What's That Weird Sound? Brass Edition

I decided to write about brass instruments and effects a few weeks earlier than I anticipated, mostly because I needed something loud in my headphones to drown out the car alarm that's been going off in the parking lot for the past 4 (yes, FOUR) hours. Unlike the string family, the brass instrument family wildly varies in size, tone, timbre, articulation, and technique.

For one thing, the standard and common practice of using mutes drastically alters the sound of a brass instrument. Different types of mutes have different effects, and the most obvious applications of this is in jazz. The trumpet's sound completely changes when a mute is introduced. The types of mutes include: a bucket mute, which slightly dampens the sound, a silent mute, which almost completely eliminates the sound and is generally used for practicing as at this volume level the sound of the valves is distracting. A cup mute, which gives a more nasal timbre, a straight mute, which intensifies the trumpet's metallic sound, a harmon mute - my favorite -incredibly versatile, giving that old time radio swing sound. This is a very informative and useful video for determining what sound you're looking for or figuring out what you heard:

The use of mutes for trombones, horns, tubas, and others are not as used in scoring but still common practice. Horns, as many will know, already use their hands inside the bells to stop the sound. Also available for horns are straight mutes, which dampen the sound, and cup mutes, which makes it sound like the horn is playing through a pillow. Due to the way horns in F are played, mutes aren't terribly common and the horn players I know really hate using them. Here's another video giving you an idea of what these mutes sound like:

Trombones also have access to using mutes, and again are more common in jazz - in classical arenas, trombone players will only be using a straight mute, dampening the sound. Trombones are LOUD, so the use of straight mutes are not uncommon in orchestras and wind ensembles. Bucket mutes are used to muffle the sound, and are pretty boring. In jazz and Dixieland styles, the cup mute is more common, and it's an effect that I am in love with for brass ensembles. These styles along with wing music can also use a standard plunger, and with experienced musicians can really "jazz up" (sorry) a tune. Check out this vid:

Aside from mutes, the technique required to play brass instruments allows for a lot of leeway in sound and timbre. A brass player learns to produce harmonic tones using both the valves of the instrument, and their embouchure, or the placement of their lips against the mouthpiece. Tighter lips and faster air make for higher tones, and vice versa. With great power comes great responsibility, though, and multiphonics are an extended technique that's not for the faint of heart. In brass instruments, multiphonics can be produced three different ways: singing through the instrument while playing a different pitch, blowing air in between partials (lip multiphonics), and manipulating their embouchure so that each lip vibrates at a different speed (split tones). These techniques vary in difficulty, with singing through the instrument being the easiest to achieve - but not necessarily the easiest to write. When writing sung multiphonics, try not to have the played pitch higher than the sung pitch, or the effect will be negated. Similarly, close intervals don't "speak" and the effort will be for nothing. Here is an absolutely masterful example of sung multiphonics:

This is obviously not a comprehensive account of ALL brass instruments and effects, but rather a primer. For those of us *cough cough* who grew up playing woodwinds or piano, brass instruments can be quite a mystery! Stay tuned in the following weeks for more "What's That Weird Sound?"