Museum of Making Music — Attraction in Carlsbad

Nice looking area and setting, plenty of parking. Apparently many volunteers to assist patrons.

Acoustics are better in seats at or near the the back of the room than in the front several rows. Definitely better than in the front row. Despite the fact that there are smaller speakers farther back from the stage, the poor up-front acoustics are because they never set up the sound equipment properly. Too often I have been in the front row, only to experience horribly loud, even painful sound.

Poor planning for some events, such as the beer tasting in conjunction with classical music? Long line surrounding the auditorium, arriving at one corner of the room with ONE person serving dinky tasted of beer, which is from ONLY ONE brewery. Poorly conceived, poorly executed.

Another time, a blond woman, the director, SHOUTED into the microphone, literally blaster HERSELF at the audience. All others who used that same mike were appropriate in their demeanor and speaking voices. There you have the reason that this place is a good idea, in a nice setting, but it falls on it's face because the narcissistic selfishness of director herself is the primary objective of the organization.

Those few events, above, were so unpleasant, therefore off putting, that I subsequently declined to continue my previous contributions to, or my regularly patronizing of, MOMM. Too bad that selfish egos of the director. and ill conceived, clumsy, tacky "social" stunts, and improperly coordinated and arranged performance events - including the sloppy, unprofessional stage and sound production... Too bad those things pull the rug out from otherwise ostensibly good intentions.

The narcissism of the management, which is not true leadership, gets in it's own way.

Notice the inordinately long, haughty backlash? That which confirms the narcissism?

Aw gee. Well? This place has problems, the most significant of which which is that the management refuses to consider anything beyond their own narcissistic ego - to their...

From the moment we walked in, we were treated unkindly. This was our first visit to the museum and we will not be coming back for quite sometime or at least until we get the bad taste out of our mouths. My friend and I took our kids on a Sunday afternoon in hopes of an educational and fun experience. Perhaps we came on a day that was for mostly members, but we were not welcomed nor were we given any instructions on how to enjoy the museum. After we paid, we accidentally went the wrong way and were rudely told that most people start on the other side. We explained we had never been here before hoping for some guidance. Instead, the person at the front rolled her eyes and just pointed and told us to go that way. The museum is very small with detailed exhibits that are interactive. The problem on a Sunday was that very few people were respectful enough to wait their turn. My 8 year old was using the interactive tablet learning about the multiple guitars when a grown adult took over the tablet without even asking. The museum would be perfect for a first date. But, this is not a kid friendly museum. The exhibits are very informative and interesting but not geared toward anyone under the age of 20. The final room had hands on instruments to play. Once again, people were rude and impatient. There was a kid who literally pushed my son out of the way to play the drums! I was appalled at how rude the patrons were. Parents were watching there kids cut in lines and not respecting that others were playing instruments first and said nothing! The museum seems more of a click hangout than a place to explore music. For people who are not locals, don’t bother going to this museum! The experience left us all sad because we genuinely wanted to learn but we’re made to feel like we did not belong. The potential to educate and inspire is there. The inclusive piece and customer service was missing. Such a...

We visited as a family and had a blast! There are musical instruments on the walls for certain time periods in US history. So first you read the info on the time period, then you go to the touch screen display in front. You can select a number of options that explain the artifacts on the wall, videos of those instruments being played, and various stories. There are also areas where you can play instruments including percussion, stringed instruments, and digital music. The kids area also had accordion and more to try. There were no woodwind instruments to play as that would pass germs. The drums you could play were heard through a headset only. My favorite instrument that I tried to play was a dulcimer. We were also surprised to be able to join the Opera4Kids event, which was a lot of fun and I smiled and laughed at how they reworded opera songs to make them appropriate for children. This kids event pushed our review to 4/5.

Overall, the museum is small and does not teach how to read music or anything about musical theory or cover really that much ground - it only covered instruments, who made them, samples of them being played, and the US history around them. I guess I just wanted a bit more, at least posters on how instruments made the different notes or were laid out.... but at the same time we had a wonderful time and met wonderful people with the same love of music. So yes its worth a visit, but it won't take you all day to get through it unless maybe you listen to every single...