leia885

Dear all,

Recently I though of buying straight mute to increase the practice(during d night). But usually what kind of meterial should I buy(plastic or aluminium)? & I oso wonder if for longtime being will it affect my hearing?

Will be appreciate who ever taugh me at here, thank you!!!

The Dutch Guy

you don't need a straight mute. It changes the sound, but hardly mutes it at all.
get a practise mute, yamaha Silent brass, Best brass, adjustable cup mute (dennis wick) and put the cup against the bell, or get a plunger, drill a hole in it and place it over the bell.
all of those do more than a straight mute.

__________________
my trumpets:
Bach Stradivarius Model 198
Yamaha 8335 Xeno

dhbailey

I bought a trum-cor Lyric Stealth mute (www.trumcor.com)and have found it to be an excellent practice mute, allowing for good resonance and intonation on all but the extremely lowest F#, G and A (below middle C) and great response throughout the rest of the range of the trumpet. I can practice with that in my basement and the rest of my family can sleep without being disturbed at all.

heulwen

With regards to how your hearing may be affected, the current UK guidelines suggest that unless you are subjecting yourself to an average noise level of more than 80dBA over a full daytime or week period during your 'working' hours, you are unlikely to damage your hearing permanently.

80dBA is pretty easy to get to when you are playing with full ensembles for long periods but at home with a practice mute I would be very surprised if you ever encountered a problem.

The general rule of thumb is: If you ever start to hear a humming or buzzing noise that shouldn’t be there, review how loud you are playing and what other noise you are exposing yourself to. Hearing a buzzing noise is a sign that you have already damaged your hearing by causing a temporary threshold shift. After doing this a few times it becomes a permanent threshold shift and if you were to have your hearing tested you would probably find first of all that you had lost some high frequency hearing response. As you get older, this can then get worse.

As an acoustic consultant I would usually tell a musician they should be wearing hearing protection – such as ear plugs, but as a trumpet player I know that this isn’t always practical. It’s the choice you have to make….

wiseone2

I use a Bach practice mute........I started working on some stuff at 6am this morning.
My neighbors, I live in Brooklyn NY, have not complained.

Wilmer

__________________
Be sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouthpiece in gear.
S.Suark 1951

GordonH

I use a Denis Wick practice mute and I used to play in the same room as a sleeping baby.

__________________
I used to have a career, now all I do is play Schumann.

Vulgano Brother

I didn't use a practice mute; my kids got used to it and slept on through.

My wife, however, prefered the Yamaha Silent Brass mute.

Spouses trump kids.

__________________
www.letsbuildhope.org

edcon1981

i have a stone line practice mute to take with me, but that has alot of resistance. at home i have the yamaha silent brass system which i love, it is very quiet with little resistance. worth every penny.

__________________

1890's (est) LeFevre 691 Cornet
1890's (est) Harwood "Solo Model" Cornet
1954 Olds (LA) Ambassador Cornet
1956 Olds (EF) Ambassador Trumpet
1989 Selmer Bundy Trumpet
2007 Kanstul KSB100 3-Valve Bugle

"Villains always have antidotes... they're funny that way. "

frankmike

Why are you concerned about hearing loss??? It is mute, how can it hrm your hearing??? Is there something I do not know.

Regarding mutes I combine Yamaha silent brass and wee zee, half an hour one, half an hour other

but lately, (listen to this little secret) I have discovered that I can actually play w/o mute, open trumpet, but very very silent, almost a whisper. I play around midnight in kitchen and my wife is sleeping in the sleeping room, there are however two sets of closed door between us but hey. Neighbours also cant hear anything. And the best part is that silent playing is rapidly improving my overall performance

dpa10

I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to damage to his "tonal" hearing. Sometimes the pitch changes witht he practice mutes.
But perhaps I misinterpreted this.