MUSIC MUSEUM WILD MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

What came before bagpipes in music museum?

Is it the ‘goat pipe?’ Maybe the ‘dog pipe?’ Which ever it was, I didn’t get to hear how they sounded.

The Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale AZ isn’t for the timid. Music minded people throughout the ages learned to improvise.

Like Elvis singing Jailhouse Rock where inmates who couldn’t find a dance partner found a wooden chair, ancient musicians who knew they needed something, and found it.

Then they had to answer the question, “Have you seen the family goat?”

And, “Which end do you blow?”

Over and over I’ve heard how music treats our brain. Treats is good from all the evidence brought forward.

At least my facebook wall says as much. Does everyone get music posts titled ‘Similar to posts you’ve interacted with?’ I’m finding more and more. But I click on music stuff, so I guess it makes sense in a creepy eavesdropping sort of way.

Like facebook encouraging me to join at a higher level by giving up my phone list to join messenger, I think there’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.

Quick, someone call Stephen Stills.

Music Museum or Smithsonian

This museum covers 200,000 sq ft. In other words it’s freaking huge. And what is the best way to tour a huge museum? There’s only one way.

Don’t. Stop.

This method isn’t for everyone, especially visitors who feel obligated to read every label. With that much gear in so large a space, reading is optional with so many weird looking things to see.

The accordion horn? Ever seen one? Me neither.

I drug a museum fan, okay my wife, through the National Gallery in Washington DC and it didn’t go well. She was a reader. If we didn’t move along quickly we’d still be there two years later.

Luckily I went to the music museum with seasoned veterans. I could tell when an announcement came out that an orientation meeting was about to happen.

My take on museum orientation is I worked in a museum for twenty years. I’ve built exhibits, researched artifacts, wrote copy, in other words I give orientations, not attend.

When I asked one of the group with me if they wanted to go to the meeting they said, “No, I can figure it out on my own.”

Dale and Linda were perfect museum people.

Music is that important?

From the looks of the music museum the answer is resounding YES.

This was one of the instruments used in Elton John’s ‘Crocodile Rock?’

I should have been. Take a solo, Boots Randolph.

Along with a ton of things played around the world, the Musical Instrument Museum had its own public instrument room with gear from around the world.

I heard the noise from the hallway and followed my ears. The first thing I saw was a small harp, so I mentioned to the attendant, “Oh, finally found my harp.”

She laughed and said she’d been saving it until I got there.

Three small guitars hung on a nearby wall with three larger ones next to them. A man was showing his date his chops, she nodded she’d heard enough and they left.

I watched while parents sat their kid in front of the harp and tried to get her to do something while they recorded. She looked about two years old.

The kid plucked the same string over and over. And over.

I picked up a guitar and hit the same note. I watched out of the corner of my eye. She noticed when I changed notes and when I came back. We kept the same rhythm, the same beat.

She got excited, played more, and gave her parents something to record for later viewing. Then she stopped and walked over to the smaller guitars while I switched into the chord progression for Simple Man: Am-C-G-Am.

That little kid lit up to live music, the same way people everywhere in the entire history of humans on earth have lit up to music.

Music Museum History

Where did music history start? When did music start?

I can see two ancient people resting during a hunt and sitting on a log.

On of them drops his rock weapon on the log and it makes a hollow sound. He does it again. The other guy does the same thing. In no time they’re trading beats. Next came the singing and dancing and brain development.

Now, with all of the advances we learn happen in our brain due to music exposure, can someone explain why Johnny Cash still stuck with the same color for his stage suit?

After you figure that one out, let’s move to Elvis and his look:

Music history, pt2

History repeated itself in the music museum play room when the little girl copied my sounds from the guitar on the harp, or I copied hers, and she moved to a guitar her size.

I cruised the room and played everything I saw, finding notes in different octaves, repeating sounds, creating musical structure at its most basic.

I tell people I like making noise that sounds musical sometimes.

The music room attendant stopped for a chat on my way toward the front door.

“It sounds like you lost more than your harp in here,” she said.

“You’ve got an irresistible room full of fun,” I said.

“When someone like you comes in and plays our instruments it brings the whole place alive. We have proof of our value when we hear people like you pick up things and aren’t afraid to hear what they sound like,” she said.

People like me?

While we talked I looked for my wife and waved her over. I didn’t want her to miss an independent evaluation of musical talent.

“You probably have lots of skilled musicians come in and play your stuff,” I said.

“Not as often as you’d think. Most people see this as a kids’ room,” she said.

“Well, isn’t it a kids’ room? Kids of all ages,” I said.

We nodded toward each other and smiled.

She knew the drill.