Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [mute]

For questions relating to the techniques or equipment involved in muting the natural sound of an instrument. Not intended for questions regarding the silencing of recording tracks

For questions relating to the techniques or equipment involved in muting the natural sound of an instrument. This includes, but is not limited to, muting techniques for stringed instruments, brass instrument mutes and related techniques, and quieting instruments for practice purposes.

Not intended for questions regarding the silencing of recording tracks during music playback, production, or related processes.

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Playing muted notes by fretting on instead of behind the fret

As far as I can tell, when guitarists want to play short, semi-muted notes, they usually use palm muting with the picking hand. However, you can get a similar sound by fretting the notes with your finger on top of the fret instead of behind it. Is…
guest
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How to mute a string and play another at the same time

I'm trying to learn this fingerstyle song on my acoustic guitar. I found a tab which I really like. The only thing I don't get are the X's in the tab. Here's a part I've taken from the tab: What does the X really mean? I thought it was to mute the…
Ruby
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Will a trumpet mute work in a cornet?

I have a cornet and would like to purchase a mute for it. However, the majority of mutes are trumpet mutes. Will a trumpet mute work properly in a cornet? My main reason of concern is that the trumpet has a cylindrical bore while the cornet has a…
American Luke
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How to make a brass instrument quieter?

I play trumpet at home. I feel a little uncomfortable playing because of the loudness. I found the Silent Brass series by Yamaha, which makes brass sound quieter, and you can still hear everything through headphones, but in my country they are very…
DoctorMoisha
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How to reproduce the sound of Dizzy's muted trumpet in early bebop jazz recordings?

How can I reproduce the muted trumpet sound of Dizzy Gillespie's that can be heard in many of the early bebop recordings together with Charlie Parker? I believe he was using a cup mute, but is the material and/or other properties of the mute…
Ulf Åkerstedt
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Electric guitar is making a vibrating noise on hammer on

About 3 months ago I bought an Ibanez RG652FX. A few days ago I noticed a weird vibrating sound when I played a hammer-on on a G string. It is most noticeable when playing 9th to 11th fret hammer-on but it also happens on other adjacent frets in…
user1189571
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Questions on how to write sordino directions

I’ve decided to tweak my scores by adding more sordino directions so that players can prepare their instruments in advance, but I’m not entirely clear on what to write and where to write it, so I have a few questions: Regarding instructions to put…
Walter
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'Cello mute: how to store on strings w/o altering sound?

I finally (procrastinator me) put a 2-hole Tourte mute on my axe, and noticed that if I leave it below the bridge but seated on the II and III strings, it modifies the sound compared with a fully-open string setup. I know lots (well, some, anyway…
Carl Witthoft
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Is it okay to remove the cork from a trumpet's mute?

I bought a mute for my trumpet because I want to practice playing in my dorm. However, it is not very effective in minimizing the noise I make when I play. I suspect that it is the pieces of cork that prevent complete obstruction of sound from…
TribalChief
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What should one look for in buying a practice mute for trumpet?

I'm in the market for a practice mute — something to substantially quiet/silence the instrument so that I can play without waking the neighbors. There are lots of different makes and models, and they all seem the same to me. Are they? Or are there…
Aaron
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Will the Yamaha PM7X trumpet mute work stand-alone or do I need the Personal Studio SBX2 as well?

I bought a PM7X trumpet mute, the one with a jack input for headphones. I tried pluging in headphones and I can't hear anything. I then looked for info, and I think I need an extra piece of hardware called "personal studio" that uses batteries. Do I…
Mister Equis
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Muted percussive sound of a guitar equivalent on keyboard?

Just as a reference of what I mean in the intro of the track: If not available in your country: (thanks @Michael Curtis) There are three chords in a row and then the percussive sound continuing the motion of the track without any chord…
Viktor Mellgren
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Spud Murphy tune calls for "Red Mute" on trumpet and trombone parts

In my 25 years of playing, I've never heard of a "red mute". Any ideas? My bandleader said it meant a cup, but later in the song, it had us use plungers while still muted (the notation was pretty explicit), so I don't think cup is the right…
Spivonious
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In a bass guitar, how do I mute the strings that I am not playing?

I am learning Bass Guitar on my own and muting looks challenging. For eg, when I am playing the A string, I find the G string sympathetically humming at times and vice versa. Such humming produces an unpleasant clash in the harmony. I know either…
gigahari
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Effective ways of muting saxophone

The question has been partially answered here before but for an inexperienced, self-taught musician who lacked the skills to control volume through embouchure adjustments. I was wondering if there were any effective ways of reducing the played…
Pyromonk
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