The NAMM Show

Okay, as a girl who doesn’t play music, but only works for a music company, this doesn’t seem THAAAAT crazy.
However — I have friends and a drummer boyfriend and plenty of people who were envious that I went to this thing that will back it up and say it’s pretty great.
Anything you could ever want to look at in the way of instruments, gear, etc. is here. You might even get to meet famous people! Stevie Wonder was here this year. :)
I was working a lot so I didn’t get to see everything, but all in all it’s a pretty cool convention and you can definitely get caught up in playing lots of instruments, watching lots of demonstrations, and talking to lots of people.

For anybody who is actually lucky enough to get a pass this is the place to be for all things on the new/​next horizon of music.
It must be stated (for the people who may not know) you can’t just show up and get in. You must be an industry professional (whatever that means). :-). But, that is not a bad thing. What you encounter at NAMM is people from all over the world working to make music better and greater. You can to see and touch all of the best of the best and all thing new in and of music. I’ve been coming for years upon years and I am never disappointed.
In terms of the realities of attending NAMM… If you’re a local and not staying at one of the nearby hotels, get there early!!! Traffic and parking can be a mess. The parking lots fill up fast and, as they do, you will have to park farther and farther away — perhaps even being shuttled to the event from some distant parking space. But, if you get there by 9:00 AM you should be good.
Overall, the people are all very nice: both the exhibitors and the guests, they’ve introduced some fun food trucks in recent years, and you never know who or what you will see.
Great Place !!!

Musician? Songwriter? Producer? Gear junkie? DJ?
This is THE place where you will feel like a kid in a candy store. Want to meet the creators of your favorite equipment and ask questions that will get answered in depth and correctly unlike misleading forum sites? NAMM is the place. Tons of gear and instruments were out on display for trial from all the well known companies in the world to the smaller boutique. Since this was my first time attending NAMM I went two of the three days and spent a full day each time running around asking questions, networking, going to a seminar, and «oooohhhhhdd» when Stevie Wonder walked in front of me.
As someone who’s dabbled in many scenes, I found it interesting to see the shifts in crowd when going from the guitar section to DJ section to the engineer/​production areas. Since I’m into geeking out and drooling over equipment at the moment, I felt most at home with fellow nerds talking «techie.» I highly recommend checking out NAMM if the opportunity arises. It’s an invaluable experience that will leave you wanting to go year after year.

Anyone and everyone in the music industry worldwide is here. This is not open to the public. You have to be in the industry or be invited. Its a Comic-​Con for music. Bomb right? So thank you for the invite! I know this is a very tough ticket to land. I check in to get my badge and the lady recognizes my last name and talks in my language. I’m no celebrity but she gets excited and asks to take a pic. I say sure and her enthusiasm gets me in a good mood. She tells me to stop in the DJ section and says,“You will have lots of fun.” Nice lady. The gourmet food trucks smelled divine and the band on stage out front was killing it! The John Lennon recording bus was awesome to see. I enter and the crowd is the entire music spectrum. Indie such as me, dance, rock to the refined classical arts. There was so much to take in. Cutting edge, experimental, fine woodwork for string instruments. Celebrities signings and celebrities doing the same as me. Walking around and checking out all the toys. Instead of Pop culture swag at Comic-​Con I came back w/​Rock T-​shirts, gloves, Gold strings for my Acoustic Guitar, guitar picks fr The Grammy’s, Coffee mugs, leather key ring guitar pick holders & earphones. Those were the more unique swag items aside fr bags, lanyards & hats.
Some stuff new on the market I found interesting. Glow in the dark ukulele strings to an entire recording studio in the palm of your hand. Mobile HD rigs (Meaning you can shoot music videos and film with your cell with a steady hand gadget that minimizes hand from shaking and viewer getting dizzy), and pocket sized Dj mixers. GoPro had a whole recording studio by Whisper studio (I believe that was the name) that was pimped out with their products and a band inside. This is so you can see how GoPro can capture a band doing their thing from lots of different angles and enhance your video production with less bulky equipment that gets in the way. They had big screens all over and my mind was racing on all the different possibilities one can use GoPro for. If you like screwing around in Guitar Center this is like a mega guitar center. I walk in the arena where concerts are held but today is where the stage, sound and lighting was housed. Someone started yelling my name and I’m thinking good gawd who knows me here? Nice to run into some friends who had a booth. While setting up Stevie Wonder walks by. Dayum! They tell me lots of people kept trying to hit them up for tickets. I am grateful I had the opportunity to experience this. Thanks to Jaren of NAMM! Thx for being a fun hot papparazi. The pic makes me smile. If you are fortunate to land a pass for NAMM and aren’t that big of a music lover. I encourage you to go anyway. You don’t have to spend $$ but will leave with some valuable insight to the world of sound all around you. Hot damn! I finally got to go to NAMM :)