Sigal Music Museum

An outstanding music museum in Greenville, South Carolina, in the old Coca-Cola, building. The first floor is pianos and harpsichords going back to the 1575 and includes the Berent Piano from 1775, the first piano made and sold in America. Upstairs is a revolving display of musical instruments or memorabilia. They have a monthly tea as well as lectures and concerts all very reasonably priced.

I really enjoyed my stop at the Sigal Music Museum. The museum is a 1930s Coca Cola Bottling Company too. The museum came about when Marlowe A. Sigal's estate gave his collection away and the Carolina Music Museum was able to take the whole collection of over 700 instruments. Only about a quarter of the instruments are displayed because of lack of space. The museum focuses on the music and technology from 1775 to present day. Some of the museum is interactive but you cannot touch most of the antiques. The oldest Steinway is in the museum; harpsichords and so many pianos. The museum is on two levels and you can take the stairs or an elevator. At the moment, a special exhibit, Sound of America is taking up space on the first floor. I enjoyed learning some history through music. I liked that the museum did not focus on any specific type of musical genre but embraced them all from Blues to Jazz to Musicals to Rock to Rap to Classical to Gospel to Swing to Exotica.It was like going back in time seeing the eight track player that I used to listen to at my grandmother's place. It brought back great memories. Then seeing the walkman. I enjoyed seeing the radios and the cassette tapes I used to record music on from the radio. How things have changed. This museum is a gem and I've not seen anything like it before. I will be back to spend more time exploring.

Yet another museum left me with my face hurting. My friend and I have been touring several museums in the past few days and they made me so happy I smiled for hours. My face is not used to that and all those muscles were not trained for it and they hurt.The two floors have very different displays. Down stairs is basically a piano or keyboard museum. The upper floor has a more varied set of displays. The biggest drawback is that I did not leave enough time. As I told my friend at one point, I could leave immediately and be satisfied or stay for hours reading all the information and listening to all the music.At least now, I can go back and visit their website for listening.

Today I thoroughly enjoyed the music museum. The craftsmanship that went into these instruments make them works of art. Admission was affordable and it took about an hour to see everything on two floors. Gift shop was small, but had some thoughtful small gifts.

The museum is part of the same complex as the library, science museum, and theater! Don't let the other buildings overshadow it. I had a great hour or so exploring the old pianos and instruments on the two floors. Loved learning about the history of music through the decades and the inventors behind it. It takes about 1.5 hours if you take your time to get through everything. It's a great way to spend the afternoon and not too far away from downtown Greenville.

Greenville has a large area several blocks from the main downtown avenue dedicated to museums, public theaters, the main library, etc. The Sigal Music Museum is located in this complex. It is in a 2-story brick building towards the front. It is easy to locate as it is the only building playing music on loudspeakers outside. Parking was a bit confusing. We visited an adjacent museum first and parked in their dedicated lot. We then walked to the Sigal. I'm not sure, if you are only visiting the Sigal, exactly where you should park, but there were lots available close by. The entry fee is $7 per person. There was one staffer on duty when we visited and she was very helpful. Your enjoyment here will probably be directly proportional to how much of a 'music nerd' you are. It is interesting to see the number and variety of older piano / harpsicord type instruments downstairs. Upstairs, they have a few more of those plus things like saxophones, flutes / recorders, etc. The exhibits include a few historical notes; Mozart played one of the instruments for British royalty at some point, etc. If you actually play an instrument related to anything in the collection, you'll probably enjoy this a lot. It was interesting even for a marginally musical person like myself, though. Side note: we happened to visit in the early afternoon of Halloween. At one point, a couple came through the exhibit area dressed in 18th century period costumes. They thanked us for visiting as they walked by. I'm not sure whether they are sometimes there for a sort of 'living history' component but were borrowing the costumes for Halloween, or whether a time machine was involved...

They have a lot of really neat instruments here, including a harpsichord played by Mozart himself. If you like music and/or history, I highly recommend giving this place a visit, and make sure you pay for the tour. It's only $20. Without the tour guide, you won't know the significance of what you are looking at.