Let there be music...part 1

Over the summer holidays I had plans to revitalise several areas in our school garden. Actually I have grand plans but given that the school budget has to fund the whole school and not just my areas I have to restrain my inner Alan Titchmarsh designer instincts and find craftier (cheaper) ways to satisfy my creative bent.

This post  is all about the new music area which originally was created with the children and consisted mainly of buckets, little plastic milk bottles and pots and pans. They loved it but the weather and time had done it's stuff and it was looking less like a music area and more like a fly tipping site.

I had been pinning for a while and had a few ideas of things that I wanted to  offer in this area, but the thing I craved the most was some musical pipes. My original vision was of a frame attached to trees with the pipes attached vertically but this plan was scuppered right at the start when I realised that the trees I had available in the area were no way strong enough or suitable. Thankfully I found some short posts with feet attached and then some old laminate flooring planks which were easily attached to make a perfect stand. I bought some drainpipe and the little plastic fixings which were soon attached. I cut the pipe into three different lengths to give me different tones when played.

To pretty it all up I spray painted the tops and added some insulation tape bands. These don't do anything but they do look more eye catching a professional.

I found some old flip flops and removed the bits that hold them onto your feet. They were easily decorated using sharpies. I punched holes in one end and threaded string through. A hook on the stand to hang them from and Bingo, job done.

You'll see from the picture that I also added a couple of long pipes that were lying around the garden.  Ideally I'd have cut curves in the top of the stand to make them more secure but I didn't have the tools to do that and as mine are in gravel they don't move much anyway. And in addition, it means that we can still move the bigger pipes to use for posting cars and balls down.

This instrument is played by bashing the top of the pipes with the flat side of the flip flop and the differing lengths make a range of satisfying notes.

That was stage one of the new music area, tune in to part two to see what I made next.....