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A mute is a device attached to a
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
which changes the instrument's tone quality (timbre) or lowers its volume. Mutes are commonly used on string and
brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...
s, especially the
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
and
trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
, and are occasionally used on
woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...
s. Their effect is mostly intended for artistic use, but they can also allow players to practice discreetly. Muting can also be done by hand, as in the case of
palm muting The palm mute is a playing technique for guitar and bass guitar, executed by placing the side of the picking hand below the little finger across the strings to be plucked, very close to the bridge, and then plucking the strings while the damp ...
a
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
or grasping a
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...
to dampen its sound. Mutes on brass instruments are typically inserted into the flared end of the instrument (bell). They can also be held in front of or clipped onto the bell. Of brass mutes, the "straight mute" is the most common and is frequently used in classical and
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
music, but a wide variety are available. On string instruments of the
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
family, mutes are usually attached to the
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
, the piece of wood that supports the strings. Palm muting a guitar involves placing the side of the hand across the strings, and some of them have physical mutes which produce a similar effect.
Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
s have a
soft pedal The soft pedal (or pedal, ) is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action (including the keyboard) slightly to the right, so that the hammers which norm ...
and occasionally a practice pedal, which both decrease the instrument's volume.


Overview

According to ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'', a mute is a "device used on a musical instrument to modify its timbre by reducing the intensity of certain partials and amplifying others". More generally, it refers to "any of various devices used to muffle or soften the tone of an instrument". The act of using a mute is called "muting".
Brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
mutes are occasionally referred to as "dampers", but "dampening" usually means reducing or deadening the sound after it has been played. Mutes can be used artistically and for practical purposes. They are used in several genres of music:
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
mutes have been used in
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
since at least the seventeenth century, and many types of brass mutes are used in
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
. A common misconception is that muting has the sole purpose of decreasing volume, but this is only true of practice mutes; string instruments in particular can easily play softly without additional equipment.


Notation

Musical notation directing players to mute and unmute their instruments varies. The type of mute and when to add and remove is specified in text above the music; ''open'' is often used in music for brass to indicate the subsequent passage should be played without a mute. In
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
, the phrase ''con sordino'' or ''con sordini'' ( it, with mute, abbreviated ''con sord.''), directs players to use a straight mute on brass instruments, and mount the mute on string instruments. The corresponding ''senza sordino'' indicates removing the mute. Synonyms include ''avec sourdine'' and ''sans sourdine'' ( French); ''mit Dämpfer'' and ''ohne Dämpfer'' (
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
). Ample time must be given to allow players to add and remove the mute, though some mutes can be engaged and disengaged quickly. For hand muting that changes over time, ''o'' is used above the music for open (unmuted) and ''+'' for closed (muted). For dampening on
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
or
harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
, the étouffé symbol (resembling a coda symbol) or a diamond-shaped notehead is used.


Brass

Mutes are widely used on
brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...
s to alter their timbre. They are often directly inserted into the instrument's bell, but can also be clipped or held onto the end of the bell. Mutes of various types are available in many sizes for all brass instruments, including the
tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...
;
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
and
trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
players have the widest selection of mutes. They are made of a variety of materials, including fiber, plastic, cardboard, and metal (usually aluminum, brass, or copper). In general, mutes soften the lower frequencies of the sound because they nearly close the bell, but accentuate higher ones due to resonances within the mute. Stoppers for
natural trumpet A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series. History The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication (e.g. break camp, retreat, etc.). Even before th ...
s (the predecessor of the modern valved trumpet) were found in the tomb of
King Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
dating to around 1300 BC, but they were most likely for protecting the instrument from moisture or damage during transport. The earliest known mention of trumpet mutes dates to a 1511 account of a carnival in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
.
Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...
's 1607 opera ''
L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' ( SV 318) (), sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance/early Baroque ''favola in musica'', or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and ...
'' opens with a muted trumpet ensemble, which musicologist
Wolfgang Osthoff Wolfgang Osthoff (17 March 1927 – 29 July 2008) was a German musicologist and professor (ordinarius) for historical musicology at the University of Würzburg. Life Born in Halle as son of the musicologist Helmuth Osthoff, Osthoff received hi ...
suggests is because the piece was first performed in a small, intimate chamber. These early mutes, known as Baroque mutes, were fashioned from wood and had a hole in the center to permit airflow. They raised the pitch by a semitone or more when inserted, which could be corrected by adding a piece of tubing of appropriate length, known as a crook. Besides musical use, Baroque mutes were used for secret military retreat, funerals, and practice. The modern straight mute was in widespread use by 1897, being used on tubas in
Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
's ''
Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
''. Until the 20th century it was the only mute commonly used in orchestras, but new mutes were eventually invented to create novel, unique timbres, largely for the works of jazz composers. Jazz
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
composer
Sammy Nestico Samuel Louis Nistico (February 6, 1924 – January 17, 2021), better known as Sammy Nestico, was an American composer and arranger. Nestico is best known for his arrangements for the Count Basie orchestra. Early life and education Samuel Luigi ...
wrote that mutes can "inject a much needed color change into an arrangement". A well-known example of brass mute usage is the "voice" of adults in ''
The Peanuts Movie ''The Peanuts Movie'' (known in some countries as ''Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie'') is a 2015 American computer-animated comedy film based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts'', produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed ...
'', which is actually the sound of a muted trombone.


Straight

The straight mute is roughly a truncated cone closed at the end facing outwards from the instrument, with three cork pads at the neck to allow sound to escape through the space between the bell and the mute. The mute acts as a
high-pass filter A high-pass filter (HPF) is an electronic filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency. The amount of attenuation for each frequency d ...
. In trumpets, it lets through frequencies above about 1800 Hz, producing a shrill, piercing sound that can be penetrating at high volumes. Straight mutes made of materials like plastic or fiberglass are generally darker and less forceful in sound than their metal (usually aluminum) counterparts. The straight mute is among the few that can be played at a true ''
forte Forte or Forté may refer to: Music *Forte (music), a musical dynamic meaning "loudly" or "strong" *Forte number, an ordering given to every pitch class set *Forte (notation program), a suite of musical score notation programs *Forte (vocal gro ...
'' dynamic. The most commonly used brass mute in classical music, straight mutes for trumpet (and sometimes
trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
) are also used in jazz. It is the only type of tuba mute regularly used and is available for all brass instruments.: "Straight mutes are available for all brass instruments and instructions to use a mute generally refer to this type." In classical music, when the mute type is not specified, it is assumed that the player should use a straight mute. Sammy Nestico wrote that straight mutes can "shade and soften vocal backgrounds", but opined that they were "a bit harsh". The pixie mute is a thinner straight mute inserted further into the bell, and is most commonly used along with a plunger for special effects. The name is trademarked by the Humes & Berg Company, but is widely used to refer to similar mutes from other makers.


Cup

The cup mute is similar to a straight mute, but includes an extra inverted cone on the end opening towards the bell of the instrument. Mostly used in jazz and on trumpet or trombone, it has a more subdued and darker tone than the straight mute. The cup mute in trumpets acts as a
band-pass filter A band-pass filter or bandpass filter (BPF) is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects (attenuates) frequencies outside that range. Description In electronics and signal processing, a filter is usually a two-por ...
, permitting frequencies between 800 and 1200 Hz. The distance between the cup and the end of the bell is adjustable in some cup mutes: a ''half-closed'' mute permits more air to escape and thus more volume, while a ''fully-closed'' mute produces a quiet tone and is therefore mostly used soloistically. Variants of the cup mute include the mic-a-mute and the buzz-wow mute. The mic-a-mute, so named because it is usually played close to a microphone, has a rubber rim on the cup and felt lining on the inside, creating a richer sound. The buzz-wow mute has resonators on the end which produce a buzzing effect, similar to a kazoo.


Harmon

The harmon mute, also known as the wa-wa, wow-wow, or wah-wah mute, is available for trumpet and trombone and is mainly used in jazz. Unlike the cup and straight mutes, it has a cork that completely blocks airflow around the mute. Instead, air must go into the harmon mute's chamber and escape out a hole, which protrudes into the mute. A "stem" (a tube with a small cup) may be inserted into the mute, which changes the instrument's sound and path of airflow. The mute is made of metal (usually aluminum or copper) and has a cylindrical or bulbous shape; mutes of the latter type are sometimes called "bubble mutes". Depending on the stem's presence and position, the mute has a variety of sounds. In trumpets, the mute without a stem ("stem out") acts as a band-pass filter permitting frequencies between 1500 and 2000 Hz, making a subdued, distant sound. Playing with the stem fully inserted ("stem in") produces a unique, penetrating sound, while playing with the stem halfway out ("half-stem") has characteristics of both "stem in" and "stem out" playing. Players can also move their hand in front of the mute to produce a "wa-wa" effect by alternately closing and opening the bell. An early version of the harmon mute was patented by John F. Stratton in 1865, and the mute in its modern form was patented in 1925 by George Schluesselburg. The name derives from Patrick T. "Paddy" Harmon, who financed Schluesselburg and was assigned half of the interest of Schluesselburg's patent. Harmon's interest in the mute came from his hiring black jazz bands—whose trumpeters sometimes used a predecessor of the mute—to play at his Arcadia and Dreamland ballrooms in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. The harmon mute was originally always played with stem inserted. In 1946, jazz trumpeter
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
pioneered the usage of the mute with stem removed, which became part of his trademark sound. Some trumpeters believe that dents on the mute's chamber improve sound and intonation. An acoustical study at the University of Puget Sound found that large dents led to a "weaker" tone and a degradation in tone quality, while small dents could improve tone and amplify the sound.


Stopping

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
players can use standard mutes, but often use their hand to mute the sound, a technique known as ''stopping''. By inserting their hand fully into the instrument, airflow is limited, producing a quiet and nasal sound. The shortening of the air column raises the pitch by approximately one
semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
, so the player must adjust by playing a semitone lower. The technique was developed and popularized by
Anton Joseph Hampel Anton Joseph (A. J.) Hampel (1710 – 30 March 1771) was a horn player who is generally credited with having developed, somewhere between 1750 and 1760, the technique of hand-stopping which allows natural horns to play fully chromatically. Thi ...
in the mid-18th century. He also invented physical stop mutes for the French horn, which now come in both transposing and non-transposing variants; the latter does not require the player to change their fingerings as they would when hand-stopping.


Other


Solotone

The solotone mute consists of two telescoping cones and a small tube in the center, all made of cardboard. It is structurally similar to a harmon mute, but has a cardboard tube in the middle. It has a more intense sound than the harmon mute and has a characteristic "megaphone-like" quality. Other names for the mute include the Cleartone mute, ''doppio sordino'', double mute, and Mega mute. An example of the mute's use in classical music is in Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, composed in 1937–1938.


Bucket

The bucket mute, also known as the velvetone or velvet-tone, resembles a bucket attached to the outside of the bell. The mute is filled with absorbent material which dampens the sound, resulting in a "covered" sound similar to that of a French horn. The mute can be clipped to the rim of the bell, but a model manufactured by Jo-Ral Mutes is instead inserted into the bell. Originating with early jazz trumpeters who held empty
lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the o ...
cans in front of their instruments, the first bucket mute was made by William McArthur in 1922.


Plunger

The
plunger A plunger, force cup, plumber's friend or plumber's helper is a tool used to clear blockages in drains and pipes. It consists of a rubber suction cup attached to a stick (''shaft'') usually made of wood or plastic. A different bellows-like des ...
is held in front of the bell. It can be held stationary, which produces a dull tone, but can also be moved, producing various sound effects. Skillful usage can produce speech-like sounds, and short, loud notes while holding the plunger close to the bell produce "exploding" tones. The plunger is often used in conjunction with growling or with a straight mute (or both). Trumpeters and trombonists typically use the head of a sink plunger and toilet plunger respectively, but metal plunger mutes are also produced commercially. If a household plunger is used, some players recommend drilling a hole in the middle of it to adjust the sound, though this practice is controversial.


Derby (hat)

The derby or hat is a
bowler hat The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...
or similarly shaped object held in front of the bell, like the plunger. Alternatively, it can be attached to a player's music stand and the trumpet pointed into it. Its larger depth means that it does not distort the trumpet's sound, but does reduce its volume. A similar effect can also be achieved with a piece of felt or thick cloth that covers the bell.


Whispa and practice mutes

The softest mute intended for musical use, the whispa or whisper mute traps sound in a chamber filled with absorbent material, and only a small amount is allowed to escape through small holes on the chamber. The mute is difficult to play, especially in the upper register. Practice mutes, available for most brass instruments, can be used during practice to prevent bothering others; whispa mutes can also be used as practice mutes. Electronic systems also exist that allow players to hear themselves through earphones.


Woodwinds

Mutes are not very effective on
woodwind instrument Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Reed ...
s because the proportion of sound emitted from the bell varies, meaning the degree of muting changes with the fingering. Furthermore, blocking the open end of a woodwind prevents the lowest note from being played. Mutes have very occasionally been used, however, for the
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...
,
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
,
bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
, and
clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
.: "The oboe was occasionally muted.... Muting is now generally accomplished by stuffing a cloth or handkerchief into the bell, a method also used by saxophonists.... Bassoonists and clarinetists have also used mutes.... It should be borne in mind that a mute applied to the bell of a woodwind instrument is likely to be unevenly effective... as the proportion of the sound issuing from the bell is not constant." Early oboe mutes were inserted into the bell and made of cotton wool, paper, sponge or hardwood. They softened and gave a veiled quality to the lower notes of the instrument. Muting the oboe and bassoon is now done by stuffing a cloth, handkerchief or disk of sound-absorbing material into the bell. In saxophones, muting can be done with a cloth or handkerchief, or a velvet-covered ring inserted into the bell; the ringed mute causes the lower notes of the instruments to play flat.


Strings


Violin family

Mutes for string instruments of the
violin family The violin family of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the 16th century. At the time the name of this family of instruments was viole da braccio which was used to distinguish them from the viol family (viole ''da gamba''). The standa ...
work by adding mass to the
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
, or occasionally by dampening the strings behind the bridge. Made of wood, metal, rubber, plastic, or leather, they result in a darker, less brilliant sound because they dampen high-frequency vibrations in the bridge and shift its resonances to lower frequencies. This type of mute was introduced in the 17th century. They are used in performance, to change the tone of the instrument, or during practice, to minimize disturbing others by reducing volume considerably. Practice mutes are generally heavier than performance mutes. These devices vary widely in their construction, use, and effects on tone. The Heifetz mute, invented by
Henryk Kaston Henryk may refer to: * Henryk (given name) * Henryk, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, a village in south-central Poland * Henryk Glacier, an Antarctic glacier See also * Henryk Batuta hoax The Henryk Batuta hoax was a hoax perpetrated on the Polish ...
and violinist
Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...
and patented in 1949, allows for adjusting the degree of muting. Placed onto the top of the bridge, it stays on by friction, and may be slid up and down to vary the dampening effect. Some mutes attached to the bridge can be engaged or removed quickly, which is called for in certain modern orchestral works. For example, the popular Tourte and Finissima mutes can be slid along the strings on and off the bridge. The Bech magnetic mute system, with a magnet to secure the mute to the tailpiece when not in use to prevent rattling, is another such mute. There are also wire mutes that can press the strings on the tailpiece side of the bridge, leading to a lessened muting effect. Practice mutes can be used to heavily dampen stringed instruments to make practicing them in hotels or apartments less intrusive. Metal practice mutes, which are often coated in rubber, have a larger effect than rubber mutes. A practice mute limits the player's ability to hear the effect of the techniques they are working on, so players are advised to spend some practice time without the mute.


Wolf eliminator

The wolf tone is an undesirable resonance that occurs in string instruments, particularly the
cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
. A specialized cylindrical metal piece, known as a wolf tone eliminator, can be attached between the bridge and tailpiece of the instrument to adjust the strength and pitch of the problem resonance. Placing a rubber mute similarly can also suppress the wolf tone.


Fretted

A common technique in
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
,
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
, and
disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
music, palm muting a
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
or
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
involves placing the side of the hand on the strings. In classical music, this technique is sometimes known as ''pizzicato effleuré''. It reduces the strings' resonance and makes a "dry, chunky sound". Guitars and bass guitars can also have built-in or makeshift dampening devices to simulate the effect of palm muting. The Fender Jaguar guitar, for example, has a spring-loaded strip of foam that presses against the strings when enabled. Some guitars have an individual piece of foam for each string.


Percussion

Snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...
s can be muted with a piece of cloth laid on top, or placed between the snares and the lower membrane. Undesirable ringing overtones can be suppressed by placing a variety of objects on the drumhead, including wallets, self-adhesive pieces of gel, and a circular piece of plastic with the same size as the head. Struck
idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones) ...
s (e.g.
xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...
s) can be muted with the hand or a device, which results in short tones lacking resonance;
cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. Although they are t ...
s can be muted by placing a cloth inside them.
Maraca A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...
s and similar shaken idiophones can be muted by holding their chamber instead of their handle. Some percussion instruments, such as the
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...
,
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
, and
suspended cymbal Classical suspended cymbal A suspended cymbal is any single cymbal played with a stick or beater rather than struck against another cymbal. Common abbreviations used are "sus. cym.," or "sus. cymb." (with or without the period). Most drum kit ...
, are intended to be muted or dampened by hand. A triangle can also be dampened by placing it inside a sack and striking it from outside. Muting a timpani can be done with a handkerchief, cloth, or piece of felt; the muting device can also be struck directly.


Piano

The
soft pedal The soft pedal (or pedal, ) is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action (including the keyboard) slightly to the right, so that the hammers which norm ...
, or una corda pedal, decreases the volume of a
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. In grand pianos, this is done by shifting the hammers so that each hammer misses one of the multiple strings used for each note; in uprights, the soft pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, making a softer impact. The middle pedal on most pianos is a
sostenuto pedal Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano that change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining ...
, which does not perform a muting function. On some pianos, however, the middle pedal is a ''practice pedal'', which lowers a piece of felt between the hammers and strings, muffling the sound. The main pedal still has an effect, as the felt is not pressed against the strings except when the hammer strikes. Even quieter than the soft pedal, the practice pedal is intended to be used to prevent bothering others during practice.


See also

* Capo *
Damping (music) Damping is a technique in music for altering the sound of a musical instrument by reducing oscillations or vibrations. Damping methods are used for a number of instruments. Strings Damping is often necessary on string instruments such as the bas ...


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mute (Music) Musical performance techniques Musical instrument parts and accessories Brass instrument parts and accessories