Music Instrument Museum

On Friday Grant and I went to the Music Instrument Museum. I had heard about it from someone I met at a wedding reception recently. The museum was EXTREMELY educational. Although I was enlightened by seeing so many different instruments, I felt like I had an amazing geography lesson too.The museum is laid out by continent. The first continent we visited was Africa. This picture shows that the Africans make instruments out of just about anything they can find. The instruments were very roughly made. As we visited each country of Africa, a video would play that would show people using the instruments or how the instruments were made.Brent's parents served their mission in Lesotho, so I had to get a picture of the instruments from there. If you are able to zoom in to the gun on the wall, you will see some crazy design work. Grant is modeling the headphones we wore throughout the museum. The device hanging around his neck picked up the video signals of whatever booth you were standing in front of and then you could hear the music play in the video. Very high tech.

These instruments are X-Rated. Do not let your kiddos zoom in ;) The top of the instrument is where the head is and the bottom of the instrument are the feet. You can fill in the rest.

I thought Toni would get a kick out of this large instrument. It is a large rattle made entirely from goat hooves. Toni, do you remember having to trim goat hooves? Now I know what people in the Middle East do with the goat hooves after trimming their goats.

These horns from Tibet are super long. I thought if Grant stood near them you could get a better perspective of just how long they are.

Interesting design work on this drum.

This instrument has gourds hanging from the bottom of it. Joe, did you ever see one of these while you were in Guatemala?

Yes, this drum is HUGE!

After you go through all of the exhibits, there is an "experience" room where you get to PLAY a variety of instruments.

We were even allowed to hit the gong. It is so cool to put your hand on it and feel the vibrations after you hit it.

I'm not sure what country this instrument is from but they look like copper pots that the lids can't come off of. Fun to play.

This is the CRAZIEST instrument of them all. Listen to Grant playing it.

You've heard of the television station called Nickelodeon, well, this is an actual Nickelodeon.