When most people look at a plastic spoon, a straw and a Slurpee dome, all they see is a pile of junk. Musician Craig Woodson, on the other hand, sees the makings of a "drumpet" ­ and the backbone of a 300-person orchestra. 

Dr. Woodson, master percussionist, is an ethnomusicologist and music educator who has specialized in showing young people, teachers and families how to make simple musical instruments from around the world.

"I make musical instruments, and I was messing around with some stuff," Woodson says of his creation, the drumpet. "I've been making individual parts of the drumpet before, and then the whole thing just sort of visualized in my mind. It was a matter of attaching the different parts together and that was the stroke of luck, I guess." 

This proved fortunate indeed for Woodson, who has been touring the world with the Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet for the past few years. One performance in demand is "Homemade Music from Around the World."  The three part show combines a drumpet building section for school children, a Kronos Quartet concert featuring instruments from around the world, and school children playing their newly constructed music makers with the four member group. Throughout the presentation, Woodson alludes to the historical and cultural backgrounds of the instrument being created. 

"Each of these [instruments] are actually replicates of world instruments," Woodson says. "They are anthropomorphic in a way and thought of as people. So, you get labels like a drum head, guitar neck and body, and so forth. These kinds of stories become relevant to the audiences I'm talking to." 

Woodson met David Harrington, violinist and founder of the Kronos Quartet, through a mutual friend Woodson knew since his college days at UCLA. Whipping out his box of homemade instruments, he impressed the concert violinist with his dental floss coat hanger violin skills. 

Plans to work together on a project soon came to life with the help of the Brooklyn Academy, which provided an interactive forum with audiences. Since the Kronos Quartet has never been a strictly classical group, choosing intriguing composers from all over the world and all walks of life, the decision to conspire with Woodson comes as no great shock. 

"I've never met anybody as able to communicate the fun of making everyday objects into instruments," Harrington explains. "Actually making something and being able to play it right then is an amazing opportunity to experience music." 

Looking something like a rocket ship, the drumpet is enjoyed by children and parents alike. Older members of the audienceoften snatch the toy out of the little one's hands in an attempt to join the fun. 

"Kids," Woodson says, "it's your project. Let your parents play it like an hour a day and then force them to give it back to you." 

During this third section, the Kronos Quartet combines their sound with the children's creations. Harrington describes the result as echoing "the take-off of a 747." Three conductors take the stage and lead the audience through a less complicated version of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse." After a few practices, the crowd of wild children with stick instruments produce a catchy tune that sounds not unlike "Powerhouse." Woodson believes this is the drumpet's moment to triumph. 

"I could play that instrument in a band as far as I'm concerned," Woodson claims. "You give it to a musician, and they can play it." 

Though the middle portion of the concert rests entirely on the quartet's shoulders, they use a variety of instruments almost as unusual as Woodson's. The wind section consists of "bird roarers" (whistles that must be twirled), rattles made of animal skin and corn kernels, and the Apache Violin, a single stringed instrument with a cactus stalk bow. These music makers of the Americas fit in well with the less obtrusive modern models displayed in the cartoon music of Raymond Scott and ancient Greek scales of Harry Partch, just two of the several world composers sampled in the show. This need to showcase the otherwise less familiar talents of gifted composers fuels the music of the Kronos Quartet. 

"The reason I started Kronos in 1973 was because I wanted to play this piece I heard on the radio," explains Harrington. "It was during the Vietnam war, and I was in Seattle. It was the middle of the night and that piece scared the hell out of me, for one thing. I'd never heard anything like it and I just had to play it." 

That piece was a sharp, dark work entitled "Black Angels." By 1978, Harrington found the members he needed to record the work, and the four have never looked back. Bringing in the works of composers from all walks of the globe, the group has played everything from the tango to Klezmer, touring on most every continent. On a soon to be released album, "Ghost Opera," composed by Tan Dun, the quartet delves once again into the world of peculiar sounds. 

"There are elements of Chinese traditional music and Bach," Harrington describes. "There's one really great moment where Bach and a Chinese folk song blend together. There's even the sound of dripping water and the dropping of a gong into it which almost sounds like a human voice." 

This maverick approach to music making strongly parallels the history of Woodson. His instrument building career began with his childhood task of repairing school drums, and continued right on through to his ethnomusicology days at UCLA,where he received his Ph.D. Eventually, after being a member of the 1950s electronic rock group, The United States of America, he travelled to Ghana where he built instruments for children in African schools. When he finally returned to American soil, he went looking for a job with the L.A. Philharmonic Education division of the Music Center on tour. 

"I did an audition with a bunch of principals judging in the back and the kids were all sitting down there in the front, laughing," Woodson remembers. "I was thinking 'Oh man, this is terrible. Everyone thinks I'm funny.' I ended up getting the highest rating of anyone in the entire history of their program." 

From there, Woodson's fate was sealed. Performing with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he has plans to continue with his work well past his bookings with the Kronos Quartet. For Woodson, instrument building is more than just a way to turn a fast buck. 

"When I build an instrument," Woodson says, "I feel like I'm going through a process that's been around for tens of thousands of years that's built into my genes as a human being."