Tell Us About Your Instruments.

[Meredith Pizzi]

What kind and brand of instruments are you using in your groups with children of this developmental level?

[Julia Park]

Drums, tambourines, egg shakers, jingles, and maracas are good instruments at this developmental stage as they open their hands and able to grasp instruments and maintain it for a short period of time. I purchased my instruments from Remo. West music is another good resource to purchase a variety of instruments for kids.

[Nicole Drozd]

I have a little bit of everything but I need more! I have 12 egg shakers (which would not necessarily be appropriate for this group), 2 chiquitas, a small remo gathering drum, a child remo djembe, 3 velcro bells, a giro, and 1-2 larger drums- and of course my guitar. Because I am a relatively new private practice owner I have to slowly accumulate instruments to maintain a budget that won’t rob me.

[Rebecca Woodruff]

Instruments that I would use: jumbo chiquitas, maracas, rain sticks, hand drums, gathering drum, small djimbe, guitar, and possibly keyboard (could be nice for some lower energy interventions). As for brands, there are several on West Music and Empire Music (for us Canadian folks). I also like to look at garage sales for instruments. In the past I have been able to find a nice medium sized hand drum ($2), a full set of tone bars, carrying case and mallets ($10) and my most recent purchase a Casio weighted keyboard with damper pedal and bench ($90).

[Daniel Henry]

I typically use shakers with handles that are not a choking hazard (i.e. egg shakers) and that are easy for the children to grasp. I also have a djembe drum, paddle drums, jingle bells, tambourines, and wind chimes. West music is a great resource and I always have my eye out on amazon or ebay for good deals to keep my instrument collection growing.

[Alexis Ramagnano]

Unfortunately, I do not have experience with using instruments with children yet. I was actually going to be asking this questions because I am looking to start my child appropriate instrument collection soon! I am taking notes….

[Anonymous]

Alexis, Meredith and Beth can help you with putting together a list and purchase that fits into your budget. Feel free to reach out to them via email.

[Susan Gannon]

My clinic does not provide me with any instruments, so over the last 9 years I have invested in probably thousands of dollars of instruments. But I do work with an age range of babies to over 20 year olds. I have always depended on egg shakers for little ones, but after seeing the mini-maracas used in the videos, I think I am going to invest in those. I was a Kindermusik educator for many years so I have a large selection of instruments from that company. I have a lot of Remo drums, tambourines, different kinds of shakers, and bells that I use with this age group. Now, I get most of my instruments from the West Music booth at the music therapy conferences. There is usually a 20% show discount.

[Shelly Peterson]

What kind and brand of instruments are you using in your groups with children of this developmental level? I use Latin Percussion chiquitas and Basic Beat maracas and love the Remo drums. I have found that if I use lollipop drums at this age with mallets, the mallets go straight into the mouth and they don’t play much and if I don’t use mallets, the drums become the mallets and are banged on the floor. The Remo drums without handles can be held and played or set on the floor and played and are much more intuitive for the children of this age to play. They are durable and have a great sound as well when played with your hands. Wrist bells work well too, you just have to be careful of how much they mouth them as they can get cut if they stick their tongue inside the bells. I stick my bells in some bags that pull shut and wash them in the washing machine to get them clean all over.

[Marcie Hernandez, MT-BC]

I use frame drums, chiquita maracas, a variety of bells and a gathering drum with this age group. Most of the instruments I use are from the practice I work for, and we purchase most of our things from West music. I also am always looking for good deals online or when I’m out shopping. I like to have a variety of timbres within my instrument selection to diversify the sounds we can make.

[Charniqua Snell]

I was fortunate that most of the instruments I use were provided to me. I use a lot of the same instruments others have mentioned in the post: chiquitas, smaller frame drums, bells, and my guitar. I have also used the xylophones, ocean drum and rain stick as novel sounds that are also soothing and not alarming.

[Kate Potrykus]

I have a lot of Basic Beats shakers, Remo drums, and several other West Music products. I use a lot of colorful instruments – small maracas and egg shakers, homemade rhythm sticks, and Velcro strap bells. I like the bells because you don’t need the full grasping abilities to play them. They are actually perfect for the even younger kiddos as you can strap them to their wrist or ankle and allow them to discover how moving their bodies can trigger the jingle on the bells. I also like using any small mallet drums because it’s fun to watch children explore how using the mallets may create different sounds than using their hands to hit the drum.

[Elizabeth Carras]

We use soundshapes quite a lot, usually with remo foam mallets. We also use rhythm sticks/lumi sticks. I’m not sure what brand they are, but the type where a set of two has one smooth and one grooved stick so you could tap or scrape. We have some chime balls from Kindermusik. I occasionally use a set of colored handbells, but you need to watch these. I have found that kids in this stage respond well to boomwhackers!

[Christina Bass]

I work as an independent contractor and am still building my instrument library so it is great to see what everyone is using! Right now I use small maracas, egg shakers, small frame drums with and without mallets, and bells with the kids I work with at this level.

[Johanna Horn]

At my school, I have the following: Lollipop drums, tom-tom floor drums, egg shakers, resonator bells, velcro jingle bells, shape drums, rhythm sticks/claves, tambourines, glockenspiels, and scarves.

Personal collection: Egg shakers, lollipop drums, rhythm sticks, and jingle bells.

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