The Music (Backyard) Tree

Listen to how gorgeous this sound is! 

Making a music tree is a lovely project for the backyard. It’s simple, cheap and fun. Plus the sound is glorious!  An idea is to couple this family activity with reading The Music Tree book by Catriona Hoy and Adele Jaunn.

To make our own Music Tree, we visited a thrift shop to buy all kinds of tinkling things. 

Materials

• Fishing line or string
• Look for: cutlery, saucepans, metal mugs and other tinkly things from a thrift shop

Either hang items on a stick before placing somewhere up in a backyard tree, or randomly tie the objects to branches close enough so they hit together in the wind.

Idea: record the sound on an smart phone and listen to it later or use it as a base sound to create your own music with drums and singing.

Note 1: I was careful to make sure the items were hung up high enough because of the risk of strangulation. 

Note 2: items do get tangled up in the wind, but it doesn’t really matter because it’s part of the wild beauty of it all.