Home Made Musical Instruments - Child's Play Music

[iMstreakee]

how do you get your treble thongophones to be tuned?

[childsplaymusic]

@iMstreakee By trial and error - unfortunately the formulas for working out tube length only work with straight pipe, so I used the formula (from Bart Hopkin's book "Musical Instrument Design") to get an approximate length, then cut the tubes a bit longer. Then I cut small sections off the end of the straight pipe, checking against an electronic tuner until the target pitch was reached for each pipe. It's slow, but it's the only way with this design.

[iMstreakee]

@childsplaymusic then, what are the two wooden planks for in the middle of the thongophones?

[childsplaymusic]

@iMstreakee They are just braces - the pipes are attached to the two wooden beams with saddle clamps, U-shaped steel brackets which are screwed to the underside of each beam. You can buy saddle clamps to fit any size of PVC pipe. The screws go into the wood - there's nothing holding the pipe on except the friction of the saddle clamp.

[TheBigBoyCharles]

awesommmmme!!!!

[baardk2]

Fantastic :) Great work!

[Kara0ki]

the snare has a wonderful tone to it. Sounds better than my $500 Ludwig!! (wouldnt fit on my snare stand, tho).

[childsplaymusic]

@barbaraannsmith - I probably won't be doing a book - Bart Hopkin has already done the best books I can imagine on the subject of homemade instruments. "Musical Instrument Design"; "Slap Tubes and Other Plosive Aerophones" and "Making Musical Instruments with Kids" are brilliant and available on Amazon and elsewhere. Alec.

[childsplaymusic]

@Rasilla24 I've got full instructions on how to make a Balloon Bassoon and on how I built the bell tree in my Facebook Notes at facebook.com/ChildsPlayMusicPe­rth. I'll be putting up more videos soon showing how to make some instruments - stay tuned. Alec.

[barbaraannsmith]

Wow, you need to put all this in a book! Thanks for the video.....

Barbara Smith, M.s., OTR/L

The Recycling Occupational Therapist

[raylene9048]

So imaginative. If ever you are interested to make "how to make" videos, I am sure they would be well received.

[Rasilla24]

I love it! Do you have instructions on how we can make our own? I know my kids would be estatic!