Aww…Cute… Is this what you want?

Because a Student Xylophone SHOULD BE A LOT BETTER!

Don’t go spending big bucks or buying something ridiculous in your hunt for a student xylophone.

There are many xylophones that are overpriced, that under-deliver. What you’re about to read was created by a music teacher. (The same one actually that wrote the email with the tips on How To Buy A Used Marimba)

She needed about 10 xylophones for the 15 students in her music class. It was a junior class, and some students would use the old xylophones, while others would get the new xylophones.

Student xylophones cost $100-120 and it just wasn’t in her school’s budget to spend over a grand on new xylophones. The circumstances could have placed her music program in jeopardy, so she was forced to look for some new way out. Luckily she found it! She and her husband build xylophones for her students all on their own!

Click here to see the plans she used.

If this isn’t the first page you’re reading on my site, then they must look familiar to you by now. That’s right! They are by the same guy that made the ebook and video instructions for the marimba project Mike (my brother-in-law) used. In fact, he told her about the 3 then 5 octave marimbas that he made, that’s how she got the idea!

Her project too was pretty easy, and she was happy to have single-handedly save her music program. (Though I’d like to think that it was thanks to me and Mike, after all, we were the ones that tried Jim’s plans and shared them).

She made 15 student xylophones, and had 15 happy kids. All for under $450

Anyway, this is just a reminder for all of you to never fall victim to circumstance. If a thirty-something-year-old-tiny-little-music-teacher-lady can come up with a solution, so can you!

Here is how she described her project:

• I saved those guys a ton of money!
• I had a student xylophone of great quality for every student!
• And I had fun

I don’t know why I shared that with you, other than just to tell you that woodworking is fun. I mean it took under two hours to make a box-resonated xylophone, so I doubt that it can be that spectacular, but it looks amazing and she’s right, it really is fun!

Here is the picture she sent us:

I know she shared the plans with her neighbours and friends. Soon every willing percussion enthusiast had made themselves a xylophone for under $35!

In fact, click here to go to the student xylophone plans page

It’s a good instrument to make for young kids. And as gifts for parents of these little rascals. Music is good for a child’s development or something, and it can also turn into a great talent.
Seriously, a xylophone made with old fashioned quality makes a great birthday or Christmas gift

It’s really easy to build a xylophone

All you need to know is a little bit about acoustics and the way that musical instruments work. You can then build and tune an instrument that sounds every bit as vibrant as it should. How your xylophone sounds really depends on how well you tune it and the materials you use. Maple for example produces the most pleasing, sharp and sweet tones. And as we discovered, it’s best to use clear, knot-free and flawless sections of lumber to achieve the right sound.

I got to play a xylophone once. It’s not pounded with the mallets; instead, the correct rebound of the mallets ‘pulls more rounded tones out of the bars’ whatever that means (I’m just quoting Mike now). Xylophone students learn to strike the centres of the bars to develop their feel for the reach from bar to bar. With increasing skill in getting the right tones from the bars, students can expand the parts of the bars they use to vary the sound and volume.

All the information you need to build a student xylophone yourself in a few hours, you can find by clicking here.