2024 Musical Gift Guide

Gifts for Musicians

BY LIZ HUETT

When it comes to gift-giving, some of us truly enjoy shopping for practical gifts that we know will be well-used. Others think it’s more fun to shop for items that are perhaps more likely to inspire squeals of delight. If you’ve got a musician on your gift list, you can choose either one! I’m a musician myself, and I love receiving a gift that is both practical and personal. Musicians, however, are a whimsical people, and we are also likely to appreciate a whimsical gift. Read on for ideas!

Practical Gifts

Here’s a nearly universal truth: Musicians will always need a pencil. But not just any pencil! What we need is a Blackwing Matte. Musicians reading from music are constantly frustrated by this problem: When you lean your hand against the music stand hard enough to make a mark on your page, the music stand rotates, moving everything out of reach. But a Blackwing Matte is much softer than the #2s that are so highly prized by Scantron machines. You barely have to touch the paper with it to make a mark. You don’t even need to brace it with your hand! (Seriously, try it. Problem solved.) They’re sold in 12-packs, which you can give all at once or parcel out. You don’t have to round out this gift with a two-step long point sharpener or a personalized pencil box, but you sure can.

Another practical gift is hand warmers. Performance spaces are notoriously chilly during rehearsals, since they’re designed to be comfortable when they’re packed with a sold-out audience. If a musician’s hands are already cold from the outdoors when they arrive, they could be stuck starting rehearsal with chilled fingers that don’t have the flexibility they need. Help them loosen stiff fingers quickly (or keep them warm from the start) with an orastone rechargeable hand warmer. You probably won’t find these stocked at music stores, since they can readily warm the hands of non-musicians, too, but the orastone is a great choice. It heats up on both sides, so you can warm your palms and fingers simultaneously. It warms up quickly and comes with a standard USB charging cable. How about one for each pocket?

Musicians are never done learning, so a musical dictionary is appropriate for all ages. If your musician is into a specific genre, you might opt for a genre-specific book, like The Big Band Almanac or A Dictionary of Early Music: from the Troubadours to Monteverdi. For a comprehensive but compact list of musical terms for all manner of musicians, you can’t go wrong with Alfred’s Pocket Dictionary of Music. This has been a standard since it was published in 1985. With this handy book tucked into their music bag, your musician will never again feel the need to shrink from rehearsal questions like, “…and what does the composer mean by ‘sul tasto’?”

Every musician who doesn’t already have a Manhasset music stand wants one. This is the standard for students, teachers, and professionals alike. If we’re lucky, it’s also what we have at home. You can browse their website for a wide variety of specialty stands, but the classic is the Model 4801 Symphony Stand. For musicians who prefer to read on a tablet, get the Universal Tablet Holder that attaches to the music stand. Other add-ons could include a music lamp, an accessory shelf or a cup holder.

The only thing the Symphony Stand doesn’t do is fold up for travel. (In a pinch, it’s not hard to disassemble into its three parts, but it doesn’t pack well.) For a folding stand, try the Peak SMS-20 Collapsible Music Stand. It’s much sturdier than wimpy wire stands, which fold up small but can’t hold much weight and tend to pinch fingers.

A metronome helps a musician keep the beat, displaying a rhythmic light or sound. It’s an invaluable tool, but it’s easy to lose track of its beat while you’re reading your music (and therefore not looking at it) or playing loudly or in a group (and therefore not hearing it). The Soundbrenner Pulse is a wearable metronome that solves both of those problems. Feeling the beat helps you internalize the beat, even with all the distractions involved.

Whimsical Gifts

For musicians of all stripes who like to wear jewelry, consider something from the ever-expanding category of jewelry made from upcycled guitar or violin strings. Etsy is a gold mine for this type of gift. The violin string earrings I’m wearing as I type are from BeSharp Creations (get it? B-sharp?), but there are lots of sellers to choose from. Or, if you happen to be a jewelry crafter yourself, ask your musician for some old strings and use them to fashion something lovely.

For whimsical wind players, I have one word for you: Brasstache. (Well, it’s sort of a word.) At Brasstache.com, you can find plastic mustaches that clip onto the mouthpieces of a wide variety of brass and woodwind instruments. With their instrument in rest position, your wind player looks…let’s say, normal. When they raise their instrument to playing position, they are suddenly mustachioed. Seasonally, Brasstache also sells clip-on Rudolph noses and Santa beards. Makes for a great holiday concert!

Guitar players can always use another pick, and the market for novelty picks is wide. You can get a pick with just about anything on it, from the Beatles to Star Wars to Van Gogh. You can order customized picks with your guitar player’s name, face, or logo. Or get them a make-your-own-pick punch so they can turn any expired card they please into personalized picks. Musicians who play amplified might be amused by a Jack Rack. You mount the speaker-themed rack on the wall wherever you want to hang your keys. Attach keys to the speaker jack key rings and plug them right in. Here’s to keepin’ it funky!

Clemency Burton-Hill has done us all a favor by writing the whimsical Year of Wonder (and Another Year of Wonder), available wherever you buy books. These books each contain one piece of classical music for every day of the year, along with an entertaining and accessible one-page history of each piece. You can listen to the pieces all over the internet, but they’ve also been compiled into convenient Spotify playlists.

From “Hold me close, young Tony Danza,” to “Sweet dreams are made of cheese,” mis-heard lyrics are a part of our cultural heritage. Uncommon Goods offers a fun set of six Mistaken Holiday Lyrics Coasters. If you have personal favorites that have become inside jokes in your own circle, head to a site like Etsy or Shutterfly to customize your own coasters. Makes a great gift for people who, very precisely, “want to rock and roll all night…and part of every day.”

Kazoo that Christmas Tune is a party game that will be just right for a very specific group of people (and absolutely no one else). The concept is simple: You draw a card with a Christmas tune on it, and then you hum that tune on a kazoo until someone guesses the song. The site description says that each game lasts “around 20 minutes,” which is much longer than it would last at my house. By the time you get to the end of this sentence, you’ll know whether or not this game is likely to bring holiday cheer or holiday jeer to your own gatherings. Trust your gut!

Teacher Gifts

Music teachers are a special subset of musicians who deserve a special subset of gift. You likely don’t spend a lot of time together outside of lessons, so it might be hard to suss out their interests. How do you know what they want? (Hint: It’s not a World’s Best Teacher mug.)

In a word: Ask! If they would appreciate something in particular for their studio, they’ll let you know. Maybe it’s one of the practical gifts we’ve already covered. Maybe it’s an etude book you’ve never heard of. Maybe it’s movable highlighter tape (which maybe you have also never heard of). Maybe it really is a World’s Best Teacher mug, bless their whimsical hearts. They’ll be pleased that you cared to ask.

If you forget to ask, or if they respond with something like, “Oh, you don’t need to get me anything,” here’s what to get them: A handwritten thank-you note from their student. If you want to music it up with cute cards or stickers, go for it, but it’s the note that counts. Teachers keep their favorite notes for years. Everyone–everyone–likes to know their work is appreciated.

This holiday season, when you’re choosing a music-related gift–for a professional, a student, a teacher, or a music-lover–don’t forget to shop local. It doesn’t even have to be local to you! When you buy online from someone else’s local music shop, you’re supporting a small business and getting the expert product advice you don’t get from a giant retailer. Happy shopping!