Making Music ─ How to Create and Use XX Homemade Musical Instruments

Duet for Zipper and Velcro. Sonata for Milk Carton Guitar. Kitchen Concerto. Every home and classroom is crammed with objects kids can use to make music. This book teaches kids, parents, and teachers how to see musical possibilities in everything from a crumpled sheet of paper to a stick tapped against Venetian blinds to thimbles glued to the finger- tips of a glove.Two of the most respected names in arts education for children have teamed to produce Making Music. With her imaginative projects and whimsical drawings, Ann Sayre Wiseman shows kids how to make rhythm, string, wind, and keyboard instruments from all kinds of ordinary household items and natural materials. The projects range from simple castanets made from walnut shells to a complex zither built from wood.John Langstaff, preeminent music educator, teaches children how to make music with their homemade instruments ? whether solo, in a duet with a friend, in a small family ensemble, or with a full classroom orchestra. He starts with rhythm games and then moves on to teaching kids such music basics as tempo. And he includes fascinating ?Soundscapes? exercises in which kids use their instruments to suggest a storm or a sunrise.

Making Music is a remarkable achievement. It gets kids excited about sounds, it shows them how to make their own instruments, and it helps them recognize that everything in the world makes its own music.