Music Instrument Museum, Phoenix

Yesterday we went to the Music Instrument Museum in Phoenix, and we had a wonderful time. DH plays half a dozen instruments, and loves his music, so he had a great time.



The museum has only been open for 2 years, and the building is lovely as well. Here's the entry hall:



The entrance fee covers a headset for each visitor. The galleries are quiet, but when you approach a display with your headset, it picks up the sound for the video running at that display. That allows scores of displays to run in the same space without the sound overlapping, making it impossible to hear anything.

There is a gallery for each continent, and they were all facinating. It was so interesting to see that everywhere in the world people banged on things, plucked or played strings, and blew through some kind of tube to make music. I took over 100 pictures... you can go look at my flickr account if you would like to see more. Here is a picture from the Argentina exhibit:



Most of the video was about the Tango, and only about 30 seconds covered my favorite Argentine music, the folklore.

This picture is for P. He is learning to play the recorder... I wonder what it would be like to play this kind of horn?!



The gallery we saved for last was called the Experience Gallery. DH tried every instrument they had:

metal "bells"


a djembe


a marimba
and more!

They had gongs, guitars, many kinds of drums, all kinds of maracas and castanets, a nickelodeon, and a theramin. We had a grand time playing.

The weather is cool for here, but we have been in short sleeves, and today there has been a lot of sun. Wish you were here!