Shoe Box Guitar

Shoe-Box Guitar

Guitars are played by plucking and strumming the strings and even tapping a beat on the body of the guitar. Try all these techniques with your shoe-box guitar. If you'd like to learn more about guitars click here.

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What You'll Need
Scissors
Ruler
Shoe box with lid
White glue
Colored paper
4 toothpicks
4 large rubber bands of various thickness
Pencil

What To Do
1. Cut a hole about 3 inches square near one end of the shoe-box lid. Decorate your guitar by gluing cut paper designs onto the sides of the box and top of the lid.

2. Glue the toothpicks onto the lid of the box, spacing them evenly between the hole and the opposite end of the lid. These are the frets.

3. Place the lid on the box. Slide the rubberbands, from thickest to thinnest, around the box and lid so that they go across the hole.

4. Insert the pencil under the rubber bands at the end near the hole. This is the bridge.

5. Play the guitar by plucking the rubber bands. Try making different sounds by holding down the rubber bands at the frets while plucking. Notice that the thicker rubber bands create a lower sound.

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