Journal
Gifts for Musicians That Get Used (2026)
Buying for a musician is harder than it looks, because the obvious presents are the ones they are fussiest about. This is a guide to what is safe to buy for somebody whose taste you cannot check, organised by how much you know about what they play.
Rewritten in August 2026. The version it replaces was a list of specific products from 2018, several of which were discontinued — one entry noted it was "currently unavailable" even when it was published.
Do not buy: the instrument
Unless you have been asked to, and told exactly which one. Instruments are personal, they are fitted to the player's size and hands, and a cheap one is actively harder to play than a good one — a beginner given a badly set up guitar usually concludes they have no aptitude, when what they have is high action and dead strings.
The same goes for headphones, microphones and anything with a signal path. Musicians have opinions about these, and the opinions are usually informed.
Safe whatever they play
Sheet music
The present most people skip, and the one most likely to be used. It costs less than hardware, it does not need to fit or match anything, and every player has a piece they have been meaning to learn.
Two things make it work. Buy the piece rather than a compilation — an anthology of forty songs is worse than one edition of the one they wanted. And check the arrangement matches their level: an "easy piano" edition given to a competent player is faintly insulting, and a concert edition given to a beginner sits unopened.
Hearing protection
High-fidelity musicians' earplugs attenuate evenly across the frequency range instead of muffling everything, so you can still hear what you are playing. For anybody who gigs, rehearses in a band, or plays in an orchestra pit, this is the single most useful thing on this page and the one they are least likely to have bought themselves.
A decent music stand
Almost every musician owns a flimsy wire one that folds up under a heavy book. A solid, weighted stand is unglamorous and used constantly. Add a stand light if they play in pits or churches.
A metronome
See our guide to choosing one — the right type depends on what they play, and a wearable one for a drummer is a genuinely thoughtful present.
If you know what they play
| They play | Always useful | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| Guitar | Strings in their usual gauge, a capo, a decent strap | Gauge and whether it is acoustic, electric or classical |
| Strings | Rosin, a shoulder rest, a mute | Instrument size — a three-quarter violin needs different fittings |
| Woodwind | Reeds, cork grease, a swab | Reed strength, which is personal and non-negotiable |
| Brass | Valve oil, slide grease, a practice mute | Mouthpieces — do not, unless asked |
| Piano | Sheet music, a proper adjustable bench | Nothing much; pianists are the easiest to buy for |
| Singing | Song collections in their voice type | High, medium or low — the wrong key is unusable |
Presents that are not objects
- A lesson, or a block of them. Even advanced players take them, and a course of lessons in something adjacent — jazz harmony for a classical pianist, sight-reading for anyone — is more welcome than another accessory.
- A concert ticket, ideally for something they play themselves.
- An instrument service. A guitar set-up, a piano tuning, a woodwind re-pad. Deeply unromantic and enormously appreciated, because these are the things musicians put off.
- A recording session, even an hour in a local studio, for somebody who has never heard themselves properly recorded.
A note on novelty
Music-themed homeware — the treble-clef mugs, the keyboard socks, the vinyl coasters — is bought constantly and used rarely. If you want something inexpensive and light, buy the sheet music for one piece they love. It costs about the same and it gets opened more than once.
If you go the sheet music route, our instrument index is the quickest way to find what exists for whatever they play.