Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum Hits All the Right Notes
Step into a world where ancient drums sit alongside electric guitars, where the melodies of 200 countries fill the air, and where you can actually touch and play instruments from across the globe. Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum offers something most music museums don't: the chance to hear how these instruments actually sound in their original settings.
A Vision Made Real
Former Target Corporation CEO Bob Ulrich founded MIM with the goal of creating something different from typical music museums. Rather than showcasing primarily European classical instruments, he envisioned a space that would celebrate the musical traditions people practice every day across all cultures and continents.
Today, the museum houses more than 7,500 instruments from more than 200 countries and territories, making it one of the most geographically diverse musical collections in existence. The emphasis remains on guest experience, using cutting-edge technology to let visitors see, hear, and understand how these instruments function within their original cultural contexts.
Starting Your Journey
The Orientation Gallery introduces visitors to the museum's scope, featuring everything from ancient cymbals to modern guitars, miniature flutes to the massive octobasse. These displays establish the range of instruments visitors will encounter throughout their visit and set the stage for the cultural diversity ahead.
Geographic Galleries: Musical World Tour
The museum's Geographic Galleries organize more than 4,200 instruments by major world regions: Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, Latin America, Europe, and United States/Canada. Video monitors throughout these galleries show musicians performing with the displayed instruments in their native settings, providing cultural context for the collection.
Visitors encounter rare and historically significant pieces alongside everyday instruments that reflect the musical lives of ordinary people.
Artist Gallery: Icons and Their Instruments
Nearly 40 rotating displays in the Artist Gallery feature instruments owned and played by influential musicians spanning multiple genres and eras. The collection includes pieces from Elvis Presley, Tito Puente, the Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Roberta Flack, Glen Campbell, Joan Baez, and Maroon 5, among others.
These exhibits show the personal connection between musicians and their instruments, adding individual stories to the museum's broader collection.
Hands-On Musical Discovery
The Experience Gallery invites visitors to move beyond observation and actually play instruments from around the world. Guests can experiment with Javanese gamelan, West African djembe, Peruvian harps, and theremins, discovering how different cultures approach sound creation and musical expression.
For younger visitors, the Encore Gallery provides age-appropriate instruments and activities designed for prekindergarten through second-grade children. The space includes natural light, open areas, and materials for creative play.
Mechanical Music Gallery: When Instruments Play Themselves
The Mechanical Music Gallery showcases self-playing instruments from the late 19th and early 20th centuries' "Golden Age of Mechanical Music." These remarkable machines - barrel organs, mechanical zithers, cylinder music boxes, and automatons - can still perform musical pieces without human musicians.
The instruments used punched cards, paper rolls, pinned cylinders, and electromagnetic systems to reproduce musical performances, representing the era's innovation in capturing and reproducing music before radio and recorded sound became widespread.
The Science of Sound
The Dr. Donald W. Collier STEM Gallery connects music with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Interactive displays explore sound creation, technological innovation, human hearing, and safety considerations related to sound exposure.
Original videos and hands-on technology help visitors understand the physics behind musical sound production, using instruments from the museum's global collection to demonstrate scientific principles in action.
The Musical Instrument Museum offers visitors both educational insight and hands-on experience with the diverse ways humans create and experience sound across cultures and throughout history. Beyond the permanent galleries, MIM hosts frequent concerts in its 300-seat theater featuring more than 200 artists annually. The museum also offers MIM Talks with curator-led discussions and interactive activities, rotating Spotlight Series programs highlighting musical traditions from around the world, and signature events celebrating diverse cultures and music genres. For more information on museum hours, concerts, and special programs, visit mim.org.
