How do I mute an ocarina?

You can mute an ocarina in a few ways:

• 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 preassure.
• By blowing it very softly. Ocarinas behave differently depending on how hard they are blown, and when blown very softly, before they start to break into their normal sounding mode, they will sound with a low volume 'whistling'.
• Partially covering the sound hole. It is also possible to mute an ocarina by partly covering the sound hole with tape, in line of the windway. 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 partly block it. I do not advise this because there is a risk that it will become stuck in the windway, ruining the instrument.

The cons of muting an ocarina

Besides the option of finding an ocarina that was designed to be quieter, all of these 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 important to practise anything you are going to play at normal pressure in order to develop the breath control needed to play in tune in a performance.

The physics that ocarinas function on mean that they are not well suited to being muted. As holes are opened more air is needed for the instrument to sound, so the player has to blow harder and this naturally causes the instrument to get louder. 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.