Music Gift Guide this Christmas
- Ella Emery
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Buying musical gifts for children can often result in noisy toys that only result in breaking, or being 'put away' / hidden by mum and dad... So to save you the din, we've picked out a few genuine instruments that will delight and last a long time!
Musical instruments are in fact not toys, so please always supervise your children when playing with these. As a Music Therapist, I've been amazed at what can happen to an instrument, how parts can come off that I'd never dreamt could be removed, or things posted inside that seemed impossible. With that said - children have often shown me that things can be fixed or recovered in new ways too!
If you want to have a browse, try going to Gear4Music
Under £20
Kazoos
OK, an interesting start if we're going for 'not annoying', but kazoos are so much fun! They're cheap and cheerful, they need a bit of skill as you have to hum and blow at the same time to make them work, but once you've got it, they're playful and funny. Christmas Crackers lately have had kazoo games in them!
Guiro
A 'scraper', sometimes also a shaker, sometimes shaped like a frog! These are lovely rhythmic instruments.
Claves
Claves are two wooden sticks to tap together. You can tap on the floor, on a drum, or together as intended. Try playing along to recorded music, put on your favourite song and tap the beat with your little one.
Tambourine
For £7-10 a 6 or 9 inch tambourine could be yours! They sound good and you can practise your ta's and ti-ti's
£20 to £40
Tongue drum
My favourite instrument of the moment. Tongue drums sound delightful and come in a variety of sizes. If you find your child has posted something down the slots, there's a covered hole in the bottom to get it back out! Meinl do a lovely one, in different keys: C & A, and some in minor keys which will sound 'sad'.
Rainbow bells
A set of desk bells can be lovely when played sparingly. Be sure to buy a real set - Percussion Plus do a good one - so that your bells are in tune. If you buy the toy version, any tune you try to play won't ever sound quite right because they are not in tune!
Ukulele
Do not be fooled by the cheap, cheerful ukuleles you find in Flying Tiger or other high street shops... They sound horrible and never ever tune up. However, buying a real ukulele can be great because it's hard to make them sound harsh or unpleasant. Expect to spend £25-£30 on a ukulele, Mahalo is a good brand.
Harmonica
These range from £5 to hundreds. You can buy something that sounds nice for around £30, and these will have some resistance when you blow so it might take little ones a bit of practise to make the sound. Great for encouraging vocalisations as the air and muscles used to create the sound are the same as needed for speech.
Wishing you a very Musical Christmas!
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