Music Museum

Music lovers who are in South Korea should trek up to Yongdu park and visit the Music Museum. It only costs 1,000 won to get into the museum and see instruments from all over the world. There are about 500 instruments in the museum. On the first floor, you’ll find that most of the instruments are in glass cases, typical of a museum, but on the second floor you are free to play the instruments that are not on the platforms or behind roped areas. It can get a little noisy on the second floor, but it’s worth it to see adults and children experimenting with instruments that they probably had not seen before.

There are a variety of string instruments on the first floor. Quite a few of the instruments appear to be a variation of the guitar. The instruments have placards that give the name of the instrument and its origin in English. The attendant at the front desk of the museum was able to understand and speak a little English, so you can ask her basic questions if you speak slowly. Visitors to the museum are invited to take as many pictures as they like. If you have a video camera, you can tape your children playing the instruments.
The instruments on the second floor consists of several different drums, but there are also some woodwind instruments and a small organ. An instrument that resembled an xylophone was on the second floor as well. Some of the instruments were not easily identifiable without reading the identifier. There was another instrument that appeared to be a large rattle. Half of the fun is figuring out how to play the instruments. The museum was empty except for one other family that was visiting mid-afternoon on a Tuesday during the summer. The nearby Busan Tower and Yongdu Park, was teeming with people. You could get lucky and have the entire museum, full of instruments to yourself if you go on a weekday during the afternoon even when school is out in Korea.

The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. In August, the museum is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. To get to the museum, take exit 7 out of the Nampodong stop on line 1 of the subway and walk until you see the escalators leading to Yongdu park. The Music Museum is next to Busan Tower on the upper level of the park.