I am a student doing industrial design and I'm in my 2nd year at university, my current project is about sound and I have chosen to look at practice mutes for brass instruments, any feedback on the following questions would be incredibly helpful.
what are your opinions on what is currently available?
what do you think of yamaha silent brass mutes? are they realistically affordable?
what values do practice mutes have to you?
what could be improved?
Thank you!
practice mute project, can you help?
Hi Rachel,
Interesting study subject. I have to use a practice mute regularly because of neighbours. I have a Dennis Wick and the Silent Brass by Yamaha for euphonium.
The Wick is by far the best and makes you work hard to produce a full sound, a great benefit when it's removed!
The Silent Brass is a nice thing to have around, though it's easy to flatter yourself on the church settings, and turn up the volume o you don't have to play too loud. My bigest problem with this system is the size and weight of it, specially when standing up to practice.
Hope his little bit of theory helps.
CB. BBC Winds, London.
www.euph9.freeserve.co.uk
Interesting study subject. I have to use a practice mute regularly because of neighbours. I have a Dennis Wick and the Silent Brass by Yamaha for euphonium.
The Wick is by far the best and makes you work hard to produce a full sound, a great benefit when it's removed!
The Silent Brass is a nice thing to have around, though it's easy to flatter yourself on the church settings, and turn up the volume o you don't have to play too loud. My bigest problem with this system is the size and weight of it, specially when standing up to practice.
Hope his little bit of theory helps.
CB. BBC Winds, London.
www.euph9.freeserve.co.uk
Aspire & Be Inspired
If your on an industrial design course then the last thing you want to do is simply restyle a mute.
Extend the function of the unit....
Its a practice mute, to help you practice?..... So.... build in added function.
What about a built in metronome? or pitch tuning device that beeps whenever you go out of tune...... What about setting a volume level alarm?- its tricky to play certain parts at a low volume and it is easy for the player to blow harder at times but this is not good for training, so it would be handy to set the device to alarm you whenever you overshoot a certain set SPL.
Why not make it midi enabled?
Also make it universal to ANY sized brass instrument.......
The key would be to make it do all this and still look like a simple mute....
What about a Simon Says function where a memory card can be loaded up with tunes from the internet, once plugged into the mute it encourages you to repeat the tones played back to you (simple small speaker), as the device is plugged into your instrument is should not be difficult with todays technology to process weather or not the player is reproducing the correct patterns or not
Have a flip up LCD screen (cornet/trumpet only) from the mute which displays notes to play?
some 'out there' idea's but thats the way you should be thinking.
regards
JOn..
In I.D.
Extend the function of the unit....
Its a practice mute, to help you practice?..... So.... build in added function.
What about a built in metronome? or pitch tuning device that beeps whenever you go out of tune...... What about setting a volume level alarm?- its tricky to play certain parts at a low volume and it is easy for the player to blow harder at times but this is not good for training, so it would be handy to set the device to alarm you whenever you overshoot a certain set SPL.
Why not make it midi enabled?
Also make it universal to ANY sized brass instrument.......
The key would be to make it do all this and still look like a simple mute....
What about a Simon Says function where a memory card can be loaded up with tunes from the internet, once plugged into the mute it encourages you to repeat the tones played back to you (simple small speaker), as the device is plugged into your instrument is should not be difficult with todays technology to process weather or not the player is reproducing the correct patterns or not
Have a flip up LCD screen (cornet/trumpet only) from the mute which displays notes to play?
some 'out there' idea's but thats the way you should be thinking.
regards
JOn..
In I.D.
00
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These are both really interesting replies, thank you! I definitely like the metronome idea but I don't want to over complicate matters as I would quite like to keep the costs of each unit fairly low.
I know that the air resistance from the Denis Wick mutes adds to the effect but I had one as a novice player and it really put me off practicing for any length of time! Having spoken to a few other people they have said the same thing so if I'm trying to appeal to novice, possibly younger players unit costs should be fairly low. That isn't to say that I can't propose a range of mutes based on those ideas.
Thanks again, it's really useful to get feed back and anymore is very welcome!
Rachel
I know that the air resistance from the Denis Wick mutes adds to the effect but I had one as a novice player and it really put me off practicing for any length of time! Having spoken to a few other people they have said the same thing so if I'm trying to appeal to novice, possibly younger players unit costs should be fairly low. That isn't to say that I can't propose a range of mutes based on those ideas.
Thanks again, it's really useful to get feed back and anymore is very welcome!
Rachel
The resitance provided by the practice mutes can train you to blow harder, this is an important factor.
As a youngster I struggled to play loud, a practice mute really helped as you have to force air through it. I used simular techiniques to build the pressure I could produce when I first started on the soprano. Ive continued the practice of playing with a pratice mute, I also have 2 soprano corents. One a yamaha has slightly restricted airflow compared to the other (a shilki). I help out a kids band on thrusday nights and use the yamaha its more difficult to blow that the shilkie and is slightly quiter. I think swapping between the two will increase my blowing capacity.
Perhaps a practice mute could have a turny bit a the top so you could control the air flow. Rather than the obligitory 2-3 holes provided in the denis wick mutes?
Tiggs
As a youngster I struggled to play loud, a practice mute really helped as you have to force air through it. I used simular techiniques to build the pressure I could produce when I first started on the soprano. Ive continued the practice of playing with a pratice mute, I also have 2 soprano corents. One a yamaha has slightly restricted airflow compared to the other (a shilki). I help out a kids band on thrusday nights and use the yamaha its more difficult to blow that the shilkie and is slightly quiter. I think swapping between the two will increase my blowing capacity.
Perhaps a practice mute could have a turny bit a the top so you could control the air flow. Rather than the obligitory 2-3 holes provided in the denis wick mutes?
Tiggs
My solution for this particular project involved using a particular plastic for the mute (it was for a design competition sponsored by a plastics manufacturer) This meant that there was a lot of restrictions imposed by the material as it was a particularly restrictive material!
I constructed a mute based on the same principle as some sports car exhausts (sounds rubbish but I built a working prototype to prove that it really did work) the note coming out was unaltered (as petrol heads would wish for on a hot engine, and musicians for obvious reasons) and resistance was reduced although not removed. I understand that the resisitance is important buit could it not also be off putting to a novice player, especially a child? I know that when I was younger I would hardly practice at all with a practice mute because the discomfort was too great to practice for long
Also the mute itself has over time suffered and become battered, the material and texture of the mute I designed would be scratch and dent resistant.
I constructed a mute based on the same principle as some sports car exhausts (sounds rubbish but I built a working prototype to prove that it really did work) the note coming out was unaltered (as petrol heads would wish for on a hot engine, and musicians for obvious reasons) and resistance was reduced although not removed. I understand that the resisitance is important buit could it not also be off putting to a novice player, especially a child? I know that when I was younger I would hardly practice at all with a practice mute because the discomfort was too great to practice for long
Also the mute itself has over time suffered and become battered, the material and texture of the mute I designed would be scratch and dent resistant.
I know this really has nothing to do with your project (which has now finished) but whilst were on the subject.
Here is my practice mute.
Its made from a toilet roll center.
You make two cuts from each end, one 3/4 of the way in, the second 1/4 of the way in.....Make sure not to join the two together though.
Fold the first cut in (shown in red) to make a conical shape and secure with sticky tape.
Fold the second cut together (shown in blue) and also secure with tape, this will form a smaller opening.
Load the cone with cotton wool until is it packed but not packed tight.
stick it in your bell to see if you like it or not
Its very effective for what it costs.
for trumpets and cornets anyway.
Here is my practice mute.
Its made from a toilet roll center.
You make two cuts from each end, one 3/4 of the way in, the second 1/4 of the way in.....Make sure not to join the two together though.
Fold the first cut in (shown in red) to make a conical shape and secure with sticky tape.
Fold the second cut together (shown in blue) and also secure with tape, this will form a smaller opening.
Load the cone with cotton wool until is it packed but not packed tight.
stick it in your bell to see if you like it or not
Its very effective for what it costs.
for trumpets and cornets anyway.
00
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