Make A Rainstick - Musical Instrument Craft - Frugal Fun For Boys

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Making a rainstick is easy to do, and the results are totally worth it – with a tube this long, you get a really soothing rain sound.

Ever since I saw this post from Counting Coconuts on how to make a rainstick, I have been wanting to make one with the boys! I led an “instrument time” with Gresham’s choir at church tonight (4 & 5 year olds), so I decided that this was just the excuse we needed to make one! Well, two, actually!

A rainstick is so fun for toddlers to explore!

To make one, you will need:

A heavy cardboard mailing tube – we found ours at a postal store
Nails
A hammer
Something to fill the rainstick – we used a mixture of lima beans and some smaller beans from a soup mix. Other options for filler are pebbles or rice. I think the sound is neat if you use something large (like lima beans) and something small as well.
Duct tape. We’re all about utility here – I wanted it to be sturdy enough to stand up to lots of use (since I teach music and will have a lot of opportunities to use this), and since I wanted the nails to be well-covered.

Step 1: Hammer nails into the mailing tube.

We used a LOT of nails. I bought a 1 lb. package, and we had to run back to Walmart for more! But then again, we did make two rainsticks, and our tubes were large.

The inside looks pretty scary!

Step 2: Fill your tube with beans/rocks/etc. Experiment with different amounts if necessary to see what gives the best sound.

Step 3: Decorate your rainstick! I wasn’t sure if paper would hold up very well with all the nail heads sticking out, especially since we were taking them to a preschool choir class! The duct tape option worked pretty well, I think. They aren’t very pretty, but the texture is interesting to hold, and they’re sturdy! We taped the lids down on the tubes so that there is no chance of beans spilling or little hands getting poked on all those nails!