For casual percussionists, nearly any location is a musical treasure trove. Around your house, there are innumerable objects that can be drummed on or easily turned into percussion instruments with a little imagination. Explore the different tones you can get out of everyday objects, then try making some more ambitious instruments.
Instructions
Ready-made or Minimal Preparation
1. Take several film canisters, empty medicine bottles or other small containers. Fill them up with sand for a soft sound, or with rocks or pennies for a harsher, sharper sound. You now have shakers.
2. Gather together water bottles, wooden boxes, and pots and pans. Drum on them with your hands, kitchen tools or drum sticks. Hit them in different spots to get different tones.
3. Hold a spoon between your index and middle finger and another between your fourth and fifth finger so that they are facing bowl-to-bowl. Knock them against your legs, hands or nearby objects to click them together. Follow the link below for more info on playing the spoons.
4. Learn hambone. Drum your hands against your legs, chest and mouth to get different tones.
Musical Bow
5. Get a flexible stick. You can use a thin piece of plywood, a springy sapling or anything else you can easily bend.
6. Cut notches about 4 inches from each end of the bow to tie the strings into.
7. Glue or nail a wooden bowl to the end of the stick. It should be past the notch.
8. Tie a guitar string securely to the notch in front of the wood. Bend the bow and tie it around the second notch so that the bow bends.
9. To play the bow, hold a rock against the string with one hand and a small stick in the other. Hit the string with the stick to make a tone and slide the rock up and down to change the pitch.
