How to Make a Musical Instrument at Home

Glasses ready to be tuned

There are a number of musical instruments you can make at home from supplies you have on hand, including simple drums made from lidded coffee cans to maracas made from water bottles partially filled with dried beans or rice. One venerable instrument that goes back hundreds of years is the glass harp, which is also known as the glass harmonica. Benjamin Franklin used the principles behind it to invent a musical instrument named the glass armonica. The glass harp is played with a wet finger. The same method of creating the harp can be made to create a glass xylophone, instead; this is played with a pencil or spoon handle.

Things You'll Need

• Water
• 6 to 13 matching, thin-rimmed, stemmed wine glasses or
• 6 to 13 matching glass jars or drinking glasses
• Wooden spoons, pencils and other stick-shaped objects
• Piano or other musical instrument
• Coffee can with lid
• Dried beans
• Plastic water bottle with its cap
• Aluminum foil
• Paper towel or gift wrap tube
• Rubber bands
• ¼ cup raw rice
• Tape

Instructions

Glass Harp and Xylophone

1. Pour water in one glass. Start with about ... of the glass filled.

2. Run a wet finger around the rim of the wine glass until you produce a sound. If you aren't using wine glasses, that is; assuming you are making a glass xylophone, lightly tap the glass on the rim or side to hear the sound.

3. Play your instrument to find the note closest to the sound you produced.

4. Add or take away water until the tone of the glass matches that of the musical instrument.

5. Fill the other glasses, one at a time, moving up the scale in half or whole steps, matching the glass tones to the appropriate tone of the musical instrument.

Percussion Instruments: Drum, Maraca, Rain Stick

1. Cover the coffee can with the lid. Use pencils or the handles of wooden spoons to play the drum.

2. Pour the beans into the water bottle, then cap it. Shake it to play, varying the amount of beans until shaking the maraca feels comfortable and natural.

3. Cut or tear two pieces of aluminum foil big enough to cover the ends of the tube.

4. Cover one end of the tube with one piece of foil held in place by a rubber band.

5. Loosely crumple more small pieces of aluminum foil to put inside the tube.

6. Pour the rice into the tube.

7. Cover the open end of the tube with aluminum held in place by a rubber band.

8. Try the rain stick: tip one end down so the rice rolls slowly and sounds like rain. Add more crumpled foil to the inside if the rice is falling too fast.

9. Tape down the aluminum foil if the stick sounds right.

Tips & Warnings

• It might take you a while to master producing a sound by running your finger along the top of a glass rim. Change glass size if you need a deeper or higher note that you can't achieve with your original glasses. To get a full octave, use 13 glasses. If you create a full octave and are familiar with the piano, it might be a good idea to arrange the glasses according to how a piano is laid out, with some of the glasses above and to the right of others, as if they were black keys. You can decorate any of the percussion instruments if desired.

• Don't press too hard on the glass or hit the glass too hard. It could break.

References

• How to Make a Water Xylophone
• Make Singing Glasses
• Homemade Rainstick

Resources

• Exploratorium: Water Bottle Membranophone
• Water Bottle Maraca