Creating Musical Instruments From Recycled Materials

If you choose to do the paper maché activity, this will be, by far, the messiest activity of the year. To help everyone feel free to have fun, create simple smocks by cutting neck and arm holes into garbage bags.

What you need

For tambourines

• Paper plates
• Rice
• Tape, stapler or white glue
• Streamers or other ribbons—paper is fine
• Markers or crayons to decorate

For drums

• Tin cans—tape any sharp edges
• Any drum-like container, such as large yogurt containers
• Chopsticks

For shakers and light bulb shakers

• Burnt out light bulbs—the rounded style works best
• Baby food jars or other small jars
• Small plastic bottles
• Anything that might rattle to fill the shakers—rice, seeds, beans, pennies, popcorn kernels

For guitars

• Boxes—cereal, tea, cracker, etc.
• Elastics—thick ones are best
• A circle stencil—consider using a container top or saucer
• Tape or glue

For the paper maché—for shakers and guitars only

• Old church bulletins
• Paper maché—add one part white glue to one part water or use one part flour to one part water
• Large bowls or ice cream buckets to hold the paper maché
• Newsprint for painting and to rest your creations as they dry

For tap shoes

• Strong plastic or metal buttons at least one inch (three centimeters) wide
• Flat metal washers at least one inch (three centimeters) wide
• Thick household string or yarn

Optional 

• Garbage bags for smocks, with neck and arm holes cut out
• Paint. Great paint can be made by soaking dry felt markers in water—the less water used, the brighter the colour. The longer markers soak, the more intense the colour. To make the paint more “hardy,” add one part white glue to 10 parts paint.
• Stickers or small bits of paper to decorate shakers if you choose not to use paper maché
• Thick paintbrushes to apply paper maché if you want to do it more cleanly

What to do

For all activities

• If you decide to make more than one kind of instrument, set up “stations” in different areas of the room for each instrument.
• As you move through the stations, explain how to make the different instruments—see directions below. Share an example instrument that you have made.
• Allow the children to move from station to station, making whatever instruments they choose.

For tambourines

1. Select two paper plates.
2. Decorate the bottoms of the plates.
3. Put a handful of rice on one plate; cover that plate with the other, topside to topside.
4. Tape, glue or staple streamers or strands of ribbon between the plates; let the streamers or ribbon dangle.
5. Glue or staple the edges.

For drums

1. Group together several tin cans and plastic containers.
2. Wrap an elastic band around the grouping.
3. Voilà—a drum kit!
4. Play the drums with chopsticks.

For shakers

1. Fill the containers with the various fillings that you have collected. Work with the kids to find the sounds that they like.
2. You may choose not to use paper maché—instead, apply stickers or bits of paper in a mosaic. Feathers make great decorations.
3. For paper maché, cut thin strips from your old church bulletins. Soak the paper in the maché mixture—use one part white glue to one part water OR one part flour to one part water.
4. Cover the shakers with the paper maché.
5. Set them to dry on newsprint.
6. When dry, paint the shakers.

For light bulb shakers

1. Cover the light bulbs thickly with paper maché.
2. When the paper maché is dry, the teacher bangs the covered light bulb on a hard surface, such as concrete, until the filament inside smashes creating a shaker.

For tap shoes

1. If you are using buttons, thread a long piece of household string or yarn through the buttons. If you are using a washer, cut a long piece of string in half, then tie one piece of string on each side of the washer.
2. Fit the buttons or washers on the bottom of the shoe—where the ball of the foot is.
3. Tie the string or yarn securely around the top.
4. Do not run in these shoes…but tap, tap, tap!

For guitars

1. Undo your box of choice at the seams so that it lies flat. Using your circle form or stencil, cut a hole in the box. Reassemble the box.
2. Cover the box with paper maché. Take care that the paper maché is not so heavy that the box collapses.
3. If you are trying to stay as clean as possible, use a thick paintbrush to apply strokes of paper maché, then your paper strips—cover this with more paper maché.
4. When the paper maché is dry, paint your guitar.
5. Now, choose your elastics—thick is best. By varying three or four thick elastics, you will also vary the tones that your guitar can produce.
6. Stretch the elastics over the box, centring them over the hole.
7. Pluck your elastics and listen to the tones that they create. Try different lengths and widths of elastics and listen to the different pitches. Try pulling the elastics tight to change the pitch with a small circular piece of wood.
8. You may choose to keep a small box of elastics with the instruments and give a few minutes to the musicians to choose their elastics before they play.