Sesame Street Live "Elmo Makes Music"

How to Make Music at Home

Elmo and his Sesame Street friends: Big Bird, the Count Von Count, Rosita, Oscar the Grouch, and the rest of the gang will be at The Theatre at the Frank Erwin Center February 15-18. At this year’s exciting show, ‘Elmo Makes Music’, Jenny, Sesame Street’s new music teacher, will show Elmo and all his neighborhood friends that there are many different ways to make music.

The fun does not have to end after the show is over. Almost anything can make music and now you and your kids can make your own musical instruments at home. Before you know it, you and your family will have your own homemade band.

Straw Oboe
Materials: a plastic drinking straw
1. Pinch one end of the straw flat.
2. Cut that end of the straw into a point forming a double reed.
3. You can make other sounds by varying the length of the straw.
4. To play, put reed end in the mouth just past the lips and blow hard.

Tube Kazoo
Materials: toilet tissue or paper towel tube, wax paper or tin foil and a rubber band
1. Cut a circle larger than the end of the tube from the wax paper or foil.
2. Put this circle over the end of the tube smoothing it out. Hold it in place with the rubber band. It must be smooth and tight.
3. With a pencil or pen twist a hole into the tube just below the rubber band.
4. To play, hold the open end of the tube to your mouth and hum or sing into it.

Coffee Can Drums
Materials: coffee can or other such container, wax paper, 2 heavy rubber bands and 2 pencils with erasers
1. Open both ends of the container for the drum body.
2. Cut a circle larger than the end of the coffee can from the wax paper.
3. Put the wax paper over the open end of the coffee can and smooth it out.
4. Use the rubber bands to hold the wax paper in place.
5. Use the pencils as the drum sticks.