send questions, comments, and/or submissions to us@thelighthouseband.com

Click here to return to The LightHouse Band!

How to make a bottle cap sistrum

A sistrum is an ancient percussive instrument used by many different cultures during ceremonial rituals. It is still used today by many Arabic and African musicians, as well as ritualistically in the Ethiopian Christian Church. They are made with whatever materials folks have available, including anything from sticks and bottle caps (such as in the example here) to ornately designed silver and gold. The Constant jingle of a sistrum helps one to enter into a meditative state of mind, which is a good place to be when those around you are yelling at you to knock off all that racket. All th' materials needed for th' following example can easily be found, and therefore no cost is involved. As well as getting an instrument for free, you will also be reusing old bottle caps, which most likely would've ended up on the side of the road, or in a landfill.
So th' first thing to do is round up some bottle caps. For one sistrum i usually use 5-8 caps, but it's good to round up as many as you can anyway. Once you've gotten some caps, get out that ole hammer (or borrow your neighbors) and go to town flattening them out. Now this can be trickier than you'd expect, but stick with it and you'll figure out a good method (if you have a large ball peen hammer, that helps, but we've flattened them with a regular hammer too). After you've flattened out all your caps you'll want to punch holes in them. Use a 16 penny nail, or a center punch. Or anything that works. Then you're gonna get some wire hangers out of your closet, and a pair of pliers to straighten and clip them. On most pliers you can clip a coat hanger by putting th' wire down in th' V of th' pliers and squeezing real hard. Make sure th' holes in th' caps are big enough for them to slide easily onto th' wire hanger with no resistance. Next you'll want to gather some Y shaped sticks. Ones still on th' tree work th' best, as they can bend a little, and then can dry once you've made your sistrum. Make sure th' handle part is strong enough to support th' weight of a few bottle caps and a piece of wire, around 1/4 inch works good for us. Now take your pliers and use them to wrap an end of a piece of wire around one side of th' Y on a stick. Slide some caps on that ole boy and wrap and clip the other end. Prune your stick to a good length, find out when you're favorite band is playing and go stand in th' front row and shake everyone into a trance. Enjoy.