Six of a Kind by Josie R.

The name of my instrument is "Six of a Kind" because there are six drums. I got the idea of making my instrument when I ate tuna fish and soup last night. I decided to made drums out of the cans. I also thought making a drum is easier than making a wind instrument. My instrument is a set of drums so it belongs to the percussion family. The tone quality is good. Some parts of the drum sound quiet. One part of the drums' surface sounds the best. The pitch is not the same on all the drums. The taller the drum, the louder the volume gets. Shorter drums have softer volume. (Teacher's note: the large box under the drums creates excellent resonance.) The materials I used were two tuna fish cans, a ribbon spool, two pop cans and a soup can. I found the ribbon spool in the birthday wrapping paper bin. I found two pop cans, a soup can, and two tuna cans in the recycling bin outside. I found the box in the kitchen. I used paint, glitter, and wrapping paper to decorate my instrument. I used the box as the base of the instrument and I wrapped the box with wrapping paper like a present. I hot-glued the cans to the box from the smallest can to the largest can. I painted the cans and the 'used up' ribbon spool. I put glitter on top of the drum's surface. I got no parent help at all. I made everything myself. The problem I had was I could not paint the cans. I solved the problem by painting on paper and then gluing it on the cans. I play my instrument by hitting the drum with a little wooden hammer and a plastic thing. I can change the volume or pitch by hitting a different size drum. The sound changes when you hit a different drum. The metal surfaces give a sharper sound and the cardboard surface gives a duller sound. I made a wind instrument a couple of weeks before. It was hard to play so I made another one and that was the Six of a Kind drums. I liked when we got to make the instrument because it was fun thinking about what instrument I should make and then making the instrument. You need to put a lot of time into making an instrument.