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How to Mute a Reed Using Your Mouth

Wind instruments, including the clarinet, saxophone and oboe, have reeds that are used to create sound through the mouth. Muting is a technique used with reed instruments to change the sound that is heard when you are playing. This is done primarily with the tongue while air is being blown past the reed in a focused stream, which causes the reed to vibrate. Muting helps the notes become individually articulated instead of blurring together into one long sound.

Instructions

- 1
  Say the word "tee" to create a tongue position in your mouth. Repeat this until only the tip of your tongue is moving. It will be moving in a slight downward motion.
- 2
  Blow into the instrument gently with your tongue a few millimeters away from the tip of the reed. This will create a sound through vibration of the reed.
- 3
  Repeat the movement of the tongue that you did during the first step while playing a note on your instrument. You will be touching the reed with the tip of your tongue just below the top edge. A simple touch will stop the reed, which mutes the sound.
- 4
  Release your tongue quickly and release your air to begin another note.
- 5
  Practice these movements slowly until you can mute the sound at will. At this point you can begin to speed things up until you are able to move your tongue very quickly to stop the sound.

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