The Thrifty Therapist: Sound Makers

Welcome back to the Thrifty Therapist series here at music, therapy, and me. Let's talk about sound makers and finding ways to make them for our clients to use during music therapy sessions - sound makers that do not cost much to make, use, or replace when needed!

As a beginning music therapist, way back in the very late 1900's (yep, I am THAT old), I had no money. I mean, I was living with my parents, paying them for groceries, and barely making my car payment with my $6.50 an hour job. I was a recreation therapist at a residential treatment facility, and I had nothing. I think I had a guitar and that was about it, but I still needed to find ways to make music with my clients. As a result of little to no money and very few resources, I had to get creative.

Fortunately, I have a mother who taught us to get creative and to look in all sorts of ways to do what we need and want to do. So, finding ways to make music with my clients was something that I took as a challenge more than anything else.

Here are some of the ways that I was able to make and share sound makers with my clients - many of these ways I still use with appropriate populations today. Hopefully, something new will be here for you to take into your music therapy practice. You can find more instructions for FREE in my TPT store at this link.

• Shaker Eggs - These are pretty easy - get a sleeve of Easter eggs (I get mine at the Dollar Tree for $1.25 for 12 of them), put something inside, and then either glue or tape them together. Word of caution here - do not attempt to super glue them before they are already shut. I tried it once, splashed super glue into my eye, and had to go to the emergency room. Just don't do it! The nice thing about these sound makers is that different inside pieces make different sounds. Try things like rice, beans, beads, paper clips, pencil erasers, small rocks, all sorts of things. One thing to consider when you are making these sound makers is to be sensitive to the cultural background of the clients that you work with. I had an astute therapist point out to me once that their clients were from cultures where using food materials was considered frivolous. The food items (lentils, rice, beans) were better used as food than for an instrument. That point has stuck with me ever since.
• Envelope Maracas - These are even easier, and I use the junk mail envelopes that I get all the time, so FREE! Fill a portion of the envelope with something listed above, seal the envelope, accordion fold one side of the envelope into a handle, and then shake.
• Mystery Sound Makers - Collect household items that make sounds. Keep them in a covered box or bin and shake one at a time. See if clients are able to identify the things based on the sound that they make. These things might be a spoon in a pan or the sound a wooden spoon makes when it clastter with another spoon. Listen to different sounds as you are collecting items.
• Prescription Bottle Sound Shakers - Place some of the items listed above into prescription bottles to make quick shakers. If you want, you can make them mystery bottles by covering the bottles with duct tape. Make matching bottles and challenge clients to find the pairs.

There are a couple of budget-stretching ideas for you. Check out the project sheets in my TPT shop for more ideas and for task analyses for some of the above projects. Enjoy!!