Musical Inventions – DIY Instruments to Toot, Tap, Crank, Strum, Pluck and Switch On

People have been playing music on homemade instruments for thousands of years. But creating new instruments is much more than an art form. When you want to make a note sound higher or lower, you have to change the sound waves coming out of the instrument. That's science! When you explore the way different materials produce different sounds, that's engineering. When you speed up or slow down a song, you're counting beats -- using math. And technology makes electronic instruments and devices to record and play back music possible.

Kathy Ceceri is the author of activity books for kids and families, including Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future. She helped create the Geek-Mom blog and the book Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families and contributed more than a dozen projects to the Geek Dad series of books. Formerly the Homeschooling Expert at About.com, Kathy presents robots and STEAM programs at schools, museums, libraries, and Maker Faires around the country. She lives with her family in Upstate New York.