Instrument Making

How do separate components become an instrument that makes music in your hands? In this workshop we build pandeiros: handy frame drums with jingles that also accompany the music of Capoeira. All participants make their own instrument, paint it with their own designs and then try it out together. At the end, everyone can take their personally designed pandeiro home.

Build It Yourself and Discover Its Sound

We look at how a pandeiro is constructed and how its frame, playing surface and jingles work together. Step by step, these become your own instrument. Participants do the work themselves and support one another; the instructor guides the use of tools and helps wherever support is needed.

What matters is not who finishes fastest. We take time to look closely, ask questions and experiment. Even during construction, there is scope to discover what vibrates, rustles or rings and how the individual parts contribute to the finished instrument.

Illustration: “Vector illustration of hand drum”, published by OpenClipart on FreeSVG, CC0 / Public Domain. The drawing shows a pandeiro, not a binding construction model for the workshop.

Use Colour to Design Your Own Instrument

After building comes colour. Patterns, colours or a personal motif make each pandeiro distinctive. Participants decide for themselves how their instrument should look. There is no template everyone must reproduce in the same way, and no right or wrong picture.

Designing combines hands-on experimentation with personal expression. We make sure the playing surface and moving parts continue to work while leaving room for individual designs. The result is something that can be used as well as admired.

Play Together and Listen to One Another

With the finished instruments, we explore simple rhythms. We listen to one another, alternate between playing and pauses, and try out how individual sounds become a shared rhythm. Clapping and movement can be added. No musical experience is necessary; together we find a way in.

As in our play workshop, the focus is on personal experience and learning together. No one has to perform alone. Listening and tentative experimentation are part of it too; we adjust volume and pauses with consideration for the group.

Take Your Pandeiro Home

The handmade, painted instrument belongs to the person who built it. All participants can take their pandeiro away and continue playing at home. The workshop therefore ends not only with a shared musical experience but also with an instrument of your own.

For an enquiry, tell us which group you would like to bring and what support is needed. We agree on age, group size, time frame, materials and costs together in advance. Find further offers in our workshop overview.