Building a PVC Frame for Scrap Metal Musical Instruments

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Alec @ Child's Play Music

In my last blog post I walked you through selecting scrap metal for making musical instruments; now it’s time to show you how I built a strong and easy to build PVC frame and turned some scrap aluminium castings into a bell tree. I use these instruments in my Child’s Play Music hands-on play-based music incursions with young children in all kinds of Early Childhood Education settings here in Perth.

You can use this frame design for many different instruments – even for hanging old pots and pans. I have 3 frames: for my stainless steel cymbals, my aluminium gongs, and now this one for my aluminium castings bell tree.

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Music play is play!

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Alec @ Child's Play Music

I firmly believe that the best way for young children to learn music is through free, hands-on self-directed play. Formal music lessons can be wonderful for older children but for young children nothing beats exploration and free play.

I made this poster about music play and I think it explains my beliefs about young children and music very well. It got quite a few shares on Facebook and it seems to have struck a chord with people.

Poster about music play for children.

Let me expand a little on what I mean by “Music play is play!”:

Play is the fundamental way that children learn and make sense of their world, and music play is simply one of the many forms of play. But what is “play”?

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Music – outdoors is where it’s at!

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Alec @ Child's Play Music

If you want to do a great play-based music program in early childhood settings, providing a music-rich environment is 90% of the battle. But sometimes that can be difficult to achieve in a classroom – music play can be loud! Sometimes too loud!

Which is why your outdoor area is the best place for your music program – and why I’ve written a blog post for PreK + K Sharing with tips and tricks for taking the music outside.

From which of your “real” instruments work best & how to set them up, to building music stations and encouraging music to movement, it’s extensively illustrated and has a hands-on practical focus.