Gift Ideas for the Musicians in Your Life

Dec 16, 2014

With Christmas just over a week away, what seemed like an endless amount of time to finish your holiday shopping has been reduced to a matter of mere days. Hopefully, if you have been a responsible adult, you completed all your gift shopping weeks ago, and are now able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the lead up to Christmas. However, if you are more like me, you have only just begun to shop, and the next few days will be chalk-full of late evening shopping sprees, and wrapping into the wee hours of the morning. Well, regardless of which camp you find yourself in, this week we’ll help you out with some last minute gift ideas for the musicians in your life.

I have scoured the internet for you, looking for the perfect gift for your musician, and have narrowed it down to some of my personal favourites. I have also included the websites I found them on, so you can further your own search.

20-Pound Chocolate Lionel Richie Head

I couldn’t resist starting with what is quite possibly the strangest gift I have ever seen. The folks over at Firebox.com (“Not For Everyone”) have the guy you’ve been looking for. 20 glorious pounds of Belgian milk chocolate shaped with loving care by “a blind art student” (or so they claim) into the stunning visage of the soul legend is the perfect gift for any fan of the Motown giant and crippling diabetes. However, with a price tag of over $800, you may have to feed that sweet tooth some other way.

Guitdoorbell – Guitar Doorbell

A bit of a misnomer, as the Guitdoorbell is actually more of a chime, alerting you that the door has been opened, as opposed to a request for entry, it is nevertheless a wonderful gift for a musician, especially one who plays the guitar. A standard 1/2 size guitar is suspended over a doorway, with a striker arm attached to the door which strums the guitar when opened. You can tune the guitar anyway you like, and have any chord play. And since it is a real guitar, it can be taken down and used for impromptu concerts. Made by Guitdoorbell, this is ideal for shop owners, or just people who entertain a lot of visitors.

Musical Wine Glasses

Another product from our friends over at Firebox.com, these wine glasses are sure to strike the right note with any wine loving musicians. Sorry for the bad pun, but there isn’t really any other way to describe these goblets. Each glass has been adorned with golden lines delineating 1 and a half octaves, from A to B-flat, indicating the note that will be produced by a finger around the rim, or a gentle fork tapping. Sure to get anyone’s fingers tapping at first, as the wine is drained, and the notes change, there is no guarantee of maintaining your tempo.

Audio Engineer’s Hoodie

For the hoodie lover as well as the music lover, this sweatshirt offers a variety of interesting features to enhance your enjoyment of your music. It has a headphone cable pass-through in the pockets, a water resistant pocket on the chest for a thumbdrive or other small device, and one uniquely interesting feature: acoustically transparent speaker cloth hood panels. This is fancy music talk that basically means you can listen to you oversized headphone over the hood with no distortion to sound or volume. As the maker, Betabrand, puts it, “for when you need a barrier between you and the world, but you still need to mix.”

Drumstick Pencils

Who hasn’t used their pens and pencils to bang out an epic drum solo? Uncommongoods.com offers a product for drummers, or really anyone with an appreciation for desk drumming and air guitars. At one end, a humble #2 pencil, ready to take notes, write exams, crack math problems, or compose love notes, but at the other end, the business ends, are drum stick heads, ready to lay down some rhythm.

The Musician Travel Mug

Not for the amateur musician, Cafepress.ca offers a 16oz insulated travel mug for the classically trained. With the phrase “What part of _____ didn’t you understand?” with several measures brimming with musical notes filling the blank, this mug is perfect for the musician who needs their coffee on the morning commute.

STOP! You’re under a rest! T-Shirt

Another goody from Cafepress.ca, because the only thing funnier than puns are puns no one else understands! If you don’t understand what this shirt means, don’t worry, anyone that can read music will.

Personalized LP Record

Another product from Uncommongoods.com, this item is made from an upcycled vinyl LP, and suspended between two pieces of glass in a floating frame. With a choice of two retro styles, the label is fully customizable, meaning you can celebrate a new solo act, an ongoing duo, or those that came before us. You can also list up to five songs of personal importance or significance. Uncommon Goods also offers this product as a 45 rpm vinyl record with similar label options. This item is handmade to order in Philadelphia, so it may not ship until early in the new year, perhaps making it not the ideal Christmas gift. But if your loved ones don’t mind waiting a little for a unique and environmentally friendly gift, this is the way to go.

DJ Cat Scratching Pad

I have to do one last silly one. For those musicians who also happen to be cat lovers, ThinkGeek brings you this one of a kind DJ cat scratching pad. With a cardboard mixing deck shaped scratching area that actually spins, a possible tone arm, and kitty DJ stickers, all you’ll need is to add a little catnip, and you’re in for hours of YouTube worthy feline antics.

Musician’s Friend

I have decided for this last one I would focus on an entire website, rather than a single product. Musiciansfriend.com offers a wide variety of items for any musician you count among your loved ones. Basically a one-stop-shop for all things musical, they offer everything from electronics like headphones, tuners, and Apple product audio interface adapters, to licensed swag, like Fender barstools and the Zildjian Drummer’s Gift Pack, to a huge array of instrument, ranging in price from under $100 to well over $1,000. With such a huge selection, you can find something for any kind of musician or music lover.

So there you have it, some of my favourite Christmas gifts for musicians. Of course, these are just a few of the countless things that any musician would love. But I do have one last website suggestion before we go: check out the Gifts For Musicians page at dudeiwantthat.com. While I listed the actual sites you can buy these products at, I found many of them through Dude I Want That. Good luck with any last minute shopping you still have to do, and have a happy holidays.