I found a fabulous "budget" mute for horn. Are you ready for this? A one liter (33.5 oz) Dasani water bottle makes a great mute! Take off the lid and put the open end in first. Push it in all the way for a practice mute. Pull it slightly out and it sounds almost exactly like my expensive cone shaped tunable horn mute. No kidding! You've got to try it. I can play low, mid and upper registers w/o any change in intonation. It's amazing. I've heard that a Gatorade bottle works well, too, but haven't tried that one yet.

Val
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Valerie Wells
The Balanced Embouchure Method
http://bebabe.wordpress.com/
http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/

I just heard about using the Gatorade 32oz G2 bottle. Almost exactly as you describe except he recoomends emptying the liquid before playing. I'm going to try it this afternoon.

Haha! That was my friend Dave, who originally posted on FB about the Gatorade bottle. (Do you know Dave?) I heard from him last nite so I had to try it out. I emptied a Gatorade bottle last night and tried it. It works, produces a great sound, but it's a bit sharp. And... because the Gatorade bottle is more rigid, it buzzes if it comes in contact with the bell. The Dasani bottle doesn't buzz against the metal at all.

Try both & let me know what you find.

Perhaps Dave & I will have a contest on FB to see which one works best! HA HA HA!

I also tried a smaller 24 oz water bottle last evening. It was quite sharp.

Val

I have been staying at a hotel for a number of weeks. I have a trumpet, flugelhorn, and trombone with me. I already have a good trumpet practice mute but nothing for flugel or trombone. Every day I have get two free small bottles of water. I was trying various things - e.g. small hotel towels etc. By chance tried the water bottle and suprise! With a bit of masking tape to widen the bottle a bit it fits nicely into both my flugelhorn and trombone! I can switch back and forth with no adjustment. You can even darken or brighten the sound depending on how much masking tape you use! Sound quality is as good or even better than expensive mutes!

That's WAY cool! Thanks for sharing. I never thought of masking tape.

Val

For a long time (years) I used a Poland Spring sparkling water bottle, which is actually shaped exactly like a mute. I also put felt strips where the bottle makes contact with the bell, which prevents the buzzing, makes it so you can keep the bottle an even distance in the bell at all times, and it reduces the risk of dinging up the bell.

Dan, thanks for sharing. Could you tell how you applied the felt? Hot glue? contact cement?

Val

Double sided tape, in fact. I would imagine that hot glue would also work, though. Here's a pic: http://i.imgur.com/lY14C.jpg

The timbre is a bit mellow, but it served me very well in wind quintets.

WAY COOL! Thanks so much for the pic.

Valerie Wells
The Balanced Embouchure Method
http://BEbabe.wordpress.com
http://www.BEforHorn.blogspot.com
http://ComfyHornStrap.blogspot.com