How do I mute an ocarina?

You can mute an ocarina in a few ways, but which to use depends on why you want to mute the instrument. Do you want to protect your own hearing, or to be considerate of the people around you?

Protecting your hearing

To protect your hearing, musicians earplugs are the best option, they are designed to reduce the volume that you hear, without affecting your ability to hear your playing.

Well-fitting, closed studio headphones can also dampen the sound and allow you to listen to a metronome or backing tracks. However, they should not be treated as personal protective equipment to prevent hearing damage, unless certified as such.

Be considerate of others

To be considerate of those around you, you can play in a place where no one can hear you, such as in a basement, a car, or in a field. If these options are not feasible for you, it is possible to mute the ocarina's sound. The following options are available:

• Playing a quieter ocarina. An ocarina can be made quieter when it is designed by making the chamber and sound hole smaller, and tuning the instrument to play at a lower pressure.
• By blowing it very softly. Ocarinas behave differently depending on how hard they are blown. When blown very softly, they will produce a low-volume 'whistling' before breaking into their normal-sounding mode.
• Partially covering the sound hole. It is also possible to mute an ocarina by partly covering the sound hole with tape. This will result in an airy tone.
• Muting devices. There are devices on the market which fit over the mouthpiece and restrict airflow into the instrument. This functions in the same way as blowing softly and doesn't do anything that can't be achieved by just blowing softly.

I've also seen suggestions for muting ocarinas that involve folding paper and inserting it into the windway to partially block the airflow. I do not advise this because there is a risk that the paper will become stuck in the windway, ruining the instrument.

The cons of muting an ocarina

Besides the options of using earplugs or playing an ocarina that was designed to be quieter, all of these options change the instrument's pitch and timbre. Often, an ocarina will play in tune with itself when muted, but will be a semitone or more flat of the intended pitch.

An ocarina muted in this way is adequate for practising fingerings, but not much more than that. It is still essential to practise everything at normal pressure to develop the breath control needed to play in tune while performing.

The physics that ocarinas function on means that they are not well-suited to being muted. As holes are opened, the instrument requires more air to sound, and the player must blow harder to compensate. This naturally causes the instrument to get louder, and you can only lower the pressure so much before the high notes stop working.

I think that the best way of muting an ocarina would be a faithful electronic simulation of the instrument, as you can't get quieter than playing on headphones.