Make Thumb Piano

Give your thumbs some exercise as host Dave Jadico teaches you how to make a Thumb Piano! It's thum-believable!

1” thick piece of wood cut into 4” square
Paint
10 push pins
4 large bobby pins
Craft or popsicle sticks
2 rubber bands
Wire cutters
White glue

REMEMBER THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS WORK UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION. SOMETIMES WE USE THINGS THAT CAN BE HARMFUL, LIKE SCISSORS, SO DON'T EVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ALONE.

1. Take two popsicle sticks and glue them side by side across your piece of wood, about an inch down from one of the ends. To secure them as they dry, hold your thumb down in the center of the sticks and stretch your rubber bands across and underneath the wood to wrap around the ends.
2. While the glue dries, it’s time to decorate. You can do this however you’d like using paint, markers, or stickers. Once you’re done decorating, set everything aside to dry for about an hour.
3. For the keys, take your first bobby pin and bend it open. This will be the long key. Measure out enough of the bobby pin so that it touches the popsicle sticks and reaches to the end of the wood without extending over it. With the help of an adult, carefully cut off the excess with your wire cutters.
4. Measure out and cut your remaining three keys from the rest of the bobby pins. Each one should be shorter than the one before it so that each key will have a different pitch.
5. Space out the keys across the piano and tape the ends to the popsicle sticks to hold them in place.
6. Apply glue across the tape and place two more popsicle stick over the first two to sandwich the keys into place. Wrap rubber bands around the ends of these sticks just like you did in step 2 to hold them down while they dry.
7. To make sure everything is really tight and gives a good sound, stick two push pins through the popsicle sticks around either side of each bobby pin key. Set everything aside to dry for another hour.
8. Now you’re ready to tune your piano. To do that, take each key and bend it back approximately 45 degrees (or half an inch) from the wood. To play, just run your thumbs across the ends of the keys!