A collection of DIY homemade musical instrument tutorials from around the web.
This idea will probably end up being several lessons including the collection of found objects/waste materials and the making of instruments. I’m not going to focus on that part in this post, but the link to Pinterest contained here gives plenty of ideas for the types of materials and recycling them to create instruments. This post will instead focus on the music lesson component once instruments have been made.
The value of music and movement in connection with learning is well documented. In many cultures, explorative learning through percussion is a natural way of connecting with the community and develop skills. Movement through music, furthermore, helps stimulate the brain and integrate the right and left hemispheres
Since the action of drumming comes easily to children, exploring percussion is an obvious way to open the door to a broader appreciation of music and achieving the benefits that music has to offer.
Having made their own instruments, here are some ways to introduce percussion instruments and percussive music to the class.
Play the Room – allow children to explore the room with drumsticks. Tap the floor, tables, chairs, desks, doorknobs, and shelves. For discussion, ask what makes a loud or soft sound, and what object kept the longest sound. Have children sit in pairs, taking turns “playing the floor” and listening, to help make the connection between vibration and sound.
Design Copycat Rhythms – Clap a pattern and have students echo-clap back to you. Encourage other children to be the leader for the group “conversation.” Copycat rhythms can be created by stomping feet, jumping, or with drums or shakers in the circle. Connect rhythm to what children know by singing familiar nursery rhymes and clapping to the beat.
Play the Jungle Beat – Start with pictures of different jungle animals and talk about what kind of sound characterizes that animal. With stomping feet in hard or soft, slow and fast beats, practice together how an elephant or rhinoceros sounds. How is this different from the sound of a monkey walk, or a tiger stalking its prey?
Use Found Objects – Objects everywhere from the kitchen to the junkyard can be used to make a sound. Ask children to bring something from home that they think makes a good sound (pots and pans, lids for cymbals, graters or scrapers) and have them introduce the sound in the circle. What rattles, clatters, or jingles? Talk about the qualities of the sound, and then conduct the group in an orchestra of stuff!
Introduce Instruments that Children can Easily Play – Instruments such as the xylophone, tambourine, maracas, triangles, glockenspiels and bongo drums are ideal for their ease of play and varying percussive qualities. Allow time for children to explore the qualities of their sounds, or have a set space in class so that children try making their own music with instruments that they choose.
Listen to Great Traditions – The music of many cultures has particularly rich drumming traditions. Locate the music of other cultures to expose children to these percussive rhythms.
As outlined in ACARA, in Music, students:
become aware of rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture
explore sounds as they learn to listen to and make music
learn to discriminate between sounds and silence, and loud and soft sounds
learn to move and perform with beat and tempo
learn to listen as performers and as an audience.
This resource has potentially broad application within the Australian Curriculum framework and is capable of customisation to deliver outcomes against a number of content descriptors, for example, ACAMUM082, and (ACAMUM081. It also creates the opportunity to address elements of the Curriculum’s general capabilities, for example, literacy, Creative thinking, ethical understanding and intercultural understanding.