During our recent meanderings in Arizona, we visited the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Russ and I enjoy music, both listening and playing, so the museum naturally intrigued us.

This musical museum offers two floors filled with 4,200 instruments from across the world. The CEO of the Target department store corporation founded it to highlight more than just western classical instruments (which are found in many other museums). Robert Ulrich wanted to focus on instruments played by everyday people across the globe. The museum’s motto is: Music is the language of the soul.

The museum delivers on its mission and motto in spades! We could have easily spent an entire day perusing the exhibits. The upper floor has instruments from different geographic regions such as Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Tours are self-guided with an audio headset.

The lower level contains two of my favorite galleries. The Artist Gallery highlights famous musicians past and present, such as Prince and Johnny Cash. Each display features photos, music audio, and memorabilia. Prince’s had a purple piano from one of his tours. One unusual exhibit focuses on the theremin, an eerie electronic instrument played without any direct physical contact by the performer. Clara Rockmore was a theremin “virtuoso” featured.

My other favorite was the Experience Gallery. We were allowed to unleash our inner musicians in this room, which offers banjos to pluck, drums to beat, and gongs to gong.

The museum’s Mechanical Music Gallery shows self-playing pianos and the like. We arrived just in time for a demonstration of a wall-sized instrument called an orchestrion. It’s powered by compressed air and is like having a whole orchestra at the ready.

Until fall of 2024, the museum has a special exhibit called Acoustic America, which displays 90 iconic guitars, mandolins, and banjos that shaped American music since the Civil War. If you’re a stringed instrument-lover, you’ll have to check that out.

If you can’t just pick up and head to Phoenix, the museum provides this virtual tour.

We left the Musical Instrument Museum with many songs in our hearts.