While playing music is definitely a rewarding pass time, making your own instrument can be even more exciting. This is often particularly true if you have kids to share the experience with, but there are also some great DIY instrument projects for grown ups too!

There are many fun and easy to make instruments you can create - here are the main topics we'll cover in this article:

• Homemade musical instruments for Toddlers
• DIY musical instruments for Adults

Homemade Musical Instruments for Toddlers

Here are a couple of great instruments for kids to make. Not only will they have hours of entertainment making music with these, they'll also gain a fulfilling sense of achievement from the construction process itself.

Young children generally like anything that makes noise - so percussion is the best place to start.

Shakers

This is one of the easiest homemade musical instruments for kids to make. Because these are designed to be shaken about, we're only going to use safe materials - I strongly recommend against using glass jars because in the excitement of using one they can accidentally be released and go hurtling across the room. Ideally you want a small cardboard container, such as a matchbox or cardboard roll from toilet tissue, then partially fill it with uncooked rice. Seal it with colorful paper or paint and decorate it to suit.

Drums

These are quite easy to make out of old coffee tins - don't use paint cans as they might have chemical residues that you do not want to expose your children to. The other materials needed are simply paper, some soft material like felt, toweling cloth, or rubber (this is to make the surface soft on little hands as they drum away), and some glue. Take the cleaned tin and glue paper on all over the sides - you may want to have the kids paint the paper first. Then trace the lid of the tin onto your soft material, and cut out a circle about an inch or two larger than the circle - you will use the additional size to glue to the inside of the tin lid. Then place to the lid and place it back on the can and voila - you're kids very own bongo drum!

DIY Musical Instruments for Adults

Depending on how much work you want to put in, and how professional you want the end result to be, there are a few different options you can consider.

Instrument Kits
If you want to make an instrument that's professional enough that you could use in a band, then a good way to start out for the first time is with an instrument kit. These days you can get some excellent DIY kits for assembling your own Guitar, Amplifier, Effects, and Synthesizers - just to name a few. If you are interested in any of these a simple search for 'DIY Synthesizer kit' (or which ever instrument you are interested in) will find plenty of options for you to buy.

Build Your Own From Scratch
If you'd prefer to make your own instrument from scratch, then there are literally hundreds of videos on YouTube showing you how to make some pretty good ones. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

Electric Stomp Box

Cajon Drum

PVC Trombone

Thanks to Totally Home Improvement, a DIY ideas blog, for providing this.

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