Want to make music with your child? Why not start by making your own musical instruments? The materials are inexpensive household objects like beans and aluminum foil. And it's easy to involve your child in the process.

 

by Ruth Wilson, Ph.D.

A joy of parenting children is sharing music with your child. And when you and your child work together on making your musical instruments, you're engaging artistic creativity as well. It's easy for even little children to make simple shakers and rainsticks. 

Simple shaker

Let's start with a toilet paper or paper towel tube. Cap one end of the tube by covering it with foil. To do this, just wrap some aluminum foil around the end of the tube and tape it down to hold it in place. Pour a small amount of rice or beans (uncooked, of course!) through the open end. Cap this end with foil.

Have your child decorate the tube using stickers, crayons, or markers. Your child now has a shaker she can use to create a rhythm of her own or as an accompaniment to recorded music.

Rainstick

For something a little more complex, you can make a rainstick with your child. The rainstick is a ceremonial musical instrument once used to invite the rain spirits during times of drought. In Chile, rainsticks are traditionally made from dead cactus tubes filled with tiny lava pebbles. Cactus spines are hammered into the tubes to slow the fall of the pebbles as the tube is tipped end over end. The pebbles moving through the tubes sound like rain.

To make your own rainstick, you'll need a long cardboard tube (like a wrapping paper tube), some rice and beans, tape, and aluminum foil.Cap one of the tube with the aluminum foil. Use several layers of foil to make a more break-resistant cap. Tape the cap to the tube.

Cut two strips of aluminum foil—each about 6 inches wide and somewhat longer than the cardboard tube. Crunch each strip of foil into a thin, snake-like shape. Then zigzag each of the "snake" strips and insert them into the tube. Pour some rice (about a cup) and beans (about 1/2 cup) into the open end of the tube. Cap the open end with foil and tape it down.

Have your child decorate the tube. Provide tape, strips of wrapping paper, stickers, crayons, and markers. Encourage your child to think of a rainforest or other natural environment enriched by rain as he decorates his rainstick.

Have your child slowly tip the rainstick end over end to listen to the sound of rain.

A rainstick made from a mailing tube, decorated with drawings and animal stickers

Other ideas

Of course, your child can also make music with materials found in nature just as they are. A stick can be used to gently tap a tree or rock. Sticks or rocks can be rubbed together to make interesting sounds. Pebbles can be dropped in a bucket of water, and dried leaves can be rustled by hands or feet.

Another rewarding musical experience is to just sit or stand very quietly someplace in the out-of-doors and listen for sounds of nature—birds singing, leaves rustling, branches rubbing against each other in the wind, water dripping, squirrels chatting. If your child is old enough, he may even wish to make a "sound map."

All that's needed for a sound map is a notebook or a clipboard with paper, and a pencil. Your child starts by drawing an X or stick figure in the middle of the paper to designate his location. Listen for a minute or two for "nature sounds"—sounds not made by people. Then your child draws pictures or symbols on the map representing the sounds he hears and the location the sounds are coming from.

Listening to nature and making musical instruments using natural materials are excellent ways to help your child become more interested in the natural world as well as the world of music.

Sound Map

Dr. Ruth Wilson is an educational consultant and curriculum writer. Her primary areas of expertise are early childhood environmental education and peace education.

Photos by Ruth Wilson