Follow these directions to make your very own membranophone!

Materials Needed

Clean, empty plastic water bottle, any size (bottles with ridges work best)

Scissors (for children) or utility knife (for adults only)

Latex, rubber, or vinyl glove (or a balloon, although it’s harder to work with)

Rubber band

Hole punch

Drinking straw

Sheet of construction paper (acetate or card stock works too)

Directions

1. Leave the cap on the bottle, but peel the label off.

2. Cut the bottle in half using scissors (or a utility knife, if an adult is doing this). Make sure you cut evenly, leaving a smooth edge. Set aside the bottom half of the bottle for another use, or recycle it.

3. Take the top half of the bottle, and use your hole punch to punch a hole as far from the cut edge as you can towards the mouth of the bottle. Put the straw through the hole to test it for size. It should be a tight fit. If the hole isn’t large enough for the diameter of the straw, re-punch in nearly the same spot to widen the hole a bit.

4. Cut the fingers and thumb off the glove as a unit (in one cut). The rest of the glove should now look like a wide tube. Cut the tube open to form a rectangular sheet of pliable material—this is your membrane.

5. Stretch the membrane over the opening you cut on the bottle, making sure that the hole you punched in the side doesn’t get hidden by excess material. If you are using a balloon, cut off the narrowest part to make a large enough surface to stretch over the opening you cut on the bottle.

6. Secure the membrane to the bottle with a rubber band. Wrap the rubber band around the bottle several times, making sure that the membrane is taut.

7. Twist the cap off the bottle and set it aside.

8. Roll a piece of construction paper into a tube, making it as tight and straight as possible. Put the rolled-up tube into the neck of the bottle, where the cap had been. Let go of the paper tube when it barely touches the bottom of the membrane. It should fit securely in the bottle opening. Tape it to the neck of the bottle so it stays in place.

9. Re-insert the straw into the punched hole on the side of the bottle, and you’re ready to play!