes, oatmeal tins and bottles are some of the most popular instrument building blocks.
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4
Add subtle pitch-changing devices to your instrument's main piece. If you're using bottles to make a pan-flute, for example, lash 5 or 6 of them together and fill them with different amounts of water.
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5
Fine-tune your instrument so that it plays the pitches you want. You'll get the best results if you've got a piano or keyboard handy for tuning its notes.
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6
Decorate your instrument with colorful paints, widgets and designs. For many kids, this will be the most enjoyable part of the construction process.
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