BBC
Bbc Schools: Gcse Bitesize: Music: Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East
A diverse range of musical styles can be found around the world. Music from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East all have their own unique musical features and instruments. One of the most influential types of music-making in...
Curated OER
Eternal Egypt: Musical Instrument
This wooden musical instrument is in two parts. The main part is a kind of long curved stick to which strings might be attached. The second element of the instrument is a rounded wooden bow, that was used to make music on the strings.
E-learning for Kids
E Learning for Kids: Science: Egypt: What Is Pitch of Sound?
Ali really loves to make music. Help make Ali's dream come true. Together, answer questions about musical instruments.
Bill Nye
Bill Nye: Tube Kazoo
This tutorial from Bill Nye explains how to make a kazoo out of a cardboard tube.
Other
The Mudcat Cafe: Gourd Rattlers
What is a calabash? Use this website and find out what it is but also how to make it. This gourd rattler can be constructed with the easy to follow directions.
Other
The Mudcat Cafe: Blocks, Bells, Box Drums and Mallets
Have you ever wondered how to make homemade musical instruments? Use this site to find out how to construct sandpaper blocks and mallets.
Text Project
Text Project: Fyi for Kids: Horns: The Sound of the Wind [Pdf]
This FYI for Kids (Volume 2, Issue 7) article is about horn musical instruments. It explains how they work, materials they have been made from, what they are used for, and even how students can make a simple one for themselves.
Staten Island Children's Museum
Staten Island Children's Museum: Music Camp at Home
Enjoy doing these outdoor activities with your family such as making a Guiro or kazoo, or learning how to play the flute.
Michigan Reach Out
Michigan Reach Out!: Making a Shoe Box Guitar
This site provides an experiment where students create a guitar to discover what variables will change sound.
PBS
Pbs: Rough Science
Website companion to PBS show, "Rough Science," in which five scientists use their collective expertise to complete a series of tasks. Follow the scientists as they do things like generate electricity, make soap, make antibacterial...
Other
Creative Kids at Home: Water Chimes
Learn to make your own water chimes with the instructions included on this website. Kids will enjoy making their own music with this easily made instrument.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids: Snare Drum
Use this resource to learn about the percussion family of instruments, especially the snare drum. Find out how it helps the orchestra make music. Use RealAudio or Windows Media Player to listen to the snare drum by itself and with the...
Maryland Science Center
Maryland Science Center: Diy Kazoo [Pdf]
Instructions for how to make a kazoo. Also explains how the vibrations from humming create the sound.
Other
Rhythm Web: Coffee Can Drums
Learn how to make a percussion instrument using a coffee can. This site provides instructions for making the coffee can drum. You can also listen to audio clips of coffee can drums being played in various ways.
Other
Dayton Art Institute an African Slit Gong
Art and music are very much related. In fact, the African culture often times designed fun looking instruments like the gong on this website. Includes directions on how to make your own gong.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Practice Makes Perfect
As we all know, practice makes perfect. This clip highlights several children playing musical instruments and challenges the students to write about a time when they felt proud of themselves for working hard at something.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & the Making of America
Using primary documents, oral histories, and other historical resources, discover how the arts of Africa, Europe, and pre-Civil War America influenced the culture of enslaved African Americans.
Other
The Mudcat Cafe: Bongos, Banjos, Fiddles and More
Use this site to learn more about how to construct bongos, banjos, fiddles and more.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Sid the Science Kid: Sandbox Symphony
Make an interesting musical composition by choosing from a menu of traditional and nontraditonal instruments.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Straw Oboe
Try making this straw oboe to explore the resonance characteristics of the sound it makes.
Other
Chord Studio
Have fun composing your own music with this easy to use online tool. Select the chords you want your song to have and choose the various instrument styles. You can sign up for a free account so you can save your songs and edit them later.
Michigan Reach Out
Sounds Like Science: Kazoo
At this site explore the energy transfer that is involved in making sound through playing a kazoo.This activity is wonderful for both science and music teachers.
California State University
Island Maracas
A great multicultural art lesson that also connects visual art to music. Students create a set of paper mache maracas emphasizing rhythm and expression in the painting details. Upon completion students will have the opportunity to try...