Make Your Own Recorder Stands

My room is very small, so where to put things is a real issue for me. I liked the recorder stands that I saw in catalogs, but they were around $50 each. At a workshop, someone brought a recorder stand that they made and I learned from them how you can make my own recorder stands inexpensively.

Find Materials to  Make Your Own Recorder Stand

Go to a place like Home Depot and get a long white pressboard.

Buy 1/4 inch wooden dowels (36 inches long)from a store like Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, or Lowes.

They are fabulous, and it only cost me $12 (more if you have to buy the wood glue)!

How to Make Your Own Recorder stand

I had a worker at Home Depot cut the pressboard into 14-inch boards and got three boards, plus an extra small one, on which I keep my personal recorders plus extra ones for new kids who come into the class midyear.

Mark 36 evenly spaced out dots on the 3 large pressboards. The dots were about an inch from the edge and 2 1/4 inches apart. A neighbor drilled holes with his drill press.

I bought 1/4 inch wooden dowels and marked them for 3 1/2 inch lengths and that same neighbor cut them. I sanded the end that would be sticking up and glued them in the holes with wood glue.

How I Use My Recorder Stands

I have numbers on my recorders and my three stands sit on my piano. Each student is assigned a school recorder that stays at school. I have my seating chart with each student’s recorder number listed in their assigned spot. The students have the option to buy a recorder for home use for $5. About 3/4 of the kids end up buying a recorder.

During the year, I sometimes move students if their spot is not working, but I usually don’t move the recorder since they have gotten used to where their spot is. Some students don’t put away their recorder properly, so sometimes kids have a hard time finding theirs, but we don’t sweat it too much. It seems to work pretty well.

Organization

If you want to go even further to challenge your students, get my Mega Recorder belt system that goes beyond the black belt with 70 extra belts, charts on which they put pictures for the belts they pass off, games, and more. Get it HERE.