The museum's collection presents Belgian musical history (including Brussels' importance in the making of recorders and various obscure proto-synthesizers (Ondes Martenot, Theremin, etc.) in the 18th and 19th centuries and as the home of instrument inventor Adolphe Sax in the 19th century), European musical traditions, and non-European instruments. Mechanical instruments are shown in the basement, traditional instruments on the ground floor, the development of the modern orchestral instruments on the first floor, and keyboard and stringed instruments on the second floor.