Monkey Chatter

Monkey Music are adding more magical sounds to their own range of baby and toddler wooden musical instruments! – written by Monkey Music Founder and CEO, Angie Coates

Having launched our FSC certified Rainmaker at the start of the year I’m so excited that our Monkey Music Maracas and Monkey Music Tambourine will be arriving soon in our online shop! During my thirty years running music classes the instruments ‘designed’ for babies and toddlers have often frustrated me.

Because babies have minimal strength to control the things they pick up and short attention spans, product design is critical to developing their motor skills and providing good sensory stimulation. Instruments need to be easy to hold and manipulate, neither too light nor too heavy for little hands, and exceptionally well balanced for easy control of movements. This is significantly more challenging in baby instruments than adult ones due to a young child’s lack of strength and co-ordination. They also need to be visually appealing, tactile and produce an attractive sound to achieve the full developmental benefits.

In my experience, most baby and toddler instruments are actually really hard for little ones to use – they are either produced by toy manufacturers who put little effort into the development or by instrument manufacturers who simply scale down adult instruments. After hoping for many years, that something suitable would come on the market I decided to do something about it.

Creating a “Monkey Music Band” has been a challenge! Everything from product development and testing through to achieving the relevant product certifications (it’s reassuringly demanding) has been a learning curve.

So, Monkey Music now have three brightly painted beautiful wooden instruments, each with its own distinctive sound and motor development benefits.

The Monkey Music Rainmaker: tip it, turn it, shake it, rattle it or roll it. Great for all ages. Younger children will enjoy rolling it. As they start to track sounds, babies will love watching the beads fall and try to grab the rain sound with both hands. As their hands get bigger and their arms get stronger they can hold it with one hand to play along with the music! Available gift wrapped or as part of the band.

The Monkey Music Maracas: hold the handles or the egg and shake to get different sounds…once you’ve started you won’t be able to stop! How many different ways can you play? Suitable for babies from 10mths. Available gift wrapped or as part of the band.

The Monkey Music Tambourine (+ beater): the ultimate sensory toy! Hold it with one hand or both, tap, pat or scratch the skin for different sensations and sounds. Tap the edge and shake or flick the jingles… Use the beater or just your hand or hip, there’s so much you can do!

The Monkey Music instruments will be available to buy individually or as a discounted bundle in a lovely FREE jute bag.  For a limited period, there will also be a special song download included in the bundle so you are invited to share photos of your family playing-along to Monkey's favourite new song!