Close your eyes and think a minute. What song were you singing when you woke up? What song were you humming during your ride into work? What song floated through your mind during your last meeting? What song kept you going during your walk today? I just about always have a song in my mind that I am humming to myself. I sometimes wake up with a song coursing through my semi-consciousness. 2 days ago I was hiking to the Beach Boys song ‘Do It Again.’
Music is so important to all of us - it can pass the time, it can speak to us, it can help us through life, it can give us a rhythm to our life. And, that is the theme of the Musical Instrument Museum, a new museum in Phoenix. In fact it is so new that they have not quite finished it yet.
The guide books recommend starting on the second floor with Africa in the geographic sections. Each continent has a section of the museum which is subdivided into countries. Beginning in Africa, each country in Africa had a 12’ - 15’ section along a wall with instruments from that country, a video display with several clips of various groups playing instruments and - here’s the neat part, audio of these clips playing into the earphones each museum visitor has. Yes, you walk around with earphones on and, as you move between countries, the music changes. That way, what you’re listening to won’t interfere with what someone else is listening to. Each visitor is in her or his own world, moving at her or his own pace.
This museum was so complete that it even had an air guitar.
I thought it was an awesome museum but at times, it seemed a bit disjointed: here’s Cuba and its instruments, here’s Latvia and its instruments, here’s Egypt and its instruments. What I missed was some unifying elements or themes. Obviously, one can make up ones own themes. Gary and I were struck by the number of similarities between countries. Most countries had a variety of stringed instruments, most countries had some form of drum. But the variety of ways that these were made and played was mind boggling. Here’s a picture of a drum set in which the musician actually sits inside.
And, then there’s this from another country. Same concept, different country. Obviously world trade had a lot to do with it but I also think that each musician solved his or her own problem in the same way: how to get more notes out of my drum set. However, note the differences also.
Did you know that the marching band is a unique America concept? I didn't. John Philip Sousa was an American original.
The number of instruments here is amazing. Everywhere you turn is another instrument.
Some musicians in some countries used what they could salvage for their instruments. Here’s a Castrol Oil can in its second life as a guitar. On the left is the video we could watch as we listened on our headsets and hanging on the wall was the same instrument.
It is an awesome museum and I recommend that you all visit it when and if you ever come to Phoenix. Wear comfortable shoes and plan for more than 3 hours. They do have a restaurant if you wish to eat lunch so you can stay longer.
Here’s a Dibhinda Mbila made out of sneeze wood, Natal mahogany, mdani woods, gourds, palm leaf, cow’s small intestine, beeswax, cow skin, antelope skin and goat skin. Wow. And how much work must it have taken to make it? I wish we could have heard this played. Obviously they had to pick and choose which instruments to put into the video/audio clips but I wish they had put more in.
We began in Africa, taking our time to look at each instrument, listen to and watch each clip. At 4:00 we realized we had the rest of the world to review and began to scan and pick and choose. At 5:00 we realized how much we had missed and that we had not allowed enough time. We’ll visit again.
If you begin your day here, you might also end your day here. We tried to combine a visit here with a visit to Taliesin, way too much for one day.
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