Museum of Making Music: A great stop for Music Lovers
Written: May 15 '04 (Updated Jan 15 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Hands on exhibits allow you to make music
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: The galleries in this museum are interesting and will appeal mostly to adults. The hands-on portions are fabulous and will appeal to the whole family.
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| modernmarvel's Full Review: Museum of Making Music |
We discovered this Museum on the way to Legoland. It is literally tucked into the back of an office building on the main access road to Legoland - about a 3 minute drive away. There is only a small sign and you would miss it unless you were looking at it. Despite its location, my music-loving daughter can't get enough of this place and has spent hours here.
THE MUSEUM AND GALLERIES
This museum is broken up into several galleries. These galleries trace the history of music starting in the late 1800s to modern times. The galleries have lots of photos and memorabilia from each era they cover. There are also quite a few antique instruments, most of which can't be touched, but are interesting to look at. Each gallery has numerous buttons that you can push to hear samples of the music covered in that gallery.
The museum traces the history of music including styles of music (jazz, country, rock and roll) and the types of instruments used to make music. I found most of the museum interesting but particularly liked the music that came from my younger years. It makes me feel quite old to see the Talking Heads appear as part of a museum history exhibit. The gallery portions of the museum are rather staid and will appeal mostly to adults. However, my 4 year old did enjoy pushing all of the buttons to hear the different types of music. A relatively high reading level is required to understand the signs explaining the exhibits. Younger elementary school students might need help to get the most out of these historical exhibits because they may not have the reading level to understand the signs or the appreciation of the time periods in history.
There are guided tours. We overheard a couple of the tours although we didn't stick with one for an entire visit. The tour guides seemed knowledgable but the tours are definitely designed for adults.
The much more interesting part of the Museum is the part where you can touch certain instruments. The instruments are not your basic folk guitars or garage drum sets. These pieces are the real thing - fully electric rock and roll guitars, computer programmed keyboards, some traditional instruments and lots of others in between. My husband and daughter spent hours playing with the various instruments and electronic mixers. While this area is definitely for the musically-inclined, I did find it fun to play some of the electric guitars and try my hand at mixing various sounds.
The only downside to this area is that most things are for ages 6 and up and many were for 12 and up. There was a little kid area with toy instruments but it was too babyish for my 4 year old.
OTHER INFO
Everything is on one level so handicapped access is excellent.
Clean bathrooms are located in the lobby, right outside the Museum.
The gift shop is great. There are lots of musically-inspired things to buy including t-shirts, harmonicas, toys, books, lots of items covered in notes and musical themes. If there is a music lover in your life, this would be a great place to shop for gifts.
They don't sell food and I didn't see any food sold nearby.
The web site has tons of information: www.museumofmakingmusic.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Museum of Making Music
5790 Armada Drive
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Phone: 760.438.5996
Toll Free: 877.551.9976
Fax: 760.438.8964
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
I really like this museum and I am not musically-inclined. My daughter LOVED this museum, particularly the hands-on instrument section. I definitely recommend it if you are in the area but wouldn't suggest a major trip unless you really love music.
MY REVIEWS OF OTHER THINGS TO SEE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Disney's California Adventure
Disneyland
Legoland
SeaWorld San Diego
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
The San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Wild Animal Park
Balboa Park
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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modernmarvel
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