Musicians are a rare breed who love what they do so much, any and all references to making music are appreciated. I know about this first hand, since I am a musician with many musician friends. Give the player in your life the gift of music, whether it be creation, knowledge or the music itself with our best gifts for musicians.
Did you know musicians require (at least) two pairs of headphones? Because they’re often obsessed with music in general, musicians tend to have one set of headphones for recording and another for listening. When simply listening to music, the preference is for something a little lighter weight with slightly more bass response, like the Bose SoundTrue, which are my personal favorite.
When recording in the studio, however, headphones need to be larger and better balanced, with no added bass. Studio monitoring requires natural sound response, and these Sennheisers are a great option. I have personally used them and can attest to their performance, particularly at this price point. The sound is clear and even after many hours of recording, they remain comfortable.
A technically complicated gift that’s easy to give and will appeal to a wide audience. Musician’s Dice gives composers a method to randomize note or chord selection as either a way to get valuable practice or to get through a block when writing. The random nature of the dice will stretch even the most practiced musician when they need it most.
These are extremely popular, so if they’re out of stock when you go to buy, you could also consider Chord Dice.
Speaking of composition, after utilizing the dice, the musician in your life will need a place to record their new creation. Sure, there’s excellent software for this these days, but for relatively simple songs, it’s still sometimes nice to put pen to paper. I owned this notebook for many years and it inspired me to write a good number of songs. Musicians can toss it in the gig bag and have it on hand when inspiration strikes.
Musicians love to collaborate, and that usually means packing up the gear and heading over to another studio. Since studio setups are (generally) more involved than just a laptop, having a simple way to carry files around can really simplify the process.
A one terabyte drive that fits in a pocket is a perfect solution. Even if it doesn’t get used for recording projects, it’s a great way to back up what is sure to be an enormous collection of digital music.
I am personally fascinated with the history and trends of music that lead to what we hear today. This book focuses on a group of studio musicians behind many famous recordings from the 60s.
They embodied the West Coast sound at the time, drawing many artists who previously recorded in New York out to California to cut their records, including the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel.
There’s also a documentary about the same group. An interesting read, for sure.
There’s a similar story to be told about the studio band behind all the great Motown recordings, the Funk Brothers. Standing in the Shadows of Motowndiscusses their greatness.
When in the studio, monitoring via headphones is pretty common. If you’re multi-tracking, you’ll need to be able to split the monitoring or playback signal across several sets of headphones. This small device is a mini amplifier designed just for this purpose. It takes any 1/4 inch input and sends a high-quality signal to four sets of headphones at once. A simple but effective solution.
Also in the synthesizer category, this kit allows the adventurous musician to create a fully customizable, modular synth. The modules snap together with magnets for quick reassembly so the musician can spend more time generating new sounds than building. There’s an included guide to get started quickly with famous tones, but the possibilities are really endless. A great gift for the aspiring sonic pioneer.
While studio headphones are good, a dedicated pair of studio monitors are even better. Monitors should be completely colorless, meaning they don’t add their own flavor to the sound. They should reproduce what appears on the computer as accurately as possible to help the musician properly mix and master recorded material.
While you can certainly spend several thousand dollars a piece on these, the under-$1,000 threshold contains some gems. These Yamaha monitors are almost certainly the best you can get for the money. You can also get a bundled pair with XLR cables, which provides all you need.
There’s also the lesser, but still quite good, HS5 model.
While the condenser mic on this list is ideal for recording, you wouldn’t want to perform with it. For one thing, it’s very sensitive and for another, it’s too expensive. When it comes to live sound, the issue has long been decided about which microphone is best.
The Shure SM58 is by far the industry standard. It sounds great, it’s tough as nails, and it’s nearly ubiquitous from coffee shop to arena. I have used them for years (even for recording), and I can attest to their brilliance. This bundle comes with a few extras so the musician in your life has everything they need.
Clip-on tuners have grown in popularity of late. They’re ideal because they take up no room on pedalboards or on top of amps. This D’Addario model is among the smallest ones on the market. It virtually disappears when it’s on the instrument, so only the player knows it’s there. Despite not requiring any cable connection, it’s super accurate.
It’ll work on the vast majority of stringed instruments, but just in case, there’s a violin version, too. For more options in this arena, see our best guitar tuners list.
Sound isolation can be tricky in a home recording environment. Unlike a dedicated studio, there’s always more going on in the home than tracking that guitar part or vocal take, so anything you can do to knock down unwanted noise is helpful.
This adjustable microphone isolation shield will keep ambient noise to a minimum, while also reducing stray reflections from the surfaces of your room. It’s flexible enough that you can use it for vocals or in front of an amp.
If they already have everything else on this list, then it’s time for your musician to get recording. The simplest answer for the home recorder is a USB audio interface. This one from Focusrite includes a total of four inputs, two microphone preamps and two instrument for line-in use.
Better yet, this device comes with Pro Tools so they can get started right away. For an even faster start, you could go for the combo pack that includes a microphone, headphones, and an XLR cable.
Cabling is a constant battle for most musicians. Whether we’ve got the wrong length, or we’ve beat our favorite one to death, or we have the wrong combination of connectors, we’re seemingly always wishing we had just one more cord do perform a specific job.
Solve this problem for a musician in your life by giving them this solderless kit that allows them to create cables of the exact length and connector type they need at any time.
It includes 40 feet of cable, four straight 1/4 inch plugs, six 90-degree 1/4 inch plugs, and the tools needed to build them. Good in an emergency or to craft that perfect length of cord.
Musicians are unique in that just watching the thing they love can inhibit their ability to do it in the future. Going to shows every week can have consequences for hearing in a very short amount of time. The more damaged a musician’s hearing becomes, the harder it is for them to create music. These Vibes earplugs are designed specifically to be used in high-volume settings where detail is important.
Unlike normal earplugs, these are designed to reduce sound pressure without affecting clarity. I tested them in a variety of environments and found them to work really well and be more comfortable than normal ear plugs. Each set comes with three sizes of ear tips and a hard plastic case.
For each purchase, the company makes a donation to the Hear the World Foundation. Protect your musician’s ears without sacrificing the thing they care most about: the music.
Regardless of genre or style, writing lyrics is an art form. You must blend not only melody and rhythm, but metaphor, imagery, and the sound of the words themselves.
It’s true that a song needn’t rhyme necessarily, but having a book like this on hand can work like a thesaurus, giving you useful substitutions when the words you’ve jotted down in your notebook that day aren’t working in a given phrase.
For non-lyricists out there, you might be surprised to learn that a lot of singers charged with writing lyrics design their melody line and meter with nonsense syllables, only filling them in later once the song is close to completion. This book of 15,000 entries should make the job easier — or at least serve as inspiration.
Reading about music gives musicians another perspective into creating their own song. Whether it’s revealing the history about how a musician or album they love came to be or deconstructing the very nature of music itself, pairing the visceral experience of listening with deeper understanding can heighten the experience.
In Anatomy of a Song, Myers chronicles the oral histories of 45 mega hits that changed music and how they came to be. These songs include “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M., “Proud Mary” by Credence Clearwater Revival, and many more.
Finally, Hanif Abdurraqib’s books They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us digs deeply into the intersection of music, culture, and identity against the backdrop of fear and political division in the world today, while Go Ahead in the Rain takes a deep look at A Tribe Called Quest.
Naturally, the very best gift for music lovers is music itself. Since we’re moving beyond the ability to play even mix CDs these days, you’ll have to look into something like this to gift a hand-picked selection of music.
This is an eight gig flash drive packed inside a standard cassette-sized package, complete with the plastic case for writing down your tracklist. True, you probably won’t want to compile a 2,000 song mix (kudos if you attempt this), but still, the combination of nostalgia and neat packaging makes this a great gift.
Fake books are compilations of sheet music working musicians use to fill gaps in their song knowledge so they could show up to a gig and play just about any standard or popular song of the day. Most of them were made of illegally-made copies of sheet music that the publishers never gave their blessing to, but they were very popular nevertheless.
The Real Book, as Adam Neely explains, was a project by students and faculty at the Berklee College of Music in the 70s to create the definitive fake book of jazz standards. Hal Leonard eventually legitimized it and continues to publish the volume to this day, which includes 400 songs.
Now, to be clear, as Neely goes on to say, The Real Book is divisive in some circles because hardcore, old school jazz musicians view it as the beginning of the end of real jazz playing, in some sense. Still, as a learning tool, it’s invaluable will certainly open up a younger musician’s mind about the possibilities of jazz.
They also created The Ultimate Fake Book, which combines 1,200 songs across many different styles. Both of these volumes can be very useful for the working or learning musician.
That Beethoven guy really knew a thing or two about music. So when he wrote “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy” in a letter to Goethe, it’s fair to say that he was speaking from experience.
This pen further immortalizes an already immortal quote in a hefty writing implement, which can in turn be used to create more works of musical genius. It uses Parker-style refills, should they make a habit of writing with only this implement.
Pianists, guitarists, bassists and many other musicians need to warm up their hands before they go to town. Cold hands effect speed and technique and can lead to repetitive stress injuries.
These simple hand resistance bands provide just enough tension to help warm up before playing and maintain hand strength. They easily fit into a gig bag (or even a pocket) so they’re always available.
For players of valved instruments, long rehearsals and hours of practicing can sometimes lead to blisters on the thumb. This is a very simple solution to that problem: a small compression sleeve that provides a barrier between the instrument and the skin.
Even better, because it was originally developed for weightlifters and organically adopted by musicians, there’s some reassurance that this isn’t a gimmick. Slip it on the thumb for just enough padding to prevent pain. Makes a good stocking stuffer.
Regardless of whether the musician in your life is a drummer, almost everyone drums with pens at one point or another. Musicians, of course, will also need to write things down from time to time, such as lyrics or chord changes.
Help them accomplish both things with this fun novelty gift. Great as an addition to a larger gift or just something small and fun. They’re also available in black ballpoint and blue ballpoint pens.
What to drive the musician in your life totally crazy? Give them this book, which breaks down the establishment of the equal division of the octave into 12 notes and how that became the dominant tuning method. Duffin argues that this has had a negative effect on how we hear music.
This book makes the case for more varied tuning methods to coax out different colors and flavors in music. For some, this will be frustrating because we’re more or less locked into an equal temperament world, but for others, this is an interesting, unique look at understanding how music works.
Particularly effective if you’re gifting a kids drum set, a personalized set of drum sticks is just a nice little touch. Drum sticks tend not to last forever, but you can inspire a drummer with an encouraging phrase or even their name engraved onto a pair.
Choose from 5A or 5B sizes with up to 50 characters. Both sticks can be different or matching wording depending on your preference.
Does the musician in your life have a baby? If so, outfit that baby with this onesie that clarifies that, yes, this particular baby is allowed to be hanging out around the loud amps and expensive guitars.
For musicians who want to record but don’t have a computer capable of supporting a DAW, this device will allow for capturing full song arrangements without the need of any other hardware.
The Spire Studio can automatically set levels, record wither with the built-in mic or with external microphones via XLR cables or instruments via TRS cables. Using the companion app on a smartphone, you can manage songs and tracks, make edits, and even mix down before sharing them with others. It’s a handy, portable device that allows for quick tracking without the need for a DAW, computer, or separate input device.
Singers need to have a beverage on hand, but putting a cup or a bottle on the floor is a recipe for disaster. Give the singer in your life the option to deploy a drink closer to hand and in a safer spot than the floor.
The neoprene construction soaks up condensation and has some thermal benefits, keeping things cold or hot. The screw adjustment can accommodate .375 inches up to one inch.
People (mostly guitarists like me) give drummers a hard time for not keeping accurate time, but that’s easy for us to say. We just have to coordinate our movements from the wrist, while drummers have to coordinate their entire bodies.
For that reason, the tempo is what the drummer says it is. Help the drummer in your life declare this to everyone they know with this handy PopSocket, which will also make handling their phone easier.
A simple MIDI controller may be all a musician needs to cue up and control clips and samples. This is especially key during live performances, but is an essential compositional tool, well.
This offering from Novation is compact and customizable and provides a quality experience for not very much money. If you’re feeling generous, you could also give them the Launchpad Pro, but the Mini will absolutely get the job done.
Speaking of MIDI controllers, they are most often used to control what’s going on in this DAW, Ableton Live. Ableton is the preeminent MIDI sequencing program for live use, while also being a fully-equipped digital audio workstation for tracking work.
Any working musician needs access to one DAW or another, and given that this one can serve as the brain for live performance, too, it makes a great choice. It’s pricey, but that’s what makes it a good gift. Musicians have to spend a lot of money on many things, so providing this piece is a big help.
Playing music is, for some, a lifelong committment. It takes so long to learn how to play, then to learn how to compose, and then to learn how to bring enjoy energy to a live performance that once you’ve done all that, you’ll probably want to stick with it forever. To that end, musicians need strategies for enduring all that entails.
This book is broken into three sections: Section one focuses on how to build a productive practice routine and to commit tunes to memory. Section two is all about live performance and bringing the best energy to each show. Section three is about doing both of those things for a long time, both from a physical perspective and a creative one.
Possibly the most convenient circle of 5th reference ever, this stainless steel ring is both musically-related jewelry and a helpful tool. Just rotate the top band the number of steps you wish to move.
It looks cool, it celebrates a love of music, and it’s actually useful. That’s about the best case scenario for a gift for musicians.
The music business is in a weird place these days. Most musicians will need to market themselves to find success, building their own audience, managing gigs, and so on. If you know a musician trying to do this, give them this guide which includes step-by-step plan.
Building on success takes a mix of skills and this book will help fill the gaps for people who have long focused just on the playing. Obviously, the playing is the most important part, but this book provides an easy-to-follow guide for the rest of it. Being a musician is a business, especially now.
Everyone knows this joke, but that’s what makes it a classic. It makes for a great gig shirt, especially when venues are reluctant to hand over the $50 at the end of the night.
This shirt comes in seven sizes and is made of a 50/50 cotton and polyester blend.
Instruments are expensive and, like cars, wear considerably with normal use. Oils can tarnish and damage trumpet valves over time, especially if the player is practicing and performing regularly.
This simple, easy-to-give gift solves that problem. This leather cover protects the valves from wear and tarnishing oils. Another great stocking stuffer or accessory to a larger gift.
When most people think of monitors, they picture the wedge-shaped stage speakers that playback what’s miked up on the stage. That approach is fine, but it provides no hearing protection for the loud environment. In-ear monitors like these work more or less like noise cancelling headphones and connect to wireless units that transmit the monitored signal from the front of house.
These are a basic set, so give these to a musician who is just starting to experiment with in-ear monitors.
Continuing on the note theme, if you need to write longer-form notes with a music theme, this set of cards will help accomplish that. You could give these with musical gifts, or gift them to someone to use for their own notes.
These measure 5 by 3.5 inches and are blank on the inside. You get 14 cards with matching envelopes in this set.
Organizing sheet music becomes a bit of a challenge for the professional or student musician. Sure, any old folder will do, but why not give them something more substantial to carry with them? This one is made of durable leather with high-quality stitching. It can hold sheets up to 10.75 by 12.75 inches and has a convenient elastic closure, as well as a pen loop.
The pockets are one inch deep, which will hold a fair bit of music. There are different styles, as well, including Big Band, which has the same dimensions but 1.5 inch pockets, and Choral, which also has 1.5 inch pockets and holds standard 8.5 by 11 inch sheets.
Alternatively, you could consider something like the Pendaflex 13-Pocket Expanding Zip File, which isn’t as nice of a piece but organizes everything better.
This is a simple and practical gift for the keyboardist or pianist. If you know someone who is making due with any old bench or need something for playing live, this is an easy gift to give to offer an upgrade.
You could also give one of these if you’re planning to gift someone a keyboard for beginners, too. It folds up for easy storage and portability and can be set at three different heights.
Aimed primarily at guitarists, but useful for anyone with an amp and a signal chain, this effect pedal is actually a fully-featured drum machine. These are human-created, high-quality drum songs, 200 in all, that are controllable just by tapping your foot.
This is a great tool for both composition and dedicated practice, or for filling in when your over-booked drummer can’t make it to practice. Twenty-one genres are represented in this little unit, as are any time signature you can dream up. A very handy device.
Sometimes the right tool for the job is a classic Casio keyboard. This is a new version of the vintage standby, complete with 100 different keyboard voices, 50 iconic drum rhythms and available neon color. It has 44 keys and does exactly what you expect.
It does not work as a MIDI controller. It does not have weighted keys. It has only eight not polyphony. You know what this is for and what it does, and if you don’t, the musician in your life surely will. There’s also a 32-key version, as well.
If, on the other hand, the musician in your life needs a mini keyboard that’s a bit more advanced than the classic Casio, consider this option. This super-portable USB MIDI keyboard has 25 keys and eight pads, as well as a four-way thumb stick for pitch and mod control.
It has other nice touches, too, like dedicated octave up and and octave down buttons, an arpeggiator, and an input for an expression pedal. Perfect for production and performance. Available in this standard colorway, as well as white and black options, if you prefer.
While I am personally a bit more partial to the On-Stage SM7211B Music Stand, it cannot lay claim to the throne. That distinction belongs to this, the all-time king of music stands in band rehearsal rooms everywhere.
Whether you’re buying this because the musician in your life genuinely needs one or just to relive the glory days of high school and college band, this is the classic and an extremely durable music stand.
Alternatively, you could go for this music stand bundle from Donner, which includes a carrying case, USB-powered light, and a sheet music clip, all for less money.
Sheet music will always have its place, of course, but many musicians these days read from their tablets or smartphones. This is especially good for cover bands who need to keep a huge catalog of song lyrics on hand for weddings and bar gigs.
The c-clamp makes it easy to attach to any pole-esque object, like mic stands, cymbal stands, and the like. It fits virtually every phone or tablet out there using a unique adjustment and can be rotated and tilted in almost any direction. A very handy tool.
If the musician in your life uses a tablet or a computer for notation or any kind of arrangement reading, this handy device will make their lives easier. It allows for hands-free page turning while hands are presumably otherwise engaged with the business of playing an instrument.
It runs on two AA batteries and can be used wirelessly over Bluetooth or via USB.
Drummers need a way to practice patterns relatively quietly no matter where they are. This set makes that possible in a kit that folds down into an included backpack that can easily travel anywhere.
Included in this kit is a high-density drum pad, an adjustable snare drum stand, three pairs of drum sticks, a drum stick bag, and the carrying bag. Whether they’re a professional or an absolute beginner, they’ll no longer have an excuse not to practice.
While not everyone who plays a violin or viola will need a shoulder rest (there are parameters for this), playing can be difficult and even painful if it turns out that they do. It’s a simple fix and can make playing that much more comfortable.
This particular shoulder rest is super lightweight, being made of carbon fiber. It’s height adjustable and comes with a one-year warranty. You choose between the faux woodgrain look or the carbon fiber look.
We previously discussed at length why a musician might need a DI box, and they certainly make great gifts. Live performances virtually require them for many uses, as they’re the best way to ensure a clean signal to the mixing desk. They can also be very useful in recording situations where you might not want to have a long TRS cable run.
This is the active DI, which provides phantom power for microphones. If the musician you’re buying for plays keyboards or active pickups on bass or guitar, go for the passive version.
While it’s commonplace for guitarists to have a pedalboard full of effects pedals, it’s rarer for a vocalist to come prepared with their own effects. Most of the time, the person at the mixing desk will add a dash of reverb or delay. But if they don’t, it can sound really flat and terrible.
That aside, a vocalist might also want to spruce up their sound with a few other touches, like doubling, harmonies, or special effects. This one allows for phrase looping and pitch correction, as well, making it a bit like a vocal studio in a box. Having a reliable sound every time can help a singer get the most out of every performance since they won’t be worried about how it sounds from venue to venue.
Almost every musician I know is using a hand-me-down computer for their recording and live sequencing. Mostly this is because much of a musician’s free cash go toward their instruments. Even though computers rule everything, they can often be the least exciting thing a musician can buy.
Help alleviate this condition by giving them a decent computer for their music-based activities. While any PC would do, I advocate for the Air because it’s a simple, straightforward machine that’s still quite powerful. It will certainly run Ableton Live (also on this list), but it will also let them use Apple’s own Logic Pro X, which is a relatively inexpensive DAW relative to its capabilities. If you can swing it, this is makes a great gift for a musician.
A great small gift or stocking stuffer, these magnetic page markers are equally useful for sheet music as they are for any book the musician in your life might be reading.
There are eight clips in all: two treble clefs, two bass clefs, two sixteenth notes, and two beamed notes.
Even when using a drum carpet, there are still times when the drummer is kicking the bass drum so intensely, it will want to move across the floor. This is a simple solution to that problem. Stick the KickBlock in front of the bass drum and it will lock into the drum carpet and will not move until you peel it up.
It’s small enough to travel easily, but tough enough to stand up to a drumset. It also is not made of any hard plastic or metal pieces that will make noise during recording sessions.
Whether you play a brass instrument, a woodwind, or a guitar of some form, you will need a work surface on which to maintain it. This mat is what the professionals use. It provides a simple, non-slip, padded surface on which to lay an instrument while it is serviced.
It measures 36 by 17 inches, which is large enough for most things. It also rolls up quite small, so it’s portable, as well. If you prefer, you can get this in a bundle with a neck support, as well.
Solo artists often have to provide their own accompaniment when playing shows, and even little percussion like a tambourine can provide texture and a richer arrangement. That makes something like this foot tambourine an easy gift to give.
Great for acoustic pub gigs or busking, or even for larger live performances, too. In a similar vein is the Meinl Foot Rattle.
Few vocations require people to take their most prized posessions out of the house and into dangerous situations as often as being a musician. Instruments are expensive, and yet, they must travel regularly to strange envrionments. That’s what makes a quality instrument case a great option for a gift.
We previously included a Gator case on our best guitar cases post, and can heartily recommend them for other instruments, as well. This line of cases is lightweight but durable, made of dense EPS foam that can take a hit without endangering our instrument. Mouthpiece holders and shoulder straps are included, of course.
Choose from: alto sax, clarinet, cornet, flute, French horn, oboe, tenor sax, trombone, or trumpet.
Players of bowed instruments to the front. This shirt celebrates the cellists, violinists, and the occasional guitarist (like Noveller) who shred with a bow. It’s a simple, lovely design that should resonate.
It’s available in six sizes for adults and seven sizes for women in black, navy, asphalt, dark heather, and heather blue.
Christmas tree ornaments are easy to give, and when they reflect the passions of the recipient, they’re usually appreciated. This lovely violin ornament is made from wood, with steel strings and brass touches.
It measures about six inches tall and comes in a wrappable box. There’s also a cello, if you prefer.
Sure, ukuleles had a bit of a moment the last few years, but that doesn’t mean they suddenly stopped being super fun to play or that they don’t make a wonderful layering element on recordings. If you’re going to give a ukulele to a musician, consider giving them a Makala, which is Kala’s more affordable line.
They don’t skimp on these, though. The fretboard is walnut and bridge and mahogany body and neck. It plays very well and looks nice, too.
Books of sheet music don’t always sit flat on the music stand, so give the musician in your life this elegant page holder to help them keep those books open. This is a nice looking piece, but it’s also substantial, made of stainless steel and finished in a mirror polish.
It comes with a satin storage bag for safe keeping when not in use. Thicker books should be no problem as this can hold up to 250 pages.
Add a musical flair to any wardrobe with this music note infinity loop scarf. This is a lighter-weight scarf made of polyester, so it may be more of a spring and summertime accessory than a hearty winter scarf. Still, it’s cute and will go with a wide variety of outfits.
My first great love was writing, long before I learned how to play guitar, so when I have an idea about a story, I just jot it down quickly as I would any other note. Musicians struck with a melody idea might need a bit more than that, and that’s where this pen comes in.
On one side is five ball point pens which can quickly draw a staff on any blank piece of paper. On the other end is a single pencil recessed into an eraser. It’s a brilliant multi-functional device that allows for capturing inspiration anywhere.
For musicians, portable audio recorders can be invaluable tools. They allow for scratch tracking, field recording, sketching, and any number of uses in between. They’ve also come a really long way in the last few years, and they make some excellent options for not very much money.
This Tascam is among them. This is a budget unit that still has stereo microphones, a relatively intuitive editing screen, and a convenient size. It comes with a windscreen, a 32GB memory card, and batteries.
Your eyes do not decieve you. This is an electric kazoo. It has 15 foot cable that terminates in a 1/4 inch jack, like any instrument cable. Put this through a guitar pedal board for maximum impact.
It’s totally ridiculous, but it’s also hilarious and might actually be useful for some.
Does the musician in your life need to bring a touch of music into their decor? Of course they do. This bathroom set includes everything needed for a fully functioning bathroom.
The set includes a soap dish, toothbrush holder, drink cup, and a soap dispenser. Hey, it’s better than that plastic cup they’ve had in there since childhood.
If you considered buying a Christmas music box for the musician in your life, you may be able to do one better with this gift. Since musicians are likely to be composers, this kit will allow them to create a music box with their own custom melody.
Hearing your own song play from a music box would be pretty net, especially if you created it yourself.
Continuing on the theme of adding a touch of music to every function of the home, this simple and inexpensive gift will almost certainly get used. A stainless steel bottle opener in the shape of a trebel clef. Hard to go wrong with something a lot of musicians need.
Much like the PA system we also included on this list, there may be the rare occasion where a musician has to supply their own stage lights, too. This may be down more to preference than strict need, but it’s also nice to have a set on hand.
These four-color LED stage lights come in fully adjustable heads which will help to alleviate shadows and odd colors. Setup and take down is super easy and a remote control makes operation simple.
Once you start playing out, particularly if you’re toting a PA and a light system, cable management starts to be come paramount. This bag will comfortably carry not only all your cables, neatly divided into eight slots, but can also tote microphones, effects units, and any other accessories you might have.
The bag itself measures 19.5 inches by 10.5 b inches by 9 inches. It’s made of nylon and has a padded shoulder strap, which is handy because it can weigh up to 16 pounds when full.
In the last few years, eurorack modules have become popular for creating layered synth tracks or just adding texture to productions. If the musician you know has a few of these, but they’re just out on the desk, consider giving them this powered rack for the modules to live in.
The power rail has 32 available slots and includes noise filtering to keep things clean. You can fit an entire collection in this and it will be well fed and protected.
For lovers of pianos, vintage jewelry, or just music in general, this necklace makes a great gift. It’s a single ebony black piano key set into antiqued metal.
The piano key pendant hangs on a 28 inch adjustable chain and looks great with other necklaces and a variety of outfits.
Want to add a small touch of music to formal attire? Horn players can show their trumpet pride with these cufflinks. They’re about one inch across and have a good solid feel to them.
A great gag gift for a musician is this hype and applause button. Deploy it during practice after a particularly sweet solo. Hit it when the vocalist remembers all the lyrics. Even hit it when your drummer shows up to practice. The possibilities are endless.
Batteries are included, so you can get down to business right away.
If the musician in your life is making do with just one monitor, especially if they’re working from a laptop, help them out with a second monitor. I’m a firm believer that everyone should have a second monitor; it speeds up work to a crazy degree when you don’t have to juggle windows.
For musicians, having the timeline on one screen and the mixer on the other makes life a lot easier. You could also have any additional plugins or effects running on the second monitor so you can watch the parameters in realtime. A great gift unlikely to go unused.
Pop fitlers provide a very specific function for the recording vocalist: reducing plosives on a recording. Plosives in English are words with t, k, p, g, and b sounds, particularly at the beginning of a word. Even expert vocalists let one or two in during a session, and they can be difficult to deal with in the mixing process.
The plosive usually causes an unintended spike in volume, so a filter like this one is placed in front of the mic to catch them. This one consists of four layers, has a rugged clamp and metal gooseneck, and can really be used with any microphone. Everyone who records vocals should have one.
The folks over at Universal Audio have been creating some killer gear of late. If the musician in your life is in need of a high-quality mic preamp for recording situations, consider getting them this excellent, relatively high-end unit.
The key is a dual-path circuit. One path is a class a tube circuit while the other is a solid state, which allows you to blend between the two to dial in the appropriate mix for the recording situation at hand. It also has two gain stages so you can crunch things up to your liking.
On top of all that, it looks very handsome and will complement a lot of home recording setups.
Somewhere between toy and legit instrument, the Otamatone is a portable synthesizer with an interesting input method. Just touch along the middle bit of the note-shaped synth and create the pitch.
Barbie has been many things in her long career, so it makes sense that at-home recording musician would be among them. Barbie has a T-Swift vibe going on, with the acoustic guitar and the MIDI controller to cover all her bases.
This set also comes with a recording desk, a microphone in a shockmount with a pop screen, a bench, headphones, music sheets and a stand, and even a bottle of water. A pretty detailed setup which will fit nicely on your musician’s recording desk.
Every musician knows about The Lick. It’s a cliche, a joke, Adam Neely’s self-inflicted five-hour torment, and a staple, you could say. What better thing to put on a shirt? Show up to any session wearing this and then dare everyone not to play it.
It comes in six sizes in black, navy, dark heather, and heather blue.
Having a home recording studio is great for convenience, but it can be a bit of a hassle if the other people in your house are trying to go about their lives while you record. This handy sign alerts them to the fact that the tape is rolling, so if they could hold off on the loud phone conversations and the dropping things on the floor, that would be great.
This plastic sign comes in four sizes: 8 by 12 inches, 10 by 14 inches, 11 by 17 inches, and 13 by 20 inches.
Guitarists especially know the pain, but you don’t need to be powering a pedalboard to know how much interference dirty power can cause. Especially in venues, noisy power can ruin a performance and annoy players.
This surge protector includes EMI/RFI noise attenuation to account for some of the hums and random noises that can come from the walls of old music venues. It’s also made of metal and can take a beating, so it’s great for life on the road.
Occasionally, a musician playing out frequently might need to provide their own PA gear. Having one on hand means that musicians can play shows in venues that aren’t specifically meant for it, too.
This bundle is an especially good buy as it includes two speakers, the PA powered mixer which allows for Bluetooth playback, two XLR cables, two instrument cables, speaker stands, and a carrying bag for the stands. The mixer even fits snugly into the back of one of the speakers for easy transport. This is a handy bundle than can turn any room into a venue with only about 15 minutes of setup.
Most of us only ever have a single harmonica, if that, in the course of our life. We might not even know what key it’s in. People who know, however, have a set of harmonicas – one in each key – so they can choose the appropriate weapon for the song at hand.
This nice-looking set of harmonicas provides just that, all in a padded carrying case. These are probably best aimed at someone who is just approaching the need for multiple harmonicas, as the price for all seven is less than a single instrument of some nicer models, like the Hohner Marine or the Suzuki Promaster. Still, they look sharp and complement a music collection nicely.
The cool thing about theremins is that anyone can play one simply by walking up to it. True mastery requires years of practice, just like anything else, but being that you control the pitch and duration by simply waving your hands, anyone can make a sound come out of it.
Theremins are great for adding a wrinkle to an arrangement or encouraging outside-the-box compositional ideas. The Etherwave is one of the best, made by synth wizards Moog. I’ve played one of these on stage and it was extremely fun. A great, off-beat gift idea.
If the musician in your life is curious to know more about what makes music effective, why we’re so emotionally attached to it, and how it comes to be, this book is for them. Daniel Levitin breaks down the phenomenon of music to help any reader gain a better understanding.
One of the central conclusions from this book? Practice is most strongly associated with musical expertise. While that means you do actually have to put in the work, it also means anyone can, in theory, play.
Sure, coffee mugs are a bit of an obvious gift, but this one is pretty clever. Not every person can read music notation – heck, not even close to every musician can – so this makes a great visual gag.
Otherwise, this is a simple 11 ounce ceramic mug. It’s both microwave and top rack dishwasher safe.
Certainly more of a gag gift or a stocking stuffer, this lip balm is marketed toward the horn players of of the world. Trumpeters need not suffer with generic chapstick made for everyone.
This is made of ten organic ingredients and makes quite a good lip balm, joke aside.
This simple and lovely pianist figurine makes a nice decorative touch for any surface of the home. Of course, it will also work nicely sitting on a piano.
It measures seven inches high and is made of bent metal and various hardware pieces. It might even remind the musician in your life to practice.
Oblique Strategies is a deck of 55 cards specifically aimed at getting creatives out of a rut. For a musician, these cards are a compositional tool that can help find solutions to creative blocks while trying to decide colors, key changes, and more.
A simple, easy-to-give gift for musicians who write a lot of music and need unorthodox prompts.
Musicians sometimes need new tools and toys to break out of ruts. This interesting device from Electro-Faustus combines six oscillators with toggle and pitch controls. It’s a machine entirely dedicated to drones, which can provide a lush bed over which to compose a melodic piece.
Electro-Faustus calls it a “hurdy-gurdy for the 21st century”, which is fairly apt. Just messing around and making noise can be very freeing for any musician.
The audio purists out there may be quick to point out that all wireless protocols are inferior to anything physically connected to the output device. Further, they may go on to point out that all the streaming services downsample music too much for an enjoyable listening experience, even if it saves bandwidth. Assuming physical media isn’t available, the best modern audiophiles can hope for is a lossless file format played through a DAC, a digital-to-audio converter. The function of these devices is to turn those ones and zeroes into electrical impulses that can then be rendered by acoustic devices (i.e. speakers) and interpreted by your ears.
As with anything, the sky is the limit when shopping for these devices. Audiophile gear gets expensive in a hurry and it isn’t always clear what you’re paying for. In this Marantz unit, you immediately feel where the money went as it’s very heavy for its size, owing to a large transformer. You can use this directly into powered speakers, as a headphone amp, or into a larger stereo amp. It’s not the absolute top of the line, limited to 24-bit/192 kHz, but it will certainly improve almost any home listening situation.
For far less, you could try the Audioengine D1, which is much smaller and still offers significant sound sweetening. If you want to focus just on headphone use, the Apogee Groove includes four DACs per channel and can drive high-end headphones easily.
The limitation of Bluetooth speakers is that your playing device must be within 33 feet, preferably in line of sight. It doesn’t take much to cause a Bluetooth connection to drop, and we’ve all experienced the weird detuning effect or occasional volume drop when using the wireless protocol.
The Sonos system is strictly better, utilizing wifi to form a hub for all your music services. While you can use just one of these units as you might a traditional radio, they’re designed to be paired for both stereo imaging and for placement in various rooms throughout your home. When using multiple speakers, you can opt to play different songs in each room or music from a single source in perfect sync.
This is the PLAY:5, which has six discrete amplifiers and six speakers in each unit, tunable with the Trueplay feature and can be oriented both horizontally and vertically.
They also offer the PLAY:3, which can be combined to create a master system with the speaker size matched to the needs of each room. (Note: In order to take advantage of stereo pairing, you’ll need two of the same model, but all models can work together in a larger system. More on that here.)
In addition to the refined touch controls on the unit, you can easily connect them to any Alexa-enabled device to control playback from all the top streaming apps by voice command. The newer Sonos One has Alexa built right into it — no need for separate hardware.
Musicians mark up their sheet music with additional notes for clarity or to make their reading easier later. Help them do that with these novelty sticky notes that won’t help very much, but will be amusing nevertheless.
To be fair, the “Nap Time”, “Loud Noises” and the “Don’t F#$% This Up” could be pretty useful, actually, but for the most part, these are meant to be funny more than anything else.
While some make think it sacrilegious to do anything with a record aside from put it on a turntable, vinyl just lends itself too well to decorations. In addition to bowls and coasters, you can get a wall clock made of a classic album.
The one pictured above is Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but you can get clocks featuring a wide variety of artists including Grateful Dead, Michael Jackson, and more.
If the musician in your life needs an optionally-portable listening solution that acutally sounds good, consider this two-way speaker system from Fluance. Fluance make a truly fantastic vinyl turntable, and their take on the Bluetooth speaker platform is no different.
I own one of these and, indeed, use it as my powered phono speaker system beside my record player. To my ears, the advantages of the wood cabinet and increased wattage were immediately obvious. It has a USB port on the back for phone or tablet charging, as well as an optional AUX in.
I like the detail of the included pointed metal feet for better vibration isolation in case you do stick it next to your turntable.
Naturally, musicians are almost always music lovers, so music is always a good choice. You have two ways to go with this. You could buy them a gift card for some paid streaming, such as Spotify, or get them some physical media.
The best format going for physical media is vinyl, with the large artwork and rich, lossless sound. If they don’t own one of their favorite albums on vinyl, that makes an excellent gift, but you can also gift them your favorite album to give them something new to listen to. I really love this album by Hurray for the Riff Raff and strongly recommend it as a gift.
Musicians love musical toys. Whether it’s a theremin or a noise maker of any kind, messing around with a toy version of more serious gear can be a way to free up creativity and unlock new ways of thinking about making music.
This Stylophone pocket synth is a recreation of the 1967 version and includes the ability to pitch-bend three different organ voices. This little gem has been featured on some of my own music, and I happily recommend it to anyone looking to give a fun musical gift. You can also get the newer GEN X-1 model.
Sure, this shirt is billed as being for ravers, but I’ve never met a musician who didn’t want a graphical indication of how hard they were rocking. The lights have a removable battery pack for when it’s time to wash, as well as an adjustable volume sensitivity sensor and an on/off switch. Stand in front of your amp and let this thing go crazy.
Here’s another option for music-related sticky notes. Unlike the humorous flags one on our list, these are actual sticky notes, meant for jotting something down and sticking it somewhere. Of course, these could still be useful for making notes on sheet music, but they’re equally useful for just about anything else.
You get both a staff-style note, one with bass clef and one with treble, and two notepads made of…notes. You get the idea.
Here’s a confession: Band practice is just as much about knocking back a few cold ones as it is about learning the songs. Even if those cold ones are just bottles of water to offset the perspiration rocking hard usually produces, having a dedicated fridge for the practice space is pretty nice.
It’s far from a necessity, but that’s what makes it a great gift. This fridge is modeled to look like a Marshall half stack and is tall enough that maybe your rhythm guitarist will stop putting their beer down on their amp. (Guilty.)
If you like the idea of a fridge for the practice space but don’t want to pay for the branding, a normal mini fridge still makes a pretty great gift.
The player of strummed instruments in your life might also enjoy the freedom to make a pick out of just about anything. Make custom-designed picks, reuse old credit cards, or memorialize a plastic item. Guitarists especially lose picks all the time, so having something handy to make one on the quick is great.
You might also consider taking a look at the best guitar picks to give them options.
Typically, drumstick bags are utilitarian nylon affairs which do the job, but aren’t anything to write home about. When gifting a drumstick bag, though, you can aim for something a little nicer that most drummers might not spring for themselves.
This leather stick bag is both durable and beautiful, with the feeling of leather upgrading the experience. Plenty of room for several pairs of sticks, mallets, and other accessories. Tom hooks are included, of course.
