Tag Archives: Latin American instruments

Easiest Instruments For Young Children – The Guiro!

The guiro is a perfect “first instrument” to share with young children.  It’s incredibly simple and versatile at the same time.  In a matter of minutes, a child can be exploring the sounds created by the guiro and making rhythms by rubbing the rasp back and forth or up and down along the surface of the guiro.

What Is A Guiro?

Although you can find similar instruments all over the world, a guiro is an instrument with Latin American roots that was originally made from wood, bone or gourds carved to have a ridged surface.  In the picture above you can see a bone guiro from Mexico, a wooden version and a homemade guiro made from a recycled plastic water bottle.  Some modern guiros are made of plastic or metal as well.

homemade guiro and 6 raspsPlay A Guiro With A Rasp

To play a guiro you rub an object across the ridges on the surface of your instrument.  Older guiros often have sharp metal rasps so it can be useful to substitute more child-safe choices.  Here are some fun ways to create sound on a guiro.  They include hair picks, plastic spoons/forks/sporks, chopsticks, an egg whisk or an unsharpened pencil.  Each will create a slightly different sound when used to play the guiro.

Make A Simple Guiro

Since it’s unlikely that you have the perfect dried gourd or an old bone lying around your house, start this musical craft in your recycling bin.  Sort through the plastic bottles to see if you have one that has ridges and is sturdy enough to use in this project.

Although your plastic bottle guiro is ready to play “as is”, you can also add some decoration inside the bottle and seal it up before you begin to play. You can look for things like confetti or colorful paper shreds.  Or you can choose to add objects that will make the bottle work as a rattle as well.  To make a guiro that doubles as a rattle, add a small amount of any on-hand material such as bird seed, beads, pebbles or dried beans, rice or pasta.

paper shred guiroIf you’ve add anything to the inside, it’s a good idea to seal the bottle with a strong tape; such as electrical tape, so the contents will stay inside and keep the bottle from being opened when played.  You might even want to attach your rasp to the guiro with some colorful ribbon or yarn as in the example here

Play Your Guiro!

You’ve probably already figured this out!  The guiro is played by scraping back and forth or up and down along the ridges.  You can put on some of your favorite music and let your child experiment with what sounds good to them.  Or you can learn some basic rhythms together with your child.  Here are some fun ways to begin.

Try playing along with a whole song by just scraping down or by just scraping up.

Try playing along with a song by scraping: down/up, down/up, down/up.

Try playing along with a song by scraping:

down/up – down/up/down…, down/up – down/up/down…

Discover the patterns that sound good to your ear or write a new song to go along with a rhythm you’ve just discovered.  If you start with this simple and clever little instrument, there’s no telling how much creative musical fun you can have!

Related Links:

See, Hear and Color A Guiro Here:

http://www.dariamusic.com/guiro.php

Play Along With A Bilingual Version of La Cucaracha here:

 

 

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Make Your Own Simple Panpipes!

zampoñasHave you ever blown over the top of a bottle to create a wonderful whooshing musical note?

If you have, you’ve just learned the technique for playing the panpipes or the pan flute.

Although you can find this type of instrument in many countries around the world, it is most often associated with the music from the Andes mountains of South America.  The wonderful, breathy notes of the panpipes – known as zampoñas – play some of the most beautiful melodies of songs from that region.

zamponas front and backReal panpipes are made from hollow reeds that are similar to bamboo.  These long, straight reeds grow near the lakes in the mountains and are harvested and cut into individual lengths.  Single reeds turn into simple flutes called quenas.  Multiple reeds are bound together in different lengths to create the type of panpipes seen at the top of this page.

Can you create your own version of panpipes at home?  Definitely.  Here are the supplies you need:

Supplies

Straws – find the largest ones you can!

Small piece of sturdy cardboard

Transparent tape

Scissors

A small length of ribbon for decoration (optional)

This is a wonderfully easy craft!

Cut a length of sturdy cardboard. A six to eight inch piece works well for a basic set of panpipes.  Next, cut different lengths of straws and attach them to the cardboard with transparent tape from longest to shortest.  Make sure you leave about one inch between the straws as it allows a child’s mouth to blow on each straw individually to get a good-sounding note.

josef playing straw zamponasTest out your panpipes by blowing over them to see if you like the series of notes you’ve created.  It can be helpful to have enough materials to try this craft several times in order to create a set of panpipes that sound great and are the perfect size for your child.

Last, you can add a bit of decoration, if you want.  Cover the outer cardboard area with a bit of cloth or ribbon to give it a more festive look and tape it into place.

Here’s a quick suggestion about playing the panpipes.  It can be tricky for most kids and adults to get the hang of blowing over the tops of the straws.  Almost everyone wants to blow down into the straws.  Remember that you can create the best notes by blowing over the tops of the straws at a ninety degree angle.  You can also think of it as imitating the way the wind might rush across the tops of these reeds as they are found in nature.

Experiment with your panpipes and enjoy!

Links And Resources

Free Zampoñas Coloring Page - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Color-the-Zamponas-Panpipes-From-The-Andes-650601

You can hear several different types of panpipes on DARIA’s new cd – Cancioncitas De Los Andes/Little Songs of the Andes.

CancioncitasCover-V4On Itunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/cancioncitas-los-andes-little/id602798167

On Amazon Mp3

http://amzn.com/B00BG9ABEE