Family Fun with Music During the Holidays

Need a fun family activity over the Holidays? Homemade Instruments offer a great deal of fun for the whole family!

I remember picking up rocks, sticks and pieces of metal on our family farm and banging them around to find a pitch or a rhythm I could play around with. One of my favorite musical activities in nature is just listening to the layers of sound created in the great outdoors. But since we are all stuck inside for a while, let’s explore some indoor options! Be sure to scroll to the end of the article for LOTS of ideas on how to make your own instruments!

Musicals:

Many children and youth nowadays know little about the classic musicals. There is a wealth of value in many of these shows, and films were created for many of them. Singing and beautiful orchestration, and in many of them, traditional tap dancing - something fun for any viewer. There are so many, but here are some of my favorites:

• The Music Man

• Brigadoon

• The Sound of Music

• Singin’ in the Rain

• Fiddler on the Roof

• Oklahoma

• The King and I

• The Wizard of Oz

• Mary Poppins

• Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang

• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

• Carousel

• South Pacific

• An American In Paris

Stomp:

• Stomp!

• Stomp Live - Part 1 - Brooms

• Stomp - newspapers

Favorite Performers:

• Celtic Woman - O Holy Night

• Gentri - Do You Hear What I Hear

• Gentri - The Little Drummer Boy

• What Child Is This (Piano & Electric Cello) The Piano Guys

Homemade Instrument Videos:

Instruments made from food. Seems like any youth nowadays loves a good youtube video. Well,

here’s a few to enjoy together, and who knows, maybe it will inspire your own instrument-making!

• Smash Mouth - All Star (melon cover)

• Toto - Africa (Sweet Potato & Squash Cover)

• Is mayonnaise an instrument?

Instruments in nature.

• Percussionist Makes Music Using Nature's Instruments

• A natural playground with musical instruments - Child's Play Music. Start listening/watching at 1:49.

Making music with water.

• Street artist playing Hallelujah with crystal glasses

• Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky - GlassDuo LIVE (glass harp)

Music made with stuff you wouldn’t imagine!

• The most unusual musical instruments of the world!

• Drumming in the street

Make your own Homemade Instruments:

• 25 Homemade Instruments That Really Work - my favorites are: Hand Drums (same as a Chinese Sun Drum), Singing Straws, Backyard Concerts, Egg Maracas, Bell Shakers, Jingle Ankle Bracelets (also works with scrunchies).

• Drum Sticks and a variety of buckets, pots, pans and junk you can get at any D.I.

• Glass soda bottles, 8, tuned to a Major Scale. Blow across the top of each to get a pitch.

• Shekeras

Try some of these fun ideas and tell us how it goes! We’d love to see videos and photos of all the fun.

Merry Christmas!