Practice instrument

A practice instrument is a musical instrument that is only used by the player for practicing and that makes room for another instrument during public lecture or studio recording. Practice instruments either have a reduced volume in order to avoid noise nuisance, as is the case with the mute violin , or they replace particularly large, unwieldy instruments such as the organ , for which the harmonium was used as a practice instrument for a long time.

Today, most practice instruments are equipped with pickups instead of a resonance box, or they generate the tones electronically via keys, which makes it possible to practice with headphones . Instead of practice instruments, brass players have special practice dampers with which the volume is greatly reduced.