Resource 6: Making musical instruments

 Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils

Here are some descriptions of how to make different musical instruments by groups of pupils in a class in Solwezi:

Shaker

• Milk powder tin, or similar
• Sand
• Paper, glue and paint or crayons

Put the sand into the tin and put the lid on. Glue the paper round the tin and decorate it with colour.

Make others, with small stones or dried seeds inside, or different amounts of the same thing. Does the shaker sound different?

Drum

• A large palm oil tin (or similar)
• A ball of string
• An old car inner tube

Cut two circles from the inner tube.

Cut the ends out of the tin.

Thread the string in and out of the rubber, and tighten them over the open ends of the tin.

Beat the rubber on the ‘drum’.

Make others with different tins.

Clapper

• A broomstick
• A saw

Cut off two equal pieces of wood, each about 27 cm long.

Put one piece along the palm of your hand and strike it with the other.

Make others of different thicknesses and lengths.