Wow David - you are quite the musician!!
I have to say, I don't practice as often as I should at home - although we have a 2 hour band practice every thursday and in the run up to competitions and festivals we'll have Tuesday practices too.
One thing I bought recently - which is great because I get very self consious practicing when I know people can hear- is this - its a silent brass and I can hear clearly what I'm playing but others can only hear a dull muffle.
huntinbuddy - I've always fancied playing the sax.. its such a cool looking and sounding instrument - but I think now I would find it hard to adapt to the reed after years of being a brass player!
Kelda! That's a wonderful invention! And I'm sure it comes in handy sometimes too, even though you are a fine cornetist as we have heard in those videos you posted!
I wish they made a similar device for the violin and cello. They do make mutes for instruments in the violin family, but they don't nearly silence the instrument. They only slightly mute it, or rather make it sound a little less harsh. We will sometimes apply the mute when performing in an orchestra and a single instrument is featured briefly, such as a clarinet, oboe or flute. Once the solo is finished, the mute is removed.
On the violin, the mute is inserted just below the bridge and it is attached to the A and D strings on the violin. To use the mute, it is slid up over the bridge. When it is not in use, it remains just below the bridge. It looks like this...
The mute works basically the same way on the cello. The cello mute sometimes looks like the mute of a violin. More often it looks like this...
Often it is attached to the G and D strings, also muting the C and A strings located on either side of the central G and D strings. Sometimes the cello mute is slid (or rolled) as it is on a violin, or clipped on and then removed after use. Quite often the cello mute is made of rubber, or some rubbery like material.
Here a two string mute has been inserted on the D and A strings of the cello and a single mute is found on the G, leaving the C string unmuted. Since they are positioned below the bridge, they are not being used at this time.
I rarely mute my instrument in this way. I use the standard 4 string mute most of the time.
