DIY: Silent Mini Keyboards

I recently decided that I wanted to own a set of silent keyboards for doing introductory piano activities with young children, and for using during group theory activities.  Unfortunately, buying a set of silent plastic keyboards (view them at musicinmotion.com) can be a rather large studio expense.  Of course, a cheap alternative would be to simply print a picture of a keyboard on paper.  But there is something nice about the 3D features of a silent keyboard…so I decided to make my own.  I got the idea from Anne Cosby Gaudet’s Piano Discoveries website, where she made similar keyboards with wood and foam.

My DIY (Do It Yourself) mini keyboards do not have true-to-life sized keys as the store-bought plastic silent keyboards have.  However, I spent less on the supplies for making a set of six keyboards than it would have cost me to buy just one plastic silent keyboard!  Here’s how I made my set of six keyboards:

Materials:

• 1 package of 6 wooden slats (each piece measures approx. 7 x 3 inches and 1/4 inch thick; these packages are available at craft stores for about $3).
• white acrylic paint
• small paintbrush
• an ultra fine tipped black permanent marker
• ruler
• clear lacquer spray / acrylic spray
• pair of scissors
• 1 sheet of extra thick black foam
• clear silicone adhesive/glue (less smelly than other strong glues, although other glues may work just as well.)

Instructions:

• Paint each piece of wood using 2-3 coats of white paint, as needed.
• After the paint dries, use the thin black permanent marker and a ruler to draw the lines between the white keys on each white board (to form 12 equally-sized white keys).
• Coat all sides of the wood pieces using the acrylic spray, following the directions indicated on the can.
• Cut 1cm x 4cm rectangles out of the foam sheet.  You will need a total of 48 black keys for 6 keyboards.  Use the clear silicone adhesive to glue the black keys to the wooden boards in groups of 2’s and 3’s.

A few quick examples of ways to use silent keyboards:

• Introducing keyboard topography to groups of preschool / pre-piano students: Ask them to cover the black key group of two with fingers 2 and 3.  Then ask them to find Middle C and other notes.  They can even “play” beginner songs together in rhythm on their mini keyboards.
• A reference tool when teaching theory: Students can find and “play” chords on their mini keyboard in front of them as needed while you are teaching or they are completing a worksheet.  Or, students could also use glass gems to form chords, five-finger patterns, etc.

Download a printer-friendly pdf of the instructions at the Printables > Other Resources page by scrolling down to the D’s for “DIY: Silent Mini Keyboards.”