Damping (music)

The technique is especially popular among ska, rocksteady and reggae guitarists, who use it with virtually every riddim they play on.

Unless the sustain pedal is depressed, releasing the key allows the damper to return to place, damping the note.

Mallet dampening on the vibraphone is an important technique that facilitates legato phrasing on the instrument.

On cymbals, choking is an important technique that can add punctuation or heighten musical tension.

Historical players such as Joseph Moskowitz sometimes used their coat sleeves as dampers, but pedal-operated dampers were one of the main distinguishing features of the concert cimbalom developed by Jószef Schunda in 1874 and are now often added to larger or more expensive American hammered dulcimers, Eastern European dulcimers, and Greek sandouris.