Best Instruments For Quiet Time With A Child!
Most people associate making music with expressing yourself, having fun and making noise! Although its great fun to sing, dance and play an instrument, there are also many world traditions that use music to quiet the soul, to learn to listen and to encourage rest, sleep or meditation. Quiet time instruments or music are perfect for sharing with your children around naptime, bedtime or for a break during a busy day.
The Rainstick
Originally, rainsticks were made from a special cactus whose long “arms” dried and fell to the ground. They were filled with seeds, beads or pebbles and as these tiny objects fell from one side of the cactus to the other, the sound that emerged was like a gentle rain or a quietly trickling stream. The sound of a rainstick (known in South America as palo de lluvia) is so peaceful and relaxing that it is often heard in meditation tapes or used as part of music therapy.
How do you play a rainstick? You turn it up-side-down or hold it at an angle so that the contents can flow from one end to the other. Notice the difference in sound when you hold it vertically or at an angle. You can also “shimmy” the rainstick gently as it flows or hold it horizontally and shake it like a rattle.
How can you use the rainstick as a quiet time instrument? “Play” the rainstick along with relaxing music until you feel like resting or try some of these games.
A class or group of children listen to rainstick while a teacher turns it over. When the last pebble falls, the first child with their hand up gets to be the new leader or wins that round.
Try the above game with the children’s eyes closed.
Try this game with young children at naptime in a preschool setting. After each child has a chance to play the rainstick, they lie down to rest. The teacher picks each student by seeing which one is waiting most quietly and giving them the first turns until everyone is ready to rest.
Use your own ideas and make up your own games or rainstick activities. Don’t have a rainstick? You can win one from DARIA’s world music for kids website or make your own version from simple, recycled materials, by checking out the links below.
The Ocean Drum
The sound of the surf can be so soothing. And playing an ocean drum, can help you bring the quiet sound of ocean waves right into your classroom or home, creating a relaxing space to rest or refocus your energies.
What is an ocean drum? It’s a two-sided drum with clear material stretched over a round frame. Inside the drum are small round objects such as bee-bees or pebbles. As the drum is tilted back and forth, the tiny objects move across the head of the drum creating a sound remarkably like ocean waves gently breaking on a beach.
By holding the drum at different angles, the player can control how the waves move – quickly and enthusiastically or softly and quietly. Along with the repetitive sound, the look of the small objects moving back and forth can create a relaxing experience that is remarkably comforting for any child but one that is especially appreciated by children on the autistic spectrum.
Don’t have an ocean drum? You can make your own version from a shipping box. Find the simple instructions at the link below.
Singing Bowl and Tingsha
In the near future, we’ll do a detailed article on using these additional two instruments for relaxation and quiet time with small children. In the meantime, you can to find more general information and a “Make Your Own Tingsha” post at the links below.
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During the month of May 2013, you can enter an easy rafflecopter sweepstakes to win an authentic rainstick made from a cactus by the Comparte Fair Trade group in Santiago, Chile. (Second Give-away on Page).
http://www.dariamusic.com/monthly_song.php
Links:
Make Your Own Rainstick
http://www.dariamusic.com/docs/RAINSTICK%20Instructions.pdf
Make Your Own Ocean Drum
http://www.dariamusic.com/docs/Ocean%20Drum%20Instructions.pdf
The Singing Bowl
Make Your Own Tinghsa
Make a Roly Poly Musical Thing!
There are so many great ways of enjoying musical play with a young child. It’s a fun learning experience for kids of any age or ability and also a great destresser for mom, dad or caregiver.
Here’s a project that’s easy to make and provides an opportunity to take time out of a busy day to play and have fun with a little one that you love.
What’s A Roly Poly Musical Thing?
Anything you want it to be! Start with any cylindrical container like these and gather a few supplies to decorate and fill them. Here’s a basic supply list.
Supplies
Any recycled container that can roll.
Material to decorate: stickers, markers, colorful tape, etc.
Objects to fill: dried beans, rice, birdseed, jingle bells,
beads, buttons, macaroni, jingle bells, Q-tips, sand, salt, pebbles.
If your object is transparent – You may wish to add decorative objects that won’t change the sound but will add visual interest such as glitter, colorful puffballs or confetti.
Sturdy tape (such as electrical or duct tape) to seal the project.
Make Your Roly Poly Thing!
First clean and dry the container you’ll be using. Then decide how you’ll decorate. You can do this as a coloring project, add stickers or apply colorful tape.
Since you’ll be playing with this homemade toy by rolling it, remember that it can be fun to create designs that will be interesting when they are rolled back and forth, like changes in color, various stripes, patterns or wiggly lines or different stickers that might appear like different “faces” of the roly poly thing.
If your object is transparent, consider what you might put inside to make interesting patterns when the object is rolled.
Next, add the items that will create sound as your object rolls. Larger objects like dried pasta or large buttons make louder noises. Smaller items like sand or seed beads make a quiet “whooshing” sound.
Once you are pleased with the look and sound of your project, you can seal it up. Use a sturdy tape such as electric or duct tape and you’ll be ready to play.
Time To Play!
There are lots of fun ways to play with a roly poly thing. Here are some of our favorite ways:
Roll between two hands on the floor
Roll between two hands on a tabletop or at a desk
Roll back and forth between two players on the floor
Roll back and forth in time to music
Roll back and forth in time to slow quiet music
Roll back and forth in time to fast-paced, up-tempo music
Roll back and forth while singing or counting
Roll back and forth, rolling when music plays, stopping when music stops.
Make up your own games and your own rules.
Be creative and have fun!
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Looking for songs to “roll” along to?
Play Along With Any OF DARIA’s Songs on her Youtube Channel
Make Your Own Recycled Shaker Eggs
Everyone loves those bright colorful eggs that go chugga-chugga-chugga when you shake them. They’re a wonderful addition to any classroom or children’s music area. But, can you whip up your own version at home from recycled or on-hand materials? Absolutely!
Supplies
Supplies for this craft are easy. Any “child-proof” medicine bottle. A small amount of any type of filling such as dried beans, beads, rice, bird seed, grain (such as quinoa), sand, salt or tiny pasta like pastina. You’ll also need a sturdy tape – colorful electric tape works wonderfully and doesn’t unravel after hours of play.
What if you don’t use that kind of bottle? Ask around. Often friends, colleagues, neighbors or family can save an item like this for you and you can save one more plastic product from making it’s way into the waste stream.
Make Your Own
This craft couldn’t be easier. Simply fill and seal your bottle. Before you add the tape, make sure you enjoy the sound. You might be surprised how having less filling in a bottle can create a nicer sound. Is your rattle loud or soft enough? If not, adjust what you’ve put inside.
Although I usually recommend that parents or caregivers make crafts with kids, this is one that may be best to make without the children present. Since the project uses aspirin or medicine bottles, it may not be a great idea to give the impression that these bottles; when filled with their original contents, are playthings.
To cover the bottle and turn into a shaker egg, wrap it in tape. Feel free to be creative with striped patterns using different colored tape, if you like.
Shake Your Own
How complex can playing shaker eggs be? You might be surprised at the many different ways you can play them.
Shake one quietly.
Shake one loudly.
Shake back and forth.
Shake up and down.
Swoosh the contents around inside (in a circular motion).
Shake two different eggs – one in each hand.
Shake two different eggs, alternating back and forth.
You get the idea – right?
Even this simple egg-style shaker can be great at building motor skills, listening skills or as a part of any musical activity.
All Eggs Are Not The Same
If you’ve made several eggs with different fillings, you’ve probably noticed that each sound a bit different. Larger beads or dried beans will make a louder noise. Tiny beads, grain or sand will make a very quiet sound. This can be a fun way of learning loud and soft or interacting with your child. Ask them questions like: “which egg shall we use for this song? What sounds best to you?”.
Win A Bunch Of Brightly Colored LP Shaker Eggs!
During the month of May 2013, you can enter an easy rafflecopter sweepstakes to win a batch of 5 lovely shaker eggs. They’ll add to your music-making merriment for the month if May – and beyond! Find that contest here:
Easy Morris Dancing Bells For Children
Around May Day, dancers in parts of England are getting ready to welcome the Spring by morris dancing. They dress in colorful costumes and the bright and happy morris dance music is punctuated by the jingling and jangling of special bells worn on the legs.
Since young children love to move and dance, making an easy version of this traditional “knee-pad” instrument can be a fun way to welcome a new season, to exercise and to explore world cultures.
Here are the supplies you need for a simple, homemade version of morris dancing bells.
Supplies
Two short lengths of elastic of any width (about 10 – 14” long)
A handful of jingle bells
Any number of extra buttons, beads or similar jangles.
Assorted ribbons, yarns and embroidery thread
Needle and Thread
Start by cutting two pieces of elastic and making sure they can comfortably stretch around a child’s leg and sit just under the knee. Leave a bit of extra length for the elastic to overlap. This will be where you will sew or pin it in place.
Place your elastic “laid out straight” onto your work area. Since most elastic is white, you can use markers to color and decorate it before you add ribbons and bangles.
Create the hanging jingles by threading a jingle bell on a small ribbon or piece or embroidery thread. Tie it onto the end and then add on any other buttons, beads or jangles that you like. When you’ve reached the desired length, tie it in place onto your elastic. Add as many of these as you like.
Add some ribbons or yarn to the morris bells. Sew or tie them into place. They may not add to the sound of your instrument, but they will move as you dance and add to the overall beauty of what you’ve created.
Last, sew or safety pin your morris bells to the right size for fitting around the leg of your child.
Dancing With Bells!
You can use this craft to explore the music of morris dancing or the general music of the British Isles. Or you can dance to any of your favorite songs. If you get a chance to see actual morris dancers, you’ll notice that both boys and girls participate in this dance tradition.
Although there are many different traditions of morris dancing, some also involve waving handkerchiefs, dressing up in wild clothes or having a parade – all fun activities to do to welcome the Spring.
Easiest Instruments For Young Children – The Ocean Drum
Would you like to make an instrument that can create the soothing sounds of the surf? The try your hand at making a simple craft version of an ocean drum.
What’s An Ocean Drum?
It looks like a frame drum from the Middle East, but it is filled with small round objects that, when tilted back and forth, sound remarkably like the waves at the seashore. It’s sound is soothing and when ocean drums are filled with colorful or interesting objects, they are as beautiful to watch as they are to hear.
Want to make your own version of this amazing instrument? Supplies for this easy project are listed below.
- A sturdy box: Flat shipping boxes, or any sturdy small box
- Clear plastic: You can recycle old report covers, salad bar containers, clear tablecloth covers or purchase a small amount of clear vinyl at a fabric or hardware store. Hint: Don’t use plastic wrap as it simply won’t hold up to the task.
- Strong tape: Packing tape, masking tape, or electrical tape are good choices.
- Contents for the drum: Choose any small fillings such as seed beads, pastina pasta, acini de pepe pasta, orzo, pony beads, mung beans, lentils, dried beans, marbles, or small pebbles.
How To Make It
Start with a sturdy box. It’s a good idea to decorate your box before experimenting with what you want to put inside. If you started with a plain box from a stationery supply store, you have a clean slate to create an ocean motif or decorate with paint, crayons, markers or glitter and glue. If you have an overly busy box, like a pizza box, you may wish to cover it with colored paper (leaving space for the window, of course) and decorate from there.
Next, create the window so you can watch the smaller items move around inside the drum. To do this, get some sturdy clear plastic and cut it into a large square or rectangle. Draw a slightly smaller square or rectangle on the inside of the top of your ocean drum box and cut it out. Secure the window in place inside the box using a strong tape such as packing tape, electrical tape, or masking tape.
Now choose something to create the sound of the surf. Small, round objects make a sound that is closest to a real ocean drum. However, you can get creative with what you’d like to try. You can choose tiny pasta like acini de pepe, pastina pasta, seed beads, bee bees, or mung beans. You can fill your drum with lentils, dried peas, marbles, pony beads, larger beans, or orzo pasta for a louder drum. You can mix and match to see what sounds best to your ear.
You may also want to make it interesting by adding colorful beads or other items like marbles, buttons, glitter or confetti that will add to the visual appeal of the drum.
Once you’ve chosen what you want to go inside, you are ready to seal the drum. Cover it with packing tape so that the contents will stay inside. Seal up all the edges where the smaller objects might come out and then you’re ready to play your ocean drum.
Playing The Ocean Drum
This is a fun instrument to explore. Here are a few techniques you can use when playing it:
Tilt it back and forth at gentle angles
Tilt it back and forth at more extreme angles
Tilt the drum for a gentle swooshing sound then turn it on its side to stop the sound
Tap the sides or top with your fingertips
Shake your instrument as if it were a rattle.
Many people find the sound and the changing patterns very calming and meditative. You can relax and play it without any other accompaniment or you can play this instrument along with soothing music or any of your favorite songs. Try to match the beat by tilting the ocean drum along with the rhythms of the song.
If you enjoy this type of drum, you may want to make several as each one will have a distinct sound or might fit better with different musical styles that you enjoy.
Feel free to experiment and make this unusual instrument all your own!
Easiest Instruments For Young Children – Recycled Rattles
There’s a reason you find rattles in almost every culture around the globe.
They are amazingly simple and very powerful at the same time. A child playing a rattle becomes aware of how his or her movements change the sound they are making. They realize how the sound they create can “fit” with a beat and most studies of young children show that they are keenly aware of rhythmic patterns. Making and playing several varieties of homemade rattles can be a great way to explore music and have fun with a young child at the same time.
Recycled Rattles for Home or Classroom Play
Most early rattles were made of materials such as dried gourds, seashells, clay, coconuts, bark and a variety of other natural objects. In Africa, caxixi rattles are made from woven fiber. In India, special rattles are made from colorful palm fronds woven together in clever patterns. On the coast of Peru there’s even a rattle made from the jawbone of a donkey. In short, people make instruments from materials that they have found available near their home. We are going to take that same approach to creating recycled rattles!
Clean and dry a variety of small plastic containers (water bottles, juice containers, etc.) and assemble some objects that can serve as the contents of the rattles. Here’s a list of common materials that work well and the type of sound they create:
Quiet rattles: sand, salt, sugar, confetti, cotton balls, craft puff balls, paper bits, Q-tips, tiny pasta (such as pastina or acine de pepe).
Medium Rattles: paper clips, small pebbles, birdseed, small beads, small dried beans, rice, smaller buttons.
Loud Rattles: dried macaroni/pasta, large pebbles, large beads, coins, large dried beans, larger buttons.
The Inside of the Rattle
Choose the objects you’d like to add to the rattle to create the sound and also consider including some decorative elements. Since plastic containers are transparent, you can easily add confetti, glitter, colorful ribbon, pipe-cleaners or similar items. They won’t alter the sound but they will add color, beauty and interest when the rattle is being played.
The Outside of the Rattle
If you like, you can decorate the outside of the rattle with stickers, markers or add a handle made from pipe-cleaner, yarn or ribbon. Feel free to get creative. When you’re done, it’s time to seal it with some sturdy tape, such as electrical tape. This helps keep the contents inside and generally makes it more child-safe around young music-makers.
Now you’re ready to have fun with your rattle!
Time To Play!
Shake along while you sing one of your favorite songs. Try playing slowly and shaking your rattle to the beat. Then speed up the song. Can you keep up and keep in time? Play along with recorded music. Listen to different types of music and see how your rattle fits in with the music being played.
An Easy Rattle Game For Young Children
If everyone in a class or a small group has made a rattle, you try this easy game.
Ask the children to play a certain way until the music stops. For instance, the teacher can say: “Shake your rattle softly until the music stops”. The teacher stops the recorded music (like in a game of musical chairs) at an unexpected place and sees if all the students were able to stop at the same time. Next, change the directions to other simple ways to play, such as:
Shake your rattle back and forth until the music stops.
Shake your rattle up and down until the music stops.
Shake your rattle round and round until the music stops.
Shake your rattle very softly until the music stops.
Shake your rattle loudly until the music stops.
Shake your rattle down low until the music stops.
Shake your rattle up high until the music stops.
Shake your rattle quickly until the music stops.
Shake your rattle slowly until the music stops.
Aside from this one game, there are lots of other ways you can make music and have fun with a rattle while you are learning, playing and recycling – all at the same time!
Here Are Some Variations On Rattle Crafts:
Monster Rattles – From Egg Cartons
http://www.dariamusic.com/docs/MONSTERInstructions.pdf
Woven Caxixi Rattles From Milk Cartons
http://tinytappingtoes.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/make-your-own-woven-caxixi-rattle/
Native American Turtle Rattles
http://www.dariamusic.com/docs/TurtleRattleInstructions.pdf
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Easiest Instruments For Young Children – The Guiro!
The guiro is a perfect “first instrument” to share with young children. It’s incredibly simple and versatile at the same time. In a matter of minutes, a child can be exploring the sounds created by the guiro and making rhythms by rubbing the rasp back and forth or up and down along the surface of the guiro.
What Is A Guiro?
Although you can find similar instruments all over the world, a guiro is an instrument with Latin American roots that was originally made from wood, bone or gourds carved to have a ridged surface. In the picture above you can see a bone guiro from Mexico, a wooden version and a homemade guiro made from a recycled plastic water bottle. Some modern guiros are made of plastic or metal as well.
Play A Guiro With A Rasp
To play a guiro you rub an object across the ridges on the surface of your instrument. Older guiros often have sharp metal rasps so it can be useful to substitute more child-safe choices. Here are some fun ways to create sound on a guiro. They include hair picks, plastic spoons/forks/sporks, chopsticks, an egg whisk or an unsharpened pencil. Each will create a slightly different sound when used to play the guiro.
Make A Simple Guiro
Since it’s unlikely that you have the perfect dried gourd or an old bone lying around your house, start this musical craft in your recycling bin. Sort through the plastic bottles to see if you have one that has ridges and is sturdy enough to use in this project.
Although your plastic bottle guiro is ready to play “as is”, you can also add some decoration inside the bottle and seal it up before you begin to play. You can look for things like confetti or colorful paper shreds. Or you can choose to add objects that will make the bottle work as a rattle as well. To make a guiro that doubles as a rattle, add a small amount of any on-hand material such as bird seed, beads, pebbles or dried beans, rice or pasta.
If you’ve add anything to the inside, it’s a good idea to seal the bottle with a strong tape; such as electrical tape, so the contents will stay inside and keep the bottle from being opened when played. You might even want to attach your rasp to the guiro with some colorful ribbon or yarn as in the example here
Play Your Guiro!
You’ve probably already figured this out! The guiro is played by scraping back and forth or up and down along the ridges. You can put on some of your favorite music and let your child experiment with what sounds good to them. Or you can learn some basic rhythms together with your child. Here are some fun ways to begin.
Try playing along with a whole song by just scraping down or by just scraping up.
Try playing along with a song by scraping: down/up, down/up, down/up.
Try playing along with a song by scraping:
down/up – down/up/down…, down/up – down/up/down…
Discover the patterns that sound good to your ear or write a new song to go along with a rhythm you’ve just discovered. If you start with this simple and clever little instrument, there’s no telling how much creative musical fun you can have!
And during the month of April 2013, you can enter a Rafflecopter Contest to win a bright and beautiful wooden guiro. Find the contest on DARIA’s monthly song page here:
http://www.dariamusic.com/monthly_song.php
Related Links:
See, Hear and Color A Guiro Here:
http://www.dariamusic.com/guiro.php
Play Along With A Bilingual Version of La Cucaracha here:
