Looking to build cheap easy drums with 6th grade students... any suggestions?

Question

I am teaching 6th grade students and am thinking of building some sort of drum with them. We meet once a week for 6 weeks. Any ideas on cheap materials and easy designs?

Answer 1

How about this: each student is responsible for bringing in their own "base", anything from a coffee can, a two-liter bottle, a round oatmeal container or anything else that their creative little minds can come up with. Sturdier is better, but whatever they can find will probably work. Cut off the top and bottom, so that you have just a cylinder. The cylinder can be decorated by painting it, wrapping it in paper, or covering it with masking or duct tape pieces (mosaic-style).

You can buy inexpensive clear vinyl and $1-per-yard fabric at a Wal*Mart with a fabric department, or check out the remanants at a fabric store. You might even luck out and find an animal print fabric. Place the vinyl down on butcher paper (on the shiny side) and the fabric on top of that. Have the "good" side of the fabric against the vinyl. Then, using a hot iron, fuse the two together. Be sure to keep the iron moving to avoid burning anything.

The kid can then cut out a pair of wavy circles from the bonded fabric to make it resemble being cut from an animal skin. A piece goes on top of the drum and a piece goes on the bottom of the drum, vinyl side out, and it needs to overlap the sides of the base by at least an inch on all sides. Using a paper punch or an awl, make matching holes in both the top and bottom pieces. Then, use string, yarn or plastic lacing to stretch their "skins" on their drums (lace through top hole, then bottom hole, then back to top until they've gone all the way around). How tightly it is stretched and what the base is made of will affect the tone of the drum. The drums may be played with hands or with sticks.

Answer 2

Use anything that has an opening, and stretch a piece of flat balloon over it, securing tightly with a rubber band. The shape and size of the base, and what it's made from, along with how tightly the balloon is stretched and what it's struck with will all be different (and instructive!).

You can also "stretch" other materials over the openings for even more sounds ... paper, cardstock, metal, etc.


HTH,

Diane B.

Answer 3

What i always thought was cool is if you used like oatmeal tub things and cut them at the bottom to make different sounds then you can just cut the bottom off and leave the lid on just dont waste the oatmeal. So what i am basicly saying is to try and have them build an entire drumset with cans and stuff. so if this helps then cool. if you dont really understand what im saying then email me at [e-mail]

Answer 4

get a cylinder or any base with open top. take a piece of saran wrap and cover the opening of the base (use a rubber band to secure the wrap if needed). using a hair dryer, heat the saran wrap so it becomes nice and taught. depending on how tight you make it, you'll get higher or lower sounds.