Indian Musical Experience - An Interactive Museum of Music

Nestled in the busy locality of Brigade Millennium, JP Nagar, Bangalore is this innovatively built interactive museum dedicated to music – Indian Musical Experience (IME). In fact, this is the first interactive musical museum in India.

As we entered this Museum premises we noticed some exhibits placed outside in the lawn(also called "Sound Garden")  where in you can enjoy by playing each one of them. We thought we will take pictures here later and headed straight to the ticket counter.

Entry fee :  Fee is Rs 250 per person for adults and children above 12 years. The moment she saw my dad she asked me to pay only Rs. 150 which is the fee for senior citizens.

 

Timings  : Tuesday to Friday (10 am to 6 pm). Weekends (10 am to 7 pm)

 

The Experience :

This museum is spread across 3 floors. After buying our tickets, we were asked to show our tickets to security and head straight to 3^rd floor to begin our museum tour. Lifts are made available to move to every floor in the museum and there are guards everywhere to help people with all the required assistance.

 3^rd Floor – The Music

The moment you enter this floor, you are welcomed by an art which explains what constitutes the 9 Raga’s.

Introductory Theatre - Next you will enter a theatre where a movie runs which explains what is music to us. This is around 10 minutes video but is a good introduction to what is music.

 

After the movie, we entered this colorful section where in we saw each wall showcasing various artists in each genre – Indie pop, classical, Karnatik, devotional etc. Each wall had audio-visual touch screens to choose music of your choice based on the artist and then there are 2 wired headphones. Just plug them in, chose your song and have fun .

 I was happy to see my dad enjoy every piece of music here. This made my day actually .

There is one interesting where in you can create your own mix by choosing the music types. This was very interesting. We got to know how mixing works here.

Daler Mehendi's dress

Indie Pop section

Next we entered devotional music section. 

One section is dedicated to the folk and culture of India. This section highlights he mechanized puppets, kaavad box and few other interesting exhibits.

Then there is an interesting feedback section here where in coins are available and you will need to put coin in each of the areas to share your feedback. I found this very innovative way of seeking feedback.

We next took steps down to 2nd floor.

 2^nd Floor – The Instruments

 

As you get down from the 3^rd floor, you will be amazing the way they have displayed varieties of musical instruments on the wall and on the floor too.

This floor is dedicated to music before/during/after Indian Independence and Bollywood .

 

As we entered “Songs of Struggle” gallery, selected “Kar chale hum fida” song from the playlist we just got goosebumps listening to it. This gallery also features how patriotic songs evolved with time right from Ae Mere Watan ke logo (by Lata Mangeshkar) to the recent Rang De Basanti. There was one section showcasing songs around National Intergation. We quickly plugged into the headphones and listened to our all time favorite DD special “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”.  This was so nostalgic. We were so engrossed in listening to these patriotic songs that I just missed to take pics from this gallery. 

 

There is a theatre here as well where a short movie is being played that explains us the evolution of Indian Cinema right from 1950’s to present. The duration of this movie is around 15-20 minutes. So if you are tired standing and walking during your stint till now in the museum, then you can sit here relax and enjoy this video. Must watch for Bollywood fans .

This floor also gives you a taste of how Hindi film music has been part of our daily lives right from celebrations to love to friendship to childhood fun time. There are even posters of some iconic Bollywood movies.

 We then started walking to the next floor, as we walked we saw that each wall was made into a big frame depicting Indian Cinema of each era and there is a short bioscope of the movie songs being played as your peek through the wall. Indeed very creatively designed museum. Hats off to the team.

 1^st Floor – The Making  

Welcome to the world of music recording. Here you will get to see how recording evolved right from big round gramophone tapes to cassettes to CD’s to the current mobile phone era.

This was the last floor. From here we were asked to take steps down and head to the exit. In case you are interested, there is a store too on the first floor where you can buy some interesting souvenirs.

 

Restroom facilities : Clean restrooms are available on the 1^st floor enroute to the store.

 

After moving to the store, we now thought we will go down and explore the “Sound Garden”. But it was pouring heavily and unfortunately we could only click pictures of those and not experience them. May be next time.

If you are a music lover, you will easily need minimum 3 hours to experience each exhibit of this interactive music museum.  These 3 hours we were totally immersed into the world of Music. 

Overall it was truly an exceptional experience walking through the journey of music and soaking into the music of each era😊.