When you think about bringing music into your homeschool, do you think of the high price of musical instruments and private music lessons? Well, you do not have to worry about that once you read about these 10 DIY Easy-to-Make Homemade Musical Instruments you can make with your kids! You'll love these musical instruments you can make at home. Combine it with the Music in Our Homeschool Plus membership and you're set!
Many of these musical instruments are easy enough for your children to make with very little help from you! Recycled materials help to keep the cost down so that every child in your family can have their own musical instrument. Have fun with these musical instrument making ideas today!
(All photos, descriptions, and links below are used with permission. Affiliate links are included.)
Egg Maracas Homemade Musical Instruments
It’s pretty easy to make egg maracas with your preschoolers or elementary kids using Easter eggs. Be sure to watch Sixth Bloom’s step-by-step video at the end of her post, and read about the musical game they played and loved.
A fun activity to do with egg shakers is to make two eggs with the same filler. So, make two with dried beans, two with rice, two with salt, and two with beads. Then, kids can shake them to find the matches! This really helps them refine their listening skills.
I lead a Family Workshop on Percussion Instruments and Making your Own Homemade Musical Instruments in the Homeschool Sisterhood Membership.
Slapsticks
Grab a handful of jumbo craft sticks and create slapsticks. Use pipe cleaners, yarn, or rubber bands to hold the sticks together while slapping them together for a fun percussive effect. Change the sound by rubbing or scraping in various ways for more musical exploration just as There’s Just One Mommy shares.
After building their own pan flutes and exploring the science of sound, children will then have the opportunity to write their own songs and record the notes for those songs on the free printable recording sheet that Buggy and Buddy offers.
I love how this activity helps kids understand pitch related to size. The straws are cut to various sizes, so students learn that the longer straws have a lower pitch and the shorter straws a higher pitch.
Sound Jars
Allow your children to explore a variety of sounds by making sound jars. The Keeper of the Memories shares how her family made shaker-style jars with her children.
Supplies needed:
Small see-through jars such as canning, baby food, water bottles, or spice jars.
Filler such as dried beans, rice, birdseed, popcorn, sand, salt, sugar, buttons, or beads
Another option is to add a liquid to some of the jars with the fillers so kids can discover how that changes the sounds.
Ankle Bells Homemade Musical Instruments
Creating sets of ankle bells made with different materials or in different sizes and shapes will allow kids to experiment with the different sounds they are creating as they dance. You can learn more about these types of bell instruments of India written by Kid World Citizen.
How fun to make lots of different types of these ankle bell instruments with various types of bells or other objects such as seashells, pasta shells, or large buttons!
Beaded Jingle Stick
Let your stick loving child make a beaded jingle stick like Danya Banya using yarn, beads, and bells. Your child can create a simple beaded design or something more complex using their fine motor skills.
Be creative in stringing different items or arrangements of bells to get a variety of sounds!
Guitar
Grab some recyclables such as rubber bands, a sour cream container, and cardboard to create your very own crafted guitar. Red Ted Art shares step by step how to make this play instrument.
Supplies needed:
Round plastic container (such as sour cream or shredded parmesan cheese)
Rubber bands (best to have a variety of sizes and thicknesses)
Stretch the rubber bands tighter for a higher pitch and looser for a lower pitch!
Rainstick
Have you ever made your own rainstick? Your child will love this activity and the wonderful results that a rainstick can make. School Time Snippets shares how to use flat-headed pins to make a great tinkling sound!
If you have an aspiring drummer in the house then you will want to create a homemade drum kit that even your toddler can enjoy just like The Train Driver’s Wife.
Supplies needed:
Metal cans or canisters such as from oatmeal, formula, or coffee
Metal cake pans
Paper towel holder to hold your “cymbal” up high
Sticks
Felt, Duct tape, stickers, etc.
You can even shop at Good Will to find some baking pans if you don't want your actual baking pans to get all beat up!
Includes a supply list for making the above homemade musical instruments.
Find these pages in it:
Circle the Percussion Instruments
Write the names of the Percussion Instruments
Color Percussion Instruments
Supply list for homemade musical instruments
Here's a Freebie
What other musical instruments you can make at home would you like to see in the next post? Have you had experience with musical instrument making? Please share in a comment below!
I love this post! The ideas for homemade musical instruments are so creative and fun. Can’t wait to try making the shakers with my kids. It’s a great way to combine music and learning while keeping them engaged. Thank you for sharing these awesome ideas!
Loved this post! The idea of making our own instruments is so creative and fun for the kids. I can’t wait to try the DIY maracas and rainsticks with my homeschool group! Thank you for sharing these simple and engaging projects!
I love this post! The ideas for homemade musical instruments are so creative and fun. Can’t wait to try making the shakers with my kids. It’s a great way to combine music and learning while keeping them engaged. Thank you for sharing these awesome ideas!
Loved this post! The idea of making our own instruments is so creative and fun for the kids. I can’t wait to try the DIY maracas and rainsticks with my homeschool group! Thank you for sharing these simple and engaging projects!
Wonderful!