Music Activities for Kids

Hurray for spoons! Try this musical spoon activity for kids, and show them how easy silverware is to play.

What You'll Need:

Run a spoon up and down the ridges of a metal can. You'll get a nice sound. Try sliding it across all the textures of a metal kitchen grater. (Be careful not to slide your fingers on the grater!)

Think of other kitchen objects that you could use with a spoon to make music. Create your own song using all these instruments, and write your own lyrics. Then perform your musical melody for your family and friends.

Keep reading and start shaking it up!

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Your kids will love to make their own fun and unique instruments in this shake-it-up musical activity!

What You'll Need:

Put the rice in an empty diet shake can (soda cans don't last as long, but they will work for this project.) Remove the tab and seal the opening with clear packing tape.

If you like, make your own cool label for the can. To make the label, cut a piece of paper nine inches long and four and one-half inches wide. Decorate the label with markers or stickers.

Tape one side of the label to the can. Then make small rolls of tape and stick them between the label and the can. Wrap the label around the can so that the loose end overlaps the taped end, and tape down the loose end.

Put dried beans in the other can, and make a decorated label for that one, too. Try using the rice can for a lighter sound and the bean can for a louder sound. Start shaking!

Kids can turn office supplies into sound machines with the activity on the next page.

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Kids can form a rubber band band when they're done with this rubber band musical activity. Twang!

What You'll Need:

Adults should help kids with this project. Decorate either the margarine tub or the metal coffee can with your favorite stickers. Then stretch five to seven rubber bands around the container so that they go over the open end.

Practice plucking! Notice how a rubber band makes a high-pitched sound when pulled tightly across the top? It sounds deeper when you loosen it.

How does the sound change when you use an empty tissue box instead? Try tuning your rubber bands by loosening and tightening them.

Keep reading for an activity that helps kids get better at playing their favorite instruments!

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Try this play-and-record musical activity and listen to yourself playing your favorite instrument. It's a great way to learn.

What You'll Need:

Try an instrument that you're familiar with or experiment with a new one. Anything goes. Try out different styles, such as jazz, blues, rap, pop, rock, or simple folk songs.

Follow the instructions that came with the instrument, and practice a few times before recording. Then put a tape in the recorder, and hit the record button. Listening to yourself play makes mastering an instrument easier.

You could also practice a special song, and then use it as background music for your next musical show! Write your own music or use your favorite song.

Continue reading to the next page to learn more about our soda bottle organ activity.

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Kids can make an air-powered instrument of their own with the soda bottle organ activity.

What You'll Need:

Spread out the newspapers. Practice making a tone by blowing into the top of a glass soda bottle. When you have it mastered, fill the bottles with different levels of water. (If you've had some music lessons, you could try tuning the bottles to specific notes.)

Arrange the bottles from left to right, low notes to high notes. Practice playing an easy song. Make a water level mark on each bottle with dark-colored nail polish. (Mark the notes, too, if you know them.)

Let the polish dry. Using a drop or two of food coloring, put a different color in each bottle. Put your thumb over the end of each bottle, and gently swirl the water to mix the color in.

Now you can practice your songs on your soda bottle pipe organ!

It's a musical mix-up, and it's happening on the next page!

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Try this song-mixing activity and make new music out of old songs.

What You'll Need:

If you've ever jumped from radio station to radio station in search of a better tune, you know how much fun this game can be. Turn your radio to the first available familiar tune, and write down the first phrase you hear.

Now turn to the next station, and write down the second phrase. Go to the next station, and the next, until you have six phrases. When you're done, read the phrases as a new song.

Now try to sing it! Did you wind up with a third song that's fun?

Make your own music note by note with the activity on the next page.

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Use this note-by-note activity for kids and learn a new tune easily. Writing tunes might seem like a difficult thing to do, but if you take it one note at a time, it can be done.

What You'll Need:

Using a musical instrument with a wide range of notes and tones, pick a number between one and ten, and string that many notes together at random, keeping track of the pattern.

If you pick six, use six notes in the pattern. Now, using the same notes in a different order, create a new pattern. String the combinations together, and you have a tune of your own composition.

Find out something about your family's musical history in the activity on the next page.

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Kids can trace their musical roots with the musical history activity.

What You'll Need:

In today's hustle and bustle, look-to-the-future world, we often forget to look back. Take time to explore your musical past by following these simple instructions.

Ask your parents who your oldest relatives are. Ask if you can visit, write, or e-mail them to ask about the family's musical history. Did grandma play the piano? Did Great-Great-Aunt Minnie buy an organ from a traveling salesman in a covered wagon on the plains?

Who were the family singers, and who couldn't carry a tune? If your family emigrated to the United States, do your relatives know or remember songs from the "old country"? If they do, be sure to have your relatives sing them so you can record them!

These recordings will be priceless treasures when you're older and have kids of your own to share them with. Be sure to take notes as you talk to these people.

Once you start asking questions, you'll probably find out so much more about your family than just its musical history.

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