Make some Musical Instruments!
Activity: To make a plastic drum.
Materials:
You will need-
A rubber band.
A pen.
A sheet of plastic.
A Plastic bowl.
Method:
What you have to do-
1) Fit the plastic over the bowl.
2) Pull the plastic tight and secure it with a rubber band.
3) Grip the plastic firmly to stretch it smoothly across the bowl.
4) Strike it with the pen.
5) Out comes the sound of a drum.
Shakers.
Activity: To make some shakers.
Materials:
You will need-
A scissors.
A plastic bottle.
Paper clips.
Coloured tape.
Method:
What you have to do-
1) Put a few paper clips into the bottle.
2) Screw the cap firmly.
3) Hold the bottle and shake it to and fro. The paperclips strike the sides of the bottle to give a rattling sound.
4) Collect other small objects and make more shakers with them. They all give different sounds.
Decorate your shakers with strips of coloured tape.
A Guitar
Activity: To make a Rubber Guitar.
Materials:
You will need-
Rubber bands or varying thickness.
Three colouring pens.
A Baking tin.
Method:
1) Stretch the rubber bands lengthways across the tin.
2) Pluck the bands to hear what sort of sound they make. It's rather dull.
3) Now put a pen underneath the rubber bands at each end of the tin.
4) Pluck the bands again. The sound is much clearer than it was before.
5) Press the third pen on the bands.
6) Slide it up and down as you pluck the bands. The pitch of the notes changes.
Bottle Pipes
Activity: To make Bottle Pipes.
Materials:
You will need-
Food colouring or ink.
A jug of water.
Narrow necked glass bottles.
Method:
1) Set out the bottle in a line. You will need six or more bottles to make a tune.
2) Pour a different amount of water into each bottle.
3) You can colour the water to make the levels easier to see, and to make the bottles look pretty.
4) Blow gently across the top of each bottle. Each one makes a different musical note.
5) You can try changing the water levels to get notes that make a tune.
Music with Holes
Activity: To make a Reed Instrument.
Materials:
You will need-
A cardboard tube.
A drinking straw.
Tracing paper.
A pencil.
Scissors.
A sticky tape.
Method:
1) Press one end of the straw flat. Cut the sides to make a point.
2) Fold the tracing paper over one end of the tube and secure it with sticky tape.
3) Using the pencil, make a small hole in the centre of the tracing paper.
4) Carefully push the round end of the straw through the hole.
5) With the pencil make six holes along the length of the tube.
Cover the holes with your fingers on and off the holes, you can change the pitch of the note.