Build Your Own Drum Kit!

posted April 6, 2009



From Katryna:

A beautiful day called for finally trying to put together this drum kit. So I fetched the big white bucket I got last week after HooteNanny and found an old veggie steamer whose feet had fallen off. I got a pot top that goes to a pot we no longer own and found some planters and an empty tennis ball can. (The tennis balls were being used by Amelia and Dave for “baseball” practice.) First I set the drum kit up on the legs of the one and only chair we have in our yard. Then I though better of that and moved the whole mess to the swing-set we inherited from our neighbors. It has certainly seen better days, but it has lots of good spots to attach things. I used rubber bands to attach the steamer and pot lid. I found some drum sticks in our music bucket and let William go at it. Soon his sister had joined him and the arguing that ensued was a cue to Dave and me that we might need to make 2 drum kits. Dave is planning on building a frame for the drums out of wood so that we can free the swing-set up for sliding and swinging again. As the day went on, the kids found other objects in the yard to add to their drum set. This served a dual purpose- cleaning up the yard from its debris and giving more textures to their percussion. An empty maple bucket and some big planters served as toms and drum thrones. Some hunks of Christmas tree trunks served as wood blocks.
This is SO easy to do. Any combo of buckets and pieces of wood will suffice.

We were featured in this article in yesterday’s Boston Sunday Globe.

The Comments

Join the Conversation. Post with kindness.

  1. Hi,
    Cool drums! I have used large sized joint compound buckets for African drumming. They seem to be in dumpsters at construction sites.
    I heard an interview with Richard Weissbourd on NPR this morning. He was touting is book, The Parents Mean to Be. It deals with some of the same parenting issues you have written about recently. There is a podcast at Fresh Air.NPR.org which likely give you some of his thoughts.
    Best wishes.
    Paul

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read More Like This

Swine Flu, Pillowface Cat, Molly the Donkey and Other Critters

The Nields and their CrackerJack Band at the University of Hartford TV Studio recording their Family DVD on May 2, 2009. Photo by James Levine. I am reminded today about…
May 5, 2009

Karl Wallinger and Our Midwest Tour

Music has a power that I don’t understand. I feel it sometimes when I experience the loyalty of our own following. But it took Karl’s death for me to remember its sway on me. Lately, I’ve avoided listening to music. Why? Music makes me feel. I can’t have it playing in the background. It’s distracting––not so much to my mind but to my heart. Listening to music, I become a sea creature, at the mercy of the waves. When I get fearful, I pull myself out of the water and sit on a rock, my knees to my chest, glowering at the fickle ocean.
March 29, 2024

Church of 80% Sincerity

Note: During this period of time while I write our forthcoming book All Together Singing in the Kitchen: How to Create Family Harmony, while I intend to update this blog…
August 22, 2009