Top shaker

I have finally created a junk instrument (apart from the Smartie panpipes) that actually sounds relatively good!!!! I am a music teacher and I embrace and adore children exploring sounds they can make with anything but from a personal point of view, do not enjoy junk-instrument making on  grand-scale with lots of children simultaneously.  Whole-class junk instrument-making is usually awfully hard to teach.  It used to be a Year 5 Design and Technology project that was horrendous to teach and elicited not the best of results. The trouble is- most of the things they want to make might look cool but from a musical point of view don't make the best sound- which is surely the point of an instrument.  Ok, shakers are ok- they usually make a good -sound, BUT I've tended to find that the DT element of this seems to be, to be generally lacking- in the case of shakers- it's not really designing, it's kind of copying since I tended to find the children just wanted a quick result rather than thinking really well about the design and sound! That's fine if you just want to make a junk instrument but from a teacher having to teach DT and really covering the designing point of view- less good! The rubber-band guitars would just collapse, not be robust enough, sound too quiet to be of much use and the straw panpipes would be impossible to play unless you were a flautist like me.  There are probably good teachers who would teach this better than me and yield good results, but with 30 children having to design their own instruments, it's always just been a case of AHRGH! I think the process is a good one to try for children, I just find it hard to do with 30 children at a time!


Anyway, for anyone who'd just like to make a funky junk instrument with their kids, here's an idea:

For a while now, I've thought that plastic bottle tops, particularly those from milk-bottles had a really nice timbre when you clicked them together and have wanted to experiment with making an instrument with them.

Now, I was saving up bottle-tops to make a bottle top snake which I must have seen in the same craft-book as Ang as she posted a piccie of one and I bemoaned the fact I'd lost my stash and snake when moving and the sweetie that she is, she sent me a 'DIY Bottle-top snake kit' in the post for me to recreate it!!! I was so touched and laughed lots at the ingenious and sweet idea! However, I haven't got around to making mine yet.  But in the meantime, I nicked a few bottle-lids from the kit which I will replace, in order to try out my instrument idea in my mind.

I figured this one be a great instrument for a kid to copy and make if they wanted some sound-makers.  So, to make my BRAND NEW instrument- THE TOP SHAKER, you will need:

• Bottle tops that are thin plastic (too thick and you won't be able to do this with my equipment)
• A safety pin or other sharp-needled device.
• An old biro that doesn't work anymore
• Nice solid thread- I used cotton thread here as it doesn't unravel (it came from a charity shop)
• A kitchen roll tube
• Scissors
• Coloured pens

1.  Gather about 9-10 bottle-top lids (you could choose mixed colours but I stuck to semi-skinned Green)
2.  Using a safety pin or old-biro, press the needle or biro into the middle of the top until it goes through and makes a hole (don't do on your nice tablecloth, just in case...). Do the same to all of them.
3. Now fetch a kitchen roll tube and make equidistant holes all around the circumference with a safety-pin (or needle). I supported the tube at the top with my fingers so I didn't rip it.
4.  Now get your biro and go through these holes to make them larger.
5.  Cut lengths of cotton-thread of about 15cm each, enough for each hole and bottle top.
6. Thread the cotton through the hole of the tube and then through the bottle top and tie them in a knot- double and triple up the knot.   Do the same with each one.
7.  Check you are happy with the length of the string by letting them all hang down and give a little shake. Make shorter if you wish. Trim the ends off when happy.
8. Hang downwards to check if tangled.
9. You could leave the tube blank or you could decorate like I did.  (Alternatively, it might be best to do this before you begin??? You could even cover it in wrapping paper though it'd be harder to make holes)


10.  Finally, play your Top shaker to your heart's content.  Or get a band together.

Here's it in action. I like the sound- reminds me of these African seed shakers we have in school- or the sound of pebbles crashing together at the sea side!

Here are some ideas you could do with your children with this:

Get a whole party of friends together (outside preferably, to save your ears) and they can either all bring their Top shakers, other junk instruments or miscellaneous instruments and then get them to make a piece together
You might want to share some ideas to structure it to start them off to avoid them just making a racket such as a) each play a pattern or solo one at a time round the circle b) all learn certain patterns or rhythms (you could even use words for these such as 'Top___ sha-ker, Top___ sha-ker" or "Shake the, shake the sha-ker"   c) play the order backwards. d) start with one person and then all join in, one at a time when the conductor shows them, e) have everyone playing, then one person does a solo, then everyone, then someone else does a solo.
Then, you could use an app on your phone or on the computer so they can record it- they could then use Windows Movie Maker to put pictures with their recording for their 'hit'!

For more ideas for BRILLIANT junk instrument ideas, go to www.nyphilkids.org

I was really pleased with this so I wanted to share it with lots of other people!


Sharing with Creative Monday with Claire Justine



Monday Parenting pin with Romanian Mum blog  and hosted by Diary of a Frugal mum this week as I think this would be a cool holiday craft for kids!

With Cynthia at the In and Out link party at Feeding Big




You're gonna love it Tuesday with Kathe with an e