Flairdrum, A Wonderful Percussion Instrument Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

Flair Drum

The Flairdrum is a wonderful percussion instrument that’s made with pressurized recycled PET plastic drink bottles and can either be purchased online or built at home. The instrument’s setup is very similar to that of a xylophone and is played with mallets that strike the bottles. Different tones are achieved by inflating the bottles at differing pressure.

With applying air pressure, a PET bottle can create an astonishingly clear and brilliant sound. The ingenious thing about it: The bottle is a sound generator and sound box in one. The higher the pressure, the higher the surface tension of the bottle and thus the higher the tone. Thus, a unique instrument, that invites you to pause and breathe deeply: the flairdrum

We previously mentioned the use of a flairdrum when drummer Joe Porter performed music from various video games on different instruments.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.