Build Your Own Musical Instrument

This program was absolute insanity, in a good way! Our program participation numbers have been off the charts so far this summer; we've been capping it at 250 and still turning people away at the door. Today was an especially big deal because we had two fantastic musical programs back-to-back.

The first one, organized and facilitated by my wonderful programming partner Sara, was the local string trio Triad, who performed a concert for an audience of over 200 people of all ages in a program we called Kids Music Lab. Not only did they perform a bunch of kids' hits (songs from Frozen, Moana, and The Greatest Showman among others), they also gave talks about their instruments, how they became musicians, and how they formed their group. I think it was especially inspirational to the kids in the audience who play instruments at school, because all three women made a point to mention they all got their start playing instruments through the Mesa Public School System's music programs.

Here are a few blurry shots of their performance from my circa-2005 digital camera that's probably close to a dramatic technological death.

Top hats for The Greatest Showman medley 

Shark hats for the Jaws theme and other movie themes medley

After Triad was finished with their performance, we brought out tables of craft supplies that had been pre-set just out of reach of the patrons. On each table was a different "build your own musical instrument" craft, each made of household items.

Here are the signs I put on each table, so people could mingle and craft at their leisure. Below is a list of all supplies you would need for each craft. By the end of the hour, we were almost completely cleaned out of supplies and I saw some very happy kiddos leaving with their new instruments!

• Paper Plate Tambourine
• Paper plates (not styrofoam)
• Hole puncher
• Ribbon
• Jungle bells
• Decoration materials
• Craft Stick Harmonica
• Tongue depressors
• Index cards
• Rubber bands
• Decoration materials
• Tissue Box Guitar
• Empty tissue boxes
• Thick rubber bands
• Decoration materials
• Textured noisemakers
• Pool noodles
• Plastic knives
• (I pre-cut the noisemakers to length, but let kids and their caregivers cut them in half themselves with plastic knives. There were no cuts or other safety issues, yay!)
• TP Roll Kazoo
• Toilet paper rolls
• Wax paper
• Rubber bands
• Decoration materials