San Jose Señora: 4th Day of Christmas.

I'm forgoing the Wordless Wednesdayness of today in lieu of my current blog campaign. Click HERE to know what's up. Also, beware, here is "really long post in the span of only a few days # I've lost count".

Today, on my quest of thanks and appreciating time spent with loved ones, I enumerate the benefits of museums. I LOVE museums; I think I might be able to find something I like in any museum I visit. I really appreciate learning new and interesting things in an engaging manner. I was obsessed with "olden" things when I was young {I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder} and seeing the actual evidence that there was a past really played/plays into this fascination. I also really appreciate knowing that if I can't remember everything that I read/learned/saw in any given visit, the museum will always be there for me to go back to.

Although I love me some beautiful artwork, I often have more fun at museums of a different variety, generally those which have a theme. Yesterday we went to the Musical Instrument Museum. I'm tone deaf. I love listening to music but have no talent in that field but this place has gotten rave reviews; I kept my mind open and was by no means disappointed. I think this may actually be one of my favorite museums ever.

I'll give a brief explanation of what it's all about and then launch into the pictures though I'll even put those into categories of a) cool things b) costumes/masks c) geographical-ness d) famous musicians and e) us playing with instruments.

This two story museum is a listening experience. It's touted as the most interesting museum you'll ever hear...or something like that. The very first thing you visit is a little gallery that has a short introductory video of the museum, a room full of guitars {which is wise since almost everyone knows what these are} and a room full of interesting instruments {large to tiny, varying mediums, musical oddities}.

Then we went upstairs which is divided by regions of the world. I think that every country is represented which is mind boggling because our world is dang big! The organization goes by continent and super large countries are divided by regions or styles of music. We started with Africa and moved onto the Middle East. Maybe because it was the first place we visited but I think those two were my favorite regions. And the United States. The Africa/Middle East was great because they had fabulous drum rhythms and costumes. The US was great because it covered Native American cultures {which I find exceptionally interesting} as well as some of the music that is most familiar to me as a child of this country {blue grass, traditional marching, Hip Hop, Country Western...}.

We ate a yummy lunch. Some museums have the best cafes and this was no exception. The emphasis was on local stuff and just plain old good stuff.
Post lunch we explored the rest of the downstairs which included two pretty cool areas; the notable musician section and the experiential room.

The notable musician room included little exhibits on exactly that, famous and influential music makers. John Lennon was prominent as were John Denver, Eric Clapton, Elvis Prestley, The Jonas Brothers and the Black Eyed Peas, though I overheard some grumbling among fellow patrons regarding the last two choices.
We capped off our visit by getting to play some instruments. We stuck to ~~hitting things with sticks~~ the various drum options. This room was loud and cacophonous considering that the many children present yesterday seemed to really enjoy getting their hands on things they'd been looking at all afternoon.

What makes this museum exceptional is that except for the very first two galleries {the guitars and unique instruments} everything has an audio component. Like I said, it's the most interesting museum you'll ever hear. Guests have this little box they carry around with them that's connected to earphones. Every exhibit has a TV playing one to six vignettes that relate to the country, style of music or musician it's describing; there's a very short written explanation of each scene that's shown {each is no longer than two minutes}; they're matched up by a letter that pops up when each new one begins. The little box that patrons carry uses some crazy magic to figure out which TV you're in front of and just picks up what's being broadcast. I had never heard the majority of what was played for me yesterday, obviously, but I loved matching audio to the visual.

It was so poignant to hear familiar sounds; various songs and sounds {as well as scent but I haven't been the the Museum of Olfactory Oddities yet...maybe I don't want to?} can instantly transport me to what was happening when I first heard those tunes. I'm the type of music lover that will play something over and over again if I love it so various songs remind me really strongly of certain summers, school years, trips, etc. I think that this component of the museum and the fact that the sounds are piped directly into your own ears so as to have an extra visceral effect is what makes this museum so appealing.

What songs or sounds are meaningful to you? Does music make a soundtrack to your life the way it has and continues to for me? Are you tone deaf like I am and just enjoy listening? Also, are you painfully unhip when it comes to music choices? I most definitely am and did not feel one bit intimidated yesterday which could also be another benefit of this place; all visitors are able to enjoy and relate.

Anyway, It was a fabulous visit that spanned about six hours. Thanks so much to my in-laws for taking us!

Aaaaaaaand some visuals:
a) Cool Things:
I think that this is a Thai instrument. Forgive me now for I may attribute the wrong countries but I'll try and get things as correct as possible and mean no offense to anyone out there.