How to Make a Xylophone Drum

The xylophone is a member of the keyboard percussion family of instruments that includes many instruments. The marimba, glockenspiel and vibraphone are also part of this family, and all of these are commonly referred to by most laypeople as xylophones. Professional instruments like these can cost thousands of dollars. A homemade xylophone saves money and can provide a great practice instrument for a student or for anyone interested in keyboard percussion.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wood
• Brackets
• Cord
• Measuring tape
• Skill saw and/or table saw
• Electric sander
• Chisel
• Tuner
• Mallet

Making a Xylophone

1. Select the type of wood to make the xylophone, or marimba. A xylophone can be made from several hardwoods that resonate well, and many in the past have been made from rosewood, which provides an excellent tone. Unfortunately, species of rosewood are now somewhat scarce and expensive, if you can find them, so the most common substitute has become a wood called padauk. Padauk is a beautiful hardwood that provides a great sound and can be easily found from lumber dealers for a reasonable price.

2. 
   Middle C bar for xylophone

   Cut the basic shape of the resonating bars. A homemade xylophone can be any size and can contain as many or as few notes as you like. Once you have decided how large your instrument will be, start with the lowest, or largest note. Generally, the longer the bar is, the lower the note will be. To begin with a middle C, try a bar that is 14 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. To make a bar one note higher, cut a piece approximately 1/2 inch shorter, and to make a bar one note lower, cut 1/2 inch longer. This method will not provide the extreme precision of a factory-made instrument but is an easy method for a hobbyist to get pretty close. The real work begins with the tuning process.

3. 
   Shape and position of arch and nodes

   Tune the middle C blank bar to middle C. Each bar will have two main nodes, which are points on the bar that do not vibrate much. These nodes will always be 2/9 of the length of the bar from the ends. On the 14-inch bar, this means there will be a node about 3 inches from each end. If you hold the bar at this node, you can tap it with a rubber or yarn mallet to hear the note that it is tuned to. Use a tuner to check the pitch of this note as you continue to tune. To change the pitch of the bar, you will need to remove a lot of wood in an arch on the underside of the bar. The easiest way to do this at home is to use the natural curve of a skill saw or table saw to cut out a section of the bar. Using a table saw, you can place the middle of the bar onto a blade that is set low enough that it will not penetrate the wood. Because the bar is 2 inches wide and the saw blade is much thinner, you will have to do this several times as you move the bar across the blade. Using a skill saw, you can secure the bar upside down and use the same basic process in reverse. Both of these methods require extreme caution because power tools can be dangerous, and this should not be attempted by someone who has no experience with powered saws. While a chisel can also be used to remove the wood from the main arch and is a less hazardous way to shape the bar, caution should always be used when working with sharp tools. The arch should be about 1/3 the length of the bar directly in the middle with a depth of about half the thickness of the bar. On the 14-inch bar, the arch would be about 4 1/2 inches long and about 1/2 inch deep. The size of the arch under each bar will be a little different, and the fine tuning process will continue after the main cutting, so cut less than you need at first. It is easier to take off more wood than to put wood back on.

4. Check the pitch of the bar continually by holding the nodes and tapping the bar. As you remove more, the pitch will get lower and closer to the target note. To fine tune the bar, use an electric sander to remove wood a little more slowly from the underside of the bar. Simply sanding the arch down will continue to lower the pitch, but to really fine tune the bar, you will have to tune two zones of the arch independently. On the curve of the arch, the zone in the very middle will affect the fundamental pitch of the bar. Removing wood here will lower the primary sound you hear quickly, but you may also hear some distortions in the sound caused by competing harmonics. To tune these harmonics, hold the bar in the center (where a different node is located) and tap it to hear the pitch. This note should be tuned to the same pitch as the fundamental tone that you hear when you hold the end nodes. To do this, you need to remove wood from the outside of the arch. As you continue this process, keep checking the fundamental tone and the harmonic with a tuner to keep them as close as possible while you lower the overall sound of the bar to the desired pitch. If you remove too much wood and the pitch of the bar is lower than you like, you can raise the pitch a little by using the sander to remove wood from the underside of the ends of the bar. The pitch cannot be raised as easily as it can be lowered though, so keep checking the pitch often as you lower it. Repeat the process for any additional bars at different lengths.

5. Drill straight through the width of the bars at the node (2/9 of the length from the ends) to mount the xylophone bars. Use a cord to run through this hole and thread all of the bars together in this manner. Once you have all of your bars laid out this way, you can more easily design a frame to support them. For a frame, any material will do, but pine works well for a wood frame. Lay out the pieces of the wood frame that will support the bars directly over the nodes to find the correct angles of the pieces. The frame will get smaller as the notes get higher, and having the bars finished at this step will allow you to know exactly how to fit the frame to the bars. With the supports laid out following the nodes, secure them at both ends with additional boards to finish the frame. Finally, you will need brackets to suspend the threaded bars over the frame. Small, metal L-brackets from a hardware store are easy to find and easy to install. With the brackets in place, thread the cord through brackets and bars, and the xylophone is now playable. .