Makeshift Instruments at Home

There are many materials around the house that can be used to create music and allow for someone to get creative and experiment with sounds. In light of COVID-19, people are staying home more, so whether you’re inside due to a rainy day, staying in to stay safe, or trying to entertain children at home, there are things you can do to lighten the mood with makeshift musical instruments.

Glass Xylophone

For this do it yourself instrument, you can use as many glasses you want, but try to keep the size and the shape as consistent as possible. From there, line up your glasses and fill them up with varying amounts of water. Once the glasses are filled, gently tap on the glasses so that the soundwaves resonate and give off a nice chime. By doing this, you can observe how different water levels impact the pitch each glass gives off. Another way to do this is by having bottleneck glasses. Follow the same set-up practices, but instead of tapping the glasses, blow across the top of them. This will have a similar effect to the glass xylophone in the sense that there are countless pitches and sounds that you can make.

For a more in depth procedure for making a glass xylophone, visit A Dab of Glue Will Do.

Homemade Harmonica

While there are various ways to make harmonicas at home, including cutting different sized straws and gluing them together, this version is more reminiscent of the real deal. For this craft, you will need to cut two 1-inch pieces of a straw. After putting a rubber band across a popsicle stick, put the pieces of straw between the stick and the rubber band. Lay a second popsicle stick on top and secure it with two smaller rubber bands on both ends. After this is done, simply blow into your new, homemade harmonica and have fun! You can trade out the thickness and the tension of the rubber bands to see the difference in sounds amongst other ways to customize and experiment with your instrument.

For a step-by-step tutorial with pictures, visit Frugal Fun.