PBS
Pbs Kids: Sid the Science Kid: Sandbox Symphony
Make an interesting musical composition by choosing from a menu of traditional and nontraditonal instruments.
Bill Nye
Bill Nye: Tube Kazoo
This tutorial from Bill Nye explains how to make a kazoo out of a cardboard tube.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Straw Oboe
Try making this straw oboe to explore the resonance characteristics of the sound it makes.
Other
Huayu World: Global Chinese Language and Culture Center
Good resource for exploring Chinese culture and language. Learn about Taiwanese lantern riddles, Chinese folklore, clothing, poetry and fables, papercutting, Chinese New Year, and Chinese festival and every-day cooking. Multimedia makes...
Other
The Mudcat Cafe: Bongos, Banjos, Fiddles and More
Use this site to learn more about how to construct bongos, banjos, fiddles and more.
Michigan Reach Out
Michigan Reach Out!: Making a Shoe Box Guitar
This site provides an experiment where students create a guitar to discover what variables will change sound.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Strum Along
Music and sound are two different concepts that share much in common. Determining the difference between the two can sometimes be difficult due to the subjective nature of deciding what is or is not music. The goal of this activity is to...
Other
Creative Kids at Home: Water Chimes
Learn to make your own water chimes with the instructions included on this website. Kids will enjoy making their own music with this easily made instrument.
Michigan Reach Out
Sounds Like Science: Kazoo
At this site explore the energy transfer that is involved in making sound through playing a kazoo.This activity is wonderful for both science and music teachers.
Michigan Reach Out
Michigan Reach Out!: Drums (Sounds Like Science)
This site is provided for by Michigan Reach Out. Students experiment with the variables of force, pitch and volume after making a drum.
Maryland Science Center
Maryland Science Center: Diy Kazoo [Pdf]
Instructions for how to make a kazoo. Also explains how the vibrations from humming create the sound.
Other
Dayton Art Institute an African Slit Gong
Art and music are very much related. In fact, the African culture often times designed fun looking instruments like the gong on this website. Includes directions on how to make your own gong.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Coffee Can Cuica
In this activity students will use the engineering design process to make a musical instrument called a cuica. This musical instrument uses "stick-and-slip" vibrations to make the sound.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Head Harp
Want to make music with your head? In this experiment, create a musical instrument by wrapping a string around your head.
Other
Blokfluitkids
Colorful, interactive Dutch language website that introduces students to recorders and wooden flutes. It shows how the flutes are made and the different sounds they make. Site also activities that let students play along (practice...
Museum of Science
Museum of Science and Industry: Online Science: Activities: Sound Like a Turkey
An activity where students investigate the sounds created by the friction of fingers moving along a wet string.
Handbell World
Handbell World: Handbell Notation Symbols and Definitions
Handbell ringing is a unique form of music-making and uses techniques that don't apply to other instruments. Music written for handbells looks much like piano music, with the addition of symbols which indicate these unique techniques....
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Percussion Instruments and Pitch
Students will enjoy learning about pitch as they construct their own percussion instruments. They will predict and explore how pitches can change based on the materials used and how the instruments are made.
Hunkins Experiments
Hunkin's Experiments: Sound Experiments
Hunkin's Experiments is a group of simple cartoon illustrations of scientific principles. Some would work well in the classroom, but others have little value beyond entertaining students. All of the projects are easy to do. This group of...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Gears Go Round!
Music boxes, bicycles, and clocks all have one thing in common: GEARS. You might say that gears make the world turn, since they are in so many mechanical instruments. How do they work and how do you know which gears to use? Find out in...