How to Make a Kazoo
You probably have everything you need to quickly make this fun little instrument!
Enjoy hearing your voice change as you sing “do be doo” and learn about the science behind sound.
What you need:
Card roll
(a toilet roll, kitchen roll or rolled-up card)
Tinfoil and/or wax paper
Elastic band
Pencil
Paper, glue and crafts for decoration (optional)
What to do:
Decorate (optional)
We decorated our Kazoo by gluing on some colourful paper. We used paper that we had previously marbled using the foam art method in the previous Upstart magazine. When your paper and decorations are dry you can move to the next simple steps.
Tip: You can fold any excess paper inside one end of the kazoo which keeps the edge soft for your lips when you play.
Cut out your piece of foil, making sure it will be big enough to fit over the end of the toilet roll.
Cover one end of your tube with foil and fasten it tight with the elastic band.
Get an adult to help you to make a hole or two in your kazoo.
A pencil makes a nice round hole.
To start playing your Kazoo just say “doo-bee-doo-bee-doo” into the kazoo and then have fun singing and creating your own tunes.
What we learn:
What is sound?
Mechanical movements, like the movement in your vocal chords or someone plucking guitar strings, cause a vibration in the molecules around it. allowing it to travel in a wave to our ears.
Feel the sound vibrations
When you play a kazoo, sound vibrations that you create with your voice travel down the tube to the tin foil you have attached to the end.
This causes the foil at the end to vibrate and amplifies the sound.
When you play your kazoo, lightly touch the end and you will feel the sound vibrations.
Why does it change your voice?
Your voice is made up of different vibrations. Some vibrations are amplified by the kazoo and others are not. It depends on the pitch and harmony of your voice.
Try humming or singing in different ways and see what happens.
What do the holes do?
The holes help air travel freely through the tube. We found that this allows us to breathe when playing long songs, but also makes the kazoo sound louder.
More experiments:
Change the length of the rolls you use.
Add more holes and/or cover the holes with your fingers.
Have fun changing the end by replacing foil with wax paper or other fabrics. Make sure nothing you use is dangerous though!