Having fun with musical toys and homemade instruments for kids is today’s play-of-the-day. Did you see the Google doodle for the theremin, a musical instrument played with hands but without touching? It inspired Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones and these ideas too.
Kids enjoy making noise, er music, and will use ordinary items they find around the house. It could be a paper towel tube to be a horn or a wooden spoon that bangs on a saucepan lid. Very young kids are discovering how they can make different sounds; older ones may be interested in creating a beat or rhythm. They may sing along, even if they don’t have any words.
As kids play, they are coming up with their own form of music. Besides everyday items, kids may have musical toys. A xylophone is very common and some relative will give a present of a drum. The recycling basket could have some things for homemade instruments. Elastics on a cereal or tissue box make a sort of guitar. Empty coffee tins with plastic lids are useful as drums. Chopsticks can become drumsticks. Small objects, like beans or plastic spoons, turn tins or plastic containers into shakers.
Young children will think of their own ways to play with musical toys or instruments, real or homemade. Big Sister set out all these dolls and stuffies to be the audience for her music. We can extend their play with questions like, “How would you play something fast? Or, “What does it sound like when you play slow?” Turn on some music and invite your child to play at the same time.
The theremin almost seems magical when seen in videos, as if the music comes from the hands. But really, an instrument by itself doesn’t make music either. The sound does comes from the hands—and the imagination. Are there some musical toys and homemade instruments for your child’s play?
All children like to make noise and will use anything they find like pans and a spoon, a stick on a fence, a paper towel roll and their voice, or anything else. This is the beginning of discovering that they are capable of using ‘instruments’ to create sound. Thru their play, they discover ways to combine what they do and ‘compose’ their own music.
