By Geoffrey Maingart

Anaheim,CA(Hollywood Today)1/24/12/—Well, here I was back at the NAMM show in Anaheim or for those who do not know this, the National Association of Music Merchandisers.  As a fiddler and dealer of string noise makers I make this yearly pilgrimage to this wild event.  Besides being greeted at the door by their version of the TSA there are also bins of earplugs for all of those bright enough to take advantage of these ear mutes.

The convention center this year had over 1600 distributors (240 devoted to string instruments) displaying their wares, from every instrument conceivable to every electronic gadget that is in any way related to music, composition or noise.  Everyone in town is there and even famous instruments including the Motley Crew revolving drum set are there to be seen.  Famous musicians are signing autographs and often playing at the many booths.  Almost dressed models are there to entice you into the displays.  AND the cacophony is endless.

As a fiddler I look forward each years to the rock orchestra performance by Mark Wood on his fretted 7 string viper violin.  He was brilliant as always.  As a fine fiddler myself, I am constantly grabbed by all of the various violin dealer displays to play on their instruments to attract crowds into their booths.  After 4 days, I am played out.  Chinese fiddles by the thousands (some really fine), French, German, Polish etc, etc.  For me, it is a chance to order cases and accessories for instruments and see everything that is out there.

One of the joys of NAMM is a chance to see all of the innovations in software and listen to the lectures of the workings of these programs.  In 1970 I actually worked with the original MOOG synthesizer where is took a room full of equipment and hundreds of patch chords to make one sound.  Now your wrist- watch or telephone has more capabilities than that entire room.  Sadly, the downside is that musicians like myself are gradually being rendered obsolete by little gadgets.  Our remaining advantage is that we still possess heart, which the machines still lack.  BUT, for how long?

Now a decent tech savvy geek can compose with the best of them just letting the programs create it all with a minimum of personal input or for that matter, talent.  Welcome to the future.  But we musicians are still there and all of those instrument manufacturers are still making toys for us.  I guess we will just continue to update ourselves to keep up with technology and a lot of it is really fabulous.  Shows like this are now expanding all over the world including Frankfurt, Shanghai, Paris, Italy, and now a new one in Moscow.  For the music merchandiser, your business is there at NAMM to be ordered at very favorable prices.  For the musician, it is the world’s biggest candy store.  We all just hope for a better economy to partake. NAMM, see you next year.

Geoffrey Maingart

Violinist and CEO of Strumenti International

strumenti@gmail.com