Stephen Hartke wrote these instructions in Meanwhile:
"Soft piano mutes are required beginning in movement III. These are made by filling a child’s cotton sock with about four pounds of BBs, sewing the end of the sock closed, then enclosing it in two more socks, each of them sewn shut as well. The mute is roughly a foot long and when laid across the strings near the tuning pins and gently tamped down, produces an effect similar to that of individually hand-muting the strings, but has the advantage of muting about an octave and a half."
I have decided to construct these mutes because stuffing a piano full of kitchen towels didn't work as well as I'd hoped.
What you need:
And then you can start sewing away.
First sock
Second sock
Third sock
And then you have the final product!
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| googly eyes optional |