Making the Band (Part 1)

Editor's Note: This is Part 1 in The Bulldog Twins' first two part series.  Today's entry is about how to make a few homemade band instruments.  Tomorrow's entry will be about actually playing with them.

I love having Editor's Notes.  It feels very official.  

This third line just feels like a Kevin Smith movie.  See Dogma if you haven't already. 

Both of my kids love music.  We tend to listen to music in the afternoons, typically things like my Beatles station on Pandora or the Classic Rock station on the satellite because "kids music" with children singing badly drives me nuts. 

I've been trying to come up with a music activity for the kids for a while, but especially since a couple weeks ago when the twins enjoyed the musical instrument component of our Gymboree class.  There are a couple of musical instrument kits on the market, but they aren't cheap.  (The one I'd been looking at was $25.)  I finally finished gathering ideas and made a few homemade instruments during nap this afternoon.

First, I started with drumsticks.  Here are the supplies:

All of these items were gathered from around the house.  I almost bought some wooden spoons this morning, but these two spoons were taking up space in a drawer.  I also used two old (but clean) socks that were slated for the trash can, two old dish cloths, and four rubber bands. 

First, wrap the first dish cloth around one of the wooden spoons.

Then, secure it with a rubber band.

Next, put a sock over the top of the secured dish cloth.

Secure it with a rubber band.

Lastly, trim off the excess material. 

Repeat this with the second spoon and you have two drumsticks.

Why cover them?  I asked that question myself.  I see two reasons.  First, I can totally see one of the two kids hitting the other (or themselves or something else) with a drumstick.  Second, it makes a better sound when you hit the "drum".  (I tested this out.)  If you don't have time to cover your spoons, it will still work. 

Next, make your drum.  For this part, there are a variety of materials you could use including a box or a kitchen bowl covered in paper.  I used an oatmeal container.  Because I've been making things out of found objects the last couple weeks, I had an idea to cover them with contact paper so the kids could tell the difference between food (or other items) and toys.  I bought the contact paper at Target for $5.99.  It's HUGE and will last a really long time.

The last time I used contact paper was my freshman year of college when my roommate and I decided to cover the mustard yellow metal furniture in our dorm room with green marbled contact paper.  It worked pretty well and was a lot nicer to look at all year than mustard yellow metal.  The reason why I bring this up is that this contact paper was easier to work with than I remember.  I could easily pull it up and reposition it if necessary.

I covered the oatmeal container with contact paper. 

I found this was easiest if you pulled the paper off and positioned it a bit at a time rather than pulling the paper backing off all at once.

Next, outline the top of the container on the back of the contact paper.  Unfortunately the spot where the contact paper needed to go was a little smaller than the entirety of the top, so I trimmed the paper down little by little to make sure it fit in the center of the lid.  I'm sure there's a much more scientific way to do this, but it worked.

And here's our finished drum.

Next, we will make maracas.  Here are our supplies:

I used old medicine bottles (we ended up with three total) with the labels taken off, our previously used contact paper, a pen, scissors, and something to fill your maracas with.  I used rice for two and an empty bottle of ear drops for the other.  There are tons of other possibilities such as beans or small pieces of pasta.

I thought it was especially important using medicine bottles that regular ones not look like toys.  Therefore, I covered the bottle and its top with contact paper using the same procedure as with the oatmeal container.  Then, I filled it with the desired contents.

And so now we have our instruments for a three person band.

We have our drum and drumsticks, three maracas, and a microphone.  I purchased the microphone at Target for $1 in the party section.  It sort of echos your voice back to you.

Check back tomorrow for the formation of The Bulldog Twins Band.