Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum Is an Absolute Must-See!

When I planned a long weekend in Phoenix with my mom to enjoy the cactuses and general desert aesthetic, the Musical Instrument Museum wasn't really on my radar. We only ended up going because we had some time to spare and felt like we had seen everything else the city had to offer. But gosh, I am so glad we had time to stop by because this museum was one of my favorites! It was definitely one of my favorite stops in Phoenix, and as a person not super into museums, I think it's one of my favorite museums, too!

There were three main reasons why I was so into this museum, and why I recommend it as such a great experience if you're in the Phoenix area.

1. I loved how wide-ranging their collection was

2. It was awesome to see all the similarities between instruments, some of which developed totally independently

3. Some of the instruments were so beautiful and creative and made with such care and craftsmanship

7,500 Instruments from 200+ Cultures

The Musical Instrument Museum is massive: it has over 80,000 square feet of exhibition space and currently houses more than 7,500 musical instruments. These instruments have been sourced from all over the world, more than 200 countries and territories. The museum is laid out with four different massive rooms (Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa) and different exhibitions for each country or community.

Each exhibit has a television playing clips on a loop, as you can see in the photos below, and through the provided audio tour, you can listen to people playing the instruments you're looking at. (And when I say tour, it wasn't really a tour. It's just headphones that start playing sound automatically when you're close enough to any given television.) This part was really fun, since some of the instruments sounded amazing despite looking quite simple. You could also watch the dances and rituals that go along with the instruments.

I especially appreciated the incredible array of diversity. The museum featured instruments from different indigenous cultures and small communities, not just the most popular ones, part of mainstream musical establishments. They also had instruments ranging from hundreds of years old to the latest technologies and exhibits set up showing off different instruments within the context of their musical genre or cultural usage. This was a cool way to display these instruments because you got to hear some of the music and learn about the rituals or practices where they are used.

Z is for Zither

The second reason I was so entranced by the museum was the similarities between all the instruments. There certainly are a lot of different musical instruments in the world, and some cultures feature some types more than others. But in general, we (humans) really like to bang on things and pluck strings. There were so many different types of drums and so many stringed instruments!

My mom and I had played that alphabet game in the car where you have to take turns coming up with something from each category that starts with every letter of the alphabet. I suggested musical instruments in preparation of our visit, and we struggled to come up with an n, a q, and a z. I pulled "zither" completely out of nowhere and my mom had to just believe me that it was a thing, but now, wow, have we seen so many zithers! Featured below (left to right) are three plucked zithers from China, Russia, and Mongolia. The one in the middle, from Russia, is made with wood and sheep's bone!

Just to round out the set, I think the third most common instrument type that I saw is a shaker of some sort or another. And I just thought it was so cool how there was so much overlap between the different cultures and how much creativity there was in creating musical instruments with whatever materials are available. There were random exhibits scattered throughout showing off one particular instrument in all its iterations, which was really cool to see. Shown below are ancient bronzes (gongs and bells), ukuleles, harmonicas, and - a personal favorite - kalimbas aka thumb pianos. It really is a testament to our drive to create music and sing and dance and celebrate.

Creativity and Craftsmanship

The third, and most compelling reason, to visit the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix is that creativity and beauty. Even if you don't care for music, just walk around and see all the instruments! There were so many gorgeously crafted instruments with delicate carving and intricate inlays of mother-of-pearl and other fancy materials. I like that these instruments were designed not just for the sound but also to be works of art and representative, in many cases, of their cultures of origin.

American cornet from 1886

Beatles-themed Epiphone Casino by Greg Rich

Mexican lute from the 19th century

Mongolian bowed lute

Guitar from Italy circa 1670! by maker Domenico Sellas

Goblet drum from Iran

Century-old banjo ukulele from China

Button harmonica from Finland

Grand piano from 1889 Paris

Electric guitar made in 1976 in Japan

Button accordion made in Prague by Antonin Hlavacek

Syrian plucked lute made by Garabed der Bedrossian in 1970

I also loved how creative many of the instruments were. Drums were made out of turtle shells, shakers were bundles of nut shells, and wind instruments were carved from every variety of animal tusk. The second photo below is something I've never seen before - an instrument made of stone! After a small amount of research, I've learned that these were popular ancient instruments (look up lithophones if you want more information), and this one is a Chinese bianquin, which translates to ordered stones. It's made of marble and was created between 476-221 BCE.

A display of shell trumpets from Polynesia

Chinese "ordered stones" instrument from 476-221 BCE!

Jamaican Stary Harp by Everald Brown

Ancient Jewish trumpet instrument made out of kudu (antelope) horn

Tortoiseshell drums from Belize

South African guitars made from upcycled oil container

Slit drums from Vanuatu

Late 19th century English horn made from elephant tusk :(

Snare drum using rattlesnake tails

Mechanical song bird from Switzerland

French bass horn and slide trombone from early 19th century

Slovakian bagpipe made with goat pelt

I particularly loved seeing an exhibit about a community in Paraguay up-cycling material from the landfill in their neighborhood, making their own instruments, learning to play them, and - not for nothing - sounding amazing! Their band is called the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura. Check them out.

Additional Exhibits

In addition to the main exhibits described above, the museum had a few awesome, smaller exhibits. I was really taken with the STEM one, which explained the science of music - everything from how we hear, harmonies, sound waves, why instruments sound different, and so much more. There was a display of a deconstructed Fenway Stratocaster (guitar) and another of a deconstructed Steinway (piano) with a video of one being built.

There was a pretty large room with a number of instruments and outfits from famous musicians around the world - shown below are Carlos Santana, Prince, John Denver, and Taylor Swift.

There was also an interactive room where you could play a number of instruments that you'd seen in the museum. I would have loved it, but it was quite loud with the number of children wailing away on drums and gongs and pianos, so I didn't stay long.

In Conclusion

Overall, I didn't anticipate how long we would be in the museum. I thought it would be an hour max, and we ended up leaving just after two hours because we really needed to go get lunch. I think two hours is probably the minimum amount of time you could spend at the Musical Instrument Museum. We didn't even pay extra for the special exhibit!

As you can probably tell from the incredible number of photos I took (I only included about a fifth of them here...) and the rest of this post, I loved the Musical Instrument Museum and highly recommend it to anyone passing through Phoenix!