How a Trumpet Mute Works

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Warren Vache of warrenvache.com, trumpet player here in New York City, and author of the DVD, I Love the Trumpet. Let's talk a little about trumpet mutes. A mute is an appliance that you put in the bell that changes the sound of the instrument. Open, or with out a mute, the trumpet sounds like this. Sometimes composers will write for a different color for the instrument, and you get these by taking a mute just like this, and putting it inside the bell of your horn, twisting it slightly so that it stays and doesn't fall out, that's very embarrassing, and this will change the color of the sound. This happens to be a Harmon mute, and this one sounds like this, very quire, sort of brassy, very nice effect. Miles Davis and Sweets Edison used this mute to great effect in their recordings. There are also, there's a must called the straight mute, a cup mute, and a solo tone mute, a bucket mute, the, the, the variety is infinite. And they all apply to the bell of the horn, you put them in and make sure they don't fall out, and go ahead and change the sound of your instrument. It allows a trumpet player to change the timbre of his instrument when ever he wants, or when ever the composer wants. Now, the thing to remember about mutes is that when you put something in the bell, like this, it tends to stuff up the bottom register, so when you buy a mute in a store, make sure you try one, and make sure it doesn't stuff up the bottom end of your horn. And that's about all I can tell you about mutes in this little section."