Tag Archives: preschool music

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you can find similar instruments all over the world, a guiro is an instrument with Latin American roots that was originally made from wood, bone or gourds carved to have a ridged surface.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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An Easy Musical Craft For Young Children – Back To School Maracas!

maracas-back-to-schoolDo you have a young child going to school for the first time?  Or maybe a little one staying home while an older sibling returns to their Fall schedule?  Here’s a fun craft that gives you some time together with your child while preparing for a new routine at home.  And you get to make use of recyclables from around the house as well as extra supplies – like paper clips or colorful erasers – left over from back-to-school preparation.

Start with two clean 8 oz (smaller) water bottles.  If you don’t use plastic water bottles – ask around.  You may have friends or neighbors who can collect a few for you!  Fill each one with small items such as the colorful paper clips and erasers seen above.  Each one will sound a bit different when they are shaken because you’ve chosen two different fillings.  If you don’t have these items on hand, you can use dried beans, rice, pebbles, buttons, beads, sand, salt or small pasta.  Feel free to get creative with what you add!

homemade-maracas-adding-tapeOnce you’ve chosen your fillings, put the cap on each water bottle.  To create the handle, take two toilet paper rolls and make a straight cut down each one with scissors.  Twist the roll until it fits onto the cap side of the water bottle and begin wrapping it with electrical tape.  Start by wrapping the bottle to the paper handle with the tape and proceed down the handle.  This creates a sturdy way to hold onto your maracas as they are being played.  Then you’re ready to shake, rattle and roll!

Maracas are one of the simplest instruments to play for young children or the beginning musician.  Put one in each hand and rock out!  You can let your kids experiment with shaking them in different ways or encourage them to move and dance while playing them.  You can make a pair for yourself and create rhythms together.  Since each maraca (and each hand) will sound slightly different, create rhythm patterns by shaking the different hands or calling out patterns by what’s inside each instrument.  You can play patterns such as:  “right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand” or get creative with something like:  “Rice, beans, rice, rice, beans” or “buttons, buttons, beads, buttons, beads!”.  There are no wrong ways to create these patterns.  Play with your new maracas and see what sounds best to you.  Or put on a favorite cd and find patterns that fit with the music you enjoy.

Supplies

Two small plastic water bottles ( 8 oz.)

Two toilet paper rolls

Electrical tape

Two different maraca fillings such as paper clips, beads, seeds, erasers, rice, beans or pebbles.

Want to play your new maracas along with a  song from Latin America?  Check out DARIA’s bilingual version of La Cucaracha – a silly folksong from Mexico about a cockroach.  In this version, the cockroach plays a guiro and maracas!