Music in Bloom

The Most Amazing Musical Instruments

by Maureen Conlin

Ideas for working with younger children

Music time provides young children with an opportunity to explore and experience themselves as the most amazing musical instruments. Tune up by bending, stretching, twisting, shaking, wiggling, and moving to music. Tap a steady beat on a wood block, changing the tempo so children wiggle fast, medium, and slow. Try this poem for the children to wiggle to:

Explore the most amazing instruments with children by cutting out a two-foot-tall paper doll that can be taped to a wall or bulletin board. Draw or cut out pictures of a set of hands for clapping, snapping, tapping, and patting the beat; a set of shoes for marching, hopping, jumping, skipping, walking; ballet slippers or tap shoes for dancing; a heart for keeping the beat and pulse of the body; ears for listening; a mouth for whistling, humming, singing, and chanting; eyes for seeing; and don’t forget to add a nose. Talk with the children about ways in which they are the most amazing musical instruments. Attach the cut-out pictures to the paper doll (I call him Whistling Willy) using sticky gum. If possible, laminate Whistling Willy for future use.

Continue to guide the children on their musical journey by asking them to create their own body percussion as they clap hands, tap feet, pop cheeks, and snap their fingers or march to a steady beat. Chant or sing:

To encourage children to explore the different pitches in their voices, choose a word and have the children repeat that word in a high voice, low voice, monster voice, squeaky mouse voice, loud and soft voices, singing voice, underwater voice, big voice, or little voice. An American slide whistle is a fun musical instrument that is also useful to help children explore the sound of their voices. Play the slide whistle and ask children to mimic the sound as they slide their voices down and up, and then have the children move their bodies down and up to the sound of the slide whistle playing fast and then slow.

Teach children how to whistle. Share with them how to make a circle with their mouth, place the tongue behind the bottom teeth, and then pretend to blow out a birthday candle. Encourage the children to try and make the sound using the air that passes through their lips rather than by making vocal sounds to imitate a whistle. Learning to play any musical instrument takes practice. It might be just a small squeak at first, but with practice it will grow into a big whistle.

Snapping fingers is another way for children to explore how they are the most amazing instrument. Teaching children can be “a snap” if you show them which fingers to use. The song “Where Is Thumbkin?” with a few lyric changes can be used to share with children which fingers to use when snapping.

Instruct the children to place Tall Man on top of Thumbkin with pointer out of the way and pointing up to the sky. Thumb and middle finger press together to say “hello” and then push away as they say “goodbye.” As the fingers slide away from each other they create a snapping sound. Finish the snapping lesson by singing these lyrics to the tune of “Where is Thumbkin?”:

Explore dynamics and tempo with the most amazing instrument using the sound of little hands clapping to a steady beat. Clap with hands cupped, fingers opened or tapping on knees with open palms. Clap loudly, quietly, quickly, and slowly. Share with young children the symbols for forte (loud), mezzo forte (medium loud) and piano (soft). Draw the symbols on card stock paper and play the loud/soft game as children clap their hands according to the symbol that is shown to them. Change the tempo of clapping hands as children clap fast and slow following the steady beat of a drum or tapping on a wooden instrument. Have the children take turns being the leader of the game.

Bring out the artists in the most amazing instruments by having the children create a collage of pictures from old magazines that demonstrate the many ways that children move, sing, dance, or show different body parts used to create the musical child.

Music is inside each one of us. Our brain, our heart, and all the other parts create the most amazing musical instrument. As we guide young children through their musical journey, let’s remember to teach children how to explore the musical possibilities that are within each and every one of them.