Okura + Mutes and SoftRing Trumpet Mute // Mute Monday Episode 25
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Trumpet practice mute demonstration from Okura + Mute, as well as the SoftRing trumpet mute.
The Okura + Mute from Japan is a practice mute for the trumpet, and also for the piccolo trumpet. The SoftRing mute is designed for the trumpet and it gives a softer edge to the sound of a trumpet.
Descriptions: 1:35
Demonstrations: 8:25
Final thoughts: 12:28
A big thanks to Okura + Mute and SoftRing for sending me these mutes to review.
I was not sponsored or paid for this review, and all opinions are my own.
I've created a free "Mute Handbook" to help you play better 🎺🎺
►Get it here: www.JoshRzepka....
Buy the duet book I wrote with Roger Ingram 🎺🎺
►Get it here: www.versatiletr...
Trumpet Gear:
►Trumpet: www.seshires.c...
►Mouthpiece: Denis Wick MM4C bit.ly/3kzFMKO
Camera Gear:
Canon R6:
Sigma 18-35 F 1.8 w/RF adapter
Røde NT1A
Røde VideoMic Pro
► Facebook: / joshrzepka
► Instagram: / joshrzepka
► Twitter: / joshrzepka
► Website: www.joshrzepka.com
Josh is a Chicago based trumpeter, composer, and author. He has been featured on NPR, PBS, and has been heard on jazz radio across the world.
Josh tours across North America with classic rock sensation Under the Streetlamp.
Josh is endorsed by Denis Wick and Robinson’s Remedies.
Thanks for sharing. This would be great certainly will look into.
Hey Josh, thanks for the great video! I agree with you on the utility of the piccolo trumpet practice mute - I have had a Yamaha silent brass for picc for years and almost never use it for actual practicing! However it's like you said that it can be useful if you have to come in cold on piccolo, and for me it has helped out in this way a lot (especially if my chops aren't feeling 100% that day).
I don't the picc softring would work as a practice mute - it does take a lot of the 'edge' off but still with plenty of tone (and I have found it works great above the staff!). I find it's better for soft, high passages where you need to be subtle, but still present.
The idea of resistance is an interesting one that the softring has made me think differently about. I'm no acoustician or physicist but I think the 'resistance' we feel, whether from the horn, mouthpiece, or ourselves is often a reaction to a lack of resonance or color in the sound, and I think the softring illustrates this perfectly - there is clearly nothing new blocking the trumpet's bell, but we get a sense of resistance due to the fewer high harmonics that would normally make the tone brilliant.
Thanks again and keep up the great videos!
Thanks!! Great info, thanks for all of that.
I'm wondering if the softring would make it a little harder to hear the folk you're playing with who are using it. I think (and I may be totally off on the physics here) it focuses the sound waves and makes them more forward oriented and less spread on the sides.
As far as picc practice mutes, I have to use one very regularly. I have a yamaha silent brass one. It does add resistance, but it forces me to back off even more. Using it often has helped my sound and endurance on picc significantly. It's not ideal, I agree there, but it's how my situation is working itself out at the moment. If you happen to come across any picc practice mutes that you find to add minimal resistance, let me know.
That's a good question, I think you'd really just have to try it out and then ensemble. To me it was like a very subtle bucket/Flugel vibe. Volume was down a little bit, it was more the overall tonal color.
Great point there about it forcing you to back off even more, I can totally see that.
I'll definitely update as I come across more picc practice mutes. I used to play piccolo trumpet all the time, but I didn't touch it for a while, I've been getting back into it as I'm recording some multi-track pieces.
Hos would you compare the Okura with the Shhmute?
Good question, I'll try them out tomorrow and let you know while it's fresh in my mind. I can say that both are excellent mutes.
That softring mute is really interesting! I wonder how it would affect the sound of a cornet? Makes it sound like a flugelhorn maybe?
Oh, that's a great question. I've never had a cornet, so I can't really say.
It doesn't make it sound *exactly* like a flugelhorn, but it definitely makes the cornet's tone even warmer!
Definitely a traditional jazz vibe with that softring. Pretty cool.
@@michaelbarth8606 Have tried to fine one at various music stored but no luck. Where did you get one.