The room is full of sounds. One shopper slowly strums a cigar box while another swings a bow against an ocean harp. Musician Ivy Mari plunks away at a Medieval European violin known as the hurdy-gurdy. I’ve been roped into trying out the quijada de burro—also known as the “donkey jaw rattle”—an instrument used in Peruvian folk dancing. I feel like I’m back in the third grade playing the triangle.
Located at 401 Richmond Street West—an artistic warehouse that houses over 140 cultural enterprises—instrument emporium Musideum is a veritable musician’s paradise. The store specializes in unusual instruments from around the world, ranging from the recognizable (various tambourines) to items like the nykleharpa, a Swedish national instrument transported to the store straight from the set of The Lord of the Rings (it makes a special appearance in the film’s “gnome theme”), or the shofar, a Yemenite trumpet made from antelope horn.
Owner Donald Quan dreamed up the idea of Musideum over 20 years ago while travelling as a musician around the globe. Quan would see or hear an exotic instrument and track it down, amassing various pieces for his own collection. “Any odd time someone else saw an instrument [of mine] his or her jaw would drop,” he remembers. “It started out as a private pleasure, but then I wanted to share it with people.”
After returning to Canada, Quan waited patiently for eight years until space at 401 Richmond became available. When he was let in two years ago, he set to work building his store with a little help from his friends. Quan wanted to make Musideum a place where the general public had exposure to exotic instruments, even allowing customers to rent them on the cheap. Quan continues to travel, playing shows worldwide and gathering new instruments. He shows me the most expensive item in the store, a rare glass armonica, retailing at $6,000. The instrument is beautiful, but students needn’t worry: the store is filled with lower-price items, such as $18 Vietnamese jaw harps or $1.99 nose flutes. The majority of instruments in the store are priced under $100. A half hour spent browsing will take care of all your Christmas shopping (your five-year-old cousin will love the tiny wooden cricket rattle, whittled in the shape of the insect).
Quan and his staff encourage customers to try every instrument. “Everyone’s allowed to play everything,” says staff member and musician Mairi, who first heard about the store while playing shows around the city. While we’re chatting, she busts out Musideum’s hottest selling item: the sansula, a thumb piano that’s a German version of the African kalimba (a favourite of Jens Lekman and Toronto buzz-kid Laura Barrett, who often plays at the store). Mairi demonstrates how the sansula allows the player to not only pluck the keys, but control the echoes that emerge from the bottom of the instrument, letting deep sound waves permeate the room. “People don’t come in for it,” Quan says, “but when they hear it, they have to have it.”
Mairi loves helping customers. “One of the nicest things is when customers come in and teach us [how to play],” she says. “They may have grown up with the instrument, so they know more about how it is played traditionally.”
Mairi was so captivated by Musideum’s instruments that she has started using them in her own recordings. While some offerings may seem unusual to first-timers, they are quickly gaining notoriety; the aforementioned hurdy-gurdy plays a prominent role in the music of The Arcade Fire.
The staff offers a warm welcome to novices, as Quan encourages even the tone-deaf to try everything. “Come on in and play an instrument,” he says. “All this stuff’s affordable for the general public.” With that in mind, we return to the strumming and shaking, the rattle and hum.
Musideum is located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 133. Store hours are Tuesday to Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Give them a call at 416-599-7323, or visit them online at www.musideum.com.
