10 Easy-to-Make Homemade Musical Instruments

Easy-to-Make Homemade Musical Instruments

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! 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.

(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.

Supplies needed:

• Plastic Easter eggs
• Filler such as dried beans, rice, birdseed, popcorn, sand, salt, sugar, or beads
• Plastic spoons
• Tape such as Duct, Washi, or masking

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.

Supplies needed:

• Craft Sticks
• Pipe cleaners, yarn, or rubber bands

A famous composition that uses a real slapstick is “Sleigh Ride.” See a fun 15-Minute Music lesson on “Sleigh Ride” here.

Pan Flutes

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.

Supplies needed:

• Straws
• Cardstock
• Double-sided tape
• Metallic Sharpie markers to decorate the cardstock (optional)

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
• You can also fill with small jingle bells

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.

Supplies needed:

• Felt – approximately 12 inches by 3.5 inches
• Small strip of Velcro
• Jingle bells such as these
• Needle and Thread

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. 

Supplies needed:

• Y-shaped stick
• Large jingle bells
• Small jingle bells (optional)
• Beads
• Yarn, string, twine, or pipe cleaners

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)
• Cardboard
• Stick
• Beads (optional)
• Tape or hot glue gun

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!

Supplies needed:

• Paper towel tube
• Straight pins
• Duct tape (or masking tape)
• Filler such as rice or dried beans
• Decorative items such as stickers

Another option for slowing the flow of the rice through the tube is to put pipe cleaners inside the tube.

Cardboard Flute DIY Musical Instrument

It’s fun to create a homemade instrument like this cardboard flute from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Supplies needed:

• Paper towel tube
• Scissors

This is a fun craft to act out 11 pipers piping in the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song!

Drum Kit Musical Instrument

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!

Purchase the Percussion Musical Instrument Printable Pack here at my TeachersPayTeachers store:

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

Related Posts:

• 15-Minute Music Lesson about Instruments Around the World
• Meet the Instruments Bingo
• Review: Small Percussion Instruments and Drum Instruction Book
• 5 Easy Ways to Use Music to Beat the Homeschool Blahs