How to Make a Box Violin

Supplies:

• Macaroni and cheese box, empty, preferably with lid still intact or hinged on at least one side; some teachers use empty margarine stick boxes, which are more square in shape rather than the rectangular shape that I prefer
• Packing peanuts
• Paint stir stick (free at hardware or paint store)
• Mole foam (not mole skin, which is too thin)
• Shelf or drawer paper; I prefer the kind that has a backing that peels off and leaves a gluey surface to the paper; the student may prefer a blank paper so that the student may decorate the box violin
• Packing tape, clear
• Rubber bands
• Wedge sponge shoulder rest
• Decorative stickers

Take the empty macaroni and cheese box and fold over the open top. Cut a slit in one edge of the top’s hinge to fit the width of the paint stir stick. Fit the paint stir stick through the slit until it completely enters the empty box and touches the box bottom. Whichever side of the box that the paint stir stick is closest to, make sure that the side of the stick without the writing is the side that faces up. You might secure the paint stick to the inside of the box with one or more pieces of packing tape to keep the stick from sliding back out if pulled by an unsupervised younger sibling. Fill the box with packing peanuts, and then fold down the top to close the box with the paint stir stick now half in and half out of the box. Secure the lid closed with packing tape.

Lay out the shelf paper flat with the decorative surface face down. Lay the box on top of the paper and cut around the paper to accommodate the size of the box. Here’s where your talent at wrapping gifts will come in handy. I won’t give you detailed directions for cutting the correct size of the paper, because you may have a terrific way of doing it, and I’m not sure that my way is the best way.

After cutting the shelf paper, peel off the backing, lay the box on the sticky side of the shelf paper, and start folding the paper around the box. I do some snips here and there to make flaps in the shelf paper to fold over and seal the top, bottom, and corners of the box. I seal up these places tight with the packing tape if needed.

After the box is covered with the shelf paper and the paper’s corners are secured with packing tape, I then cut an oval shape about 2 inches wide or so out of mole foam. Mole foam is better than moleskin because it has a bit of cushion to it. I peel off the backing and affix the sticky oval to the bottom left side of the box violin top surface, where the chin rest would go. Then I wrap a rubber band around the violin from top to bottom on the left side and another rubber band on the right side. The rubber bands serve several purposes: we can pretend that they are violin strings, they provide a way to secure a shoulder rest wedge sponge underneath the box violin, and they can act as “seat belts” for a toy when placing it on the violin.

I put a sticker on the backside of the violin at a place that is right underneath the place where the stick comes out. This is the “thumb spot,” which is where I want the student to place his or her thumb when taking the box violin from rest position to playing position. We won’t get to this place for a few lessons, but I get the box violin ready for all of this right from the beginning.

For some younger students, they might enjoy putting more stickers on the box violin or even coloring their own design. I have a student who enjoys horses, and her mother has drawn several pictures of horses on her violin.

My students generally do not spend too much time on the box. When they have mastered the basic list of necessary skills, I move them to a real violin and bow in stages, which I’ll cover in a future discussion. For my very, very young students, I will keep them on the box violin for a much longer time.