Making music without traditional instruments: 4 different ways

When thinking about making and playing music, we might think about more traditional and recognisable instruments such as guitar, piano and drums. But you can make music with a huge variety of instruments. It’s probably easier than you think!

By definition, a musical instrument is anything that you can use to make a sound. And there are endless ways to make music and sounds using things that you may already have. So we’re sharing some different ways you make music and get creative.

1. Use your body

Perhaps the most accessible instrument is our own body. As children, clapping is one of the first ways that we discover rhythm, and it continues to be a way for people to express rhythm without words. Finger snaps, foot stamps, knee pats, chest pats (and any other sounds you can think of) can all be incorporated into music-making! This is sometimes called ‘body percussion’.

2. See what you’ve got at home already

Many household items can be used as instruments. A classic example is a wooden spoon tapped on an upside-down pot as a drum. There are many other options just like this, like tapping a pen against a glass or even rattling a set of keys.

If you run out of ideas, try noticing the objects around you in your day-to-day life and the sounds that they make. For example, the tapping sound of cutlery as it’s placed on a table, or the click of a pen lid. And think about how you could creatively incorporate these into music.

3. Why not try to make your own instruments?

You can try making instruments yourself! This can be as simple as putting some dried pasta in a jar to make a shaker. Or even something more complex, such as making a ukulele out of an empty tub, a plank of wood and some strings.

If you’d like some inspiration on how to get started, have a look at the pages below:

23 Homemade Instruments to Make Music With

Homemade Musical Instruments

And remember that it can be exciting to make instruments with other people too, as you can play them together at the end!

4. Use apps to get creative

If you have a smartphone or tablet, there are a variety of different apps that can recreate the sounds of musical instruments. And many of them are free! If you have a particular instrument in mind, you can search for this on the app store of your device.

If you have access to an external speaker that you can plug your device into, this can make the quality of sound from these apps sound much better, too.

There are also some website based instruments that you can play on a computer with an internet connection. For example:

Jazz Keys

Blob Opera

Patatap

Music-making doesn’t need to be limited to traditional instruments. As great as guitars, pianos and drums can be, we hope we’ve given you some inspiration on how you can make music in other ways, too!