Musical Instrument Arts & Crafts for Kids

Move beyond pots and pans and let your child create her own instruments using recyclable materials.

Plan some simple musical instrument crafts for your musically minded kids. Use recyclable materials for playable musical instruments that kids will enjoy creating themselves. These craft projects are inexpensive and fun and don't require lots of time or any special materials. Your child can create an entire orchestra of working instruments to decorate and play.

Simple Cymbals

The easiest instrument to create using craft materials is a pair of cymbals. Paint two aluminum pie plates with puffy paint or tempera paints. Allow your child to decorate the plates any way she likes, the more colorful the better. When the plates dry, hold them by the rims and clap them together. For very young children, only decorate one aluminum pie plate. Instead of clapping two plates together, hand your child a wooden spoon. Allow her to tap on the cymbal with a spoon rather than attempting to handle the thin pie plate rims.

Rainmakers

Collect a few empty paper towel tubes and allow children to paint and decorate them in any design they like. Cover one end of the tube with a square of heavy duty aluminum foil and hold it in place with a tightly wound elastic band. Pour about 1/4 cup of dry rice, lentils, or beans into the tube. Or, make several tubes and pour a different dry food item in each. Cover the other end of the tube using foil and an elastic band. Carefully insert straight pins or flat-headed thumb tacks in a random pattern along the length of the tube. If you use pins, be sure they do not pierce the other side of the tube. Cover the length of the tube, not the ends, with clear contact paper to keep the straight pins or tacks from coming out. Gently shake the tube to make music.

Box Guitar

Have children decorate a shoe box with brightly colored paper, markers and crayons. Cut a circle in the middle of the lid of the shoebox. Stretch several elastic bands of different sizes around the shoebox, over the cut circle. Children can pluck the strings of the guitar to make music. If desired, you can fashion a neck for your guitar using an empty wrapping paper tube, but this step is not necessary to create music with your guitar.

Bongo Drum

Have children paint and decorate an empty round oatmeal container. Cut a piece of wax paper to fit over the top of the container. Use an elastic band or tightly wrapped yarn to secure the wax paper to the top of the oatmeal container. Pull the wax paper down gently to assure it is tightly stretched over the mouth of the container. Children can use their hands to gently tap on the drum. Replace the wax paper top if it becomes worn or ripped. Create drums using small soup cans or large coffee cans using the same process.

References

• Artists Helping Kids: Musical Instruments Arts and Crafts Ideas
• Family Fun: Musical Instrument Crafts