Playing guitar more cleanly?

Karl Hungus

I think I definetly need help with playing more cleanly, so if there are any tips, lessons, resources or links that anyone here can provide for me, that would be great. Thanks.

JC 2K3

What do you mean by "more cleanly" exactly?

Practise things slowley at first and break pieces up into small sections, once you've perfected a section at a slow tempo then speed it up, if you rush into playing stuff too fast you'll end up playing wrong notes, hitting wrong strings etc. and won't get much better by practising like that.
Also, take a look at your picking hand, if it's too tense then relax it, and make sure you're doing proper up and down strokes.

Hope this helped,
-JC

Karl Hungus

JC 2K3 wrote:

What do you mean by "more cleanly" exactly?

Practise things slowley at first and break pieces up into small sections, once you've perfected a section at a slow tempo then speed it up, if you rush into playing stuff too fast you'll end up playing wrong notes, hitting wrong strings etc. and won't get much better by practising like that.
Also, take a look at your picking hand, if it's too tense then relax it, and make sure you're doing proper up and down strokes.

Hope this helped,
-JC

No, that's not helped, but I appreciate the reply.

I think we've definetly got a misunderstanding of terms here though. I'm not hitting any wrong strings/notes at all, and my picking is very accurate now. So I don't need tips on how to practice.

How should I explain what I mean by cleanly so? Hmm... I don't know. I don't know quite what the problem is, otherwise I'd probably work around it myself. I mean making a little excessive noise while you're playing, if you follow my meaning? All the right notes are being played perfectly, and accurately, but something just seems to be making a bit more noise than those notes should on their own.

-=al=-

i think every guitarist spends mroe time muting unwanted nioise than actually playing the notes... Learning legato and satriani type songs done wonders for my playing, and helped me alot in delevoloping my technique and playing a lot cleaner... practice slow and accuratly and play with a guitar plugged in so u can hear every little noise... when using eq's and compressors it can also amplify noise but its all about the muting with both hands...

Karl Hungus

Yeah, that's more what I'm on about Al.

I've started muting a lot more lately, such as muting the strings next to the one I'm fretting, but it's a bit hard to do all the time, especially at speed. I find palm-muting can be a bit problematic aswell when trying to get everything ringing out clearly, I can often hit a "Chug" when I'm not wanting to, you know?

Any other ways of muting things I mightn't have tried yet?

-=al=-

well its jut about rpacticing and playing it the best u can

i notice sometimes when people mute and pick they do it differently and when they try and mute fast it goes a bit mad... Some people pick with the wrist and some use the fingers.. if u get me... U gota use the same technique for both, well you dont have to, theres no rules, but tis recomended... even i do both, but playing lead guitar or even jsut cleanly isnt easy to do cleanly but after time it'll come to you

theres a very light touch invovled in playing gutiar, its v sensitive especially amplified.. It all about practicing and gettin it under controll

JC 2K3

It might be a good idea to practice a bit on an accoustic guitar, since to get a good sound out of an accoustic you need to be more precise, even play your electric with distortion off. Distortion can hide your mistakes to a certain extent. The fact it doesn't sound "clean" is because you're not playing it pertfectly and you probably wouldn't be able to hear every note properly when playing it undistorted. Basically distortion shouldn't help you to play a piece easier, it should make a perfected piece sound good

jptk

There are two main types of muting, muting the notes you are playing and muting the unwanted string noise. Both are extremely important for rock guitar. When muting either way, dont put much weight on the strings, just graze them with your palm. If you put weight on the strings you will restrict motion and itll cause tension.
As well as this, you dont wanna restrict yourself cause in the future you might wanna play other types of music (jazz for example) which requires alot of LOUD notes which requires a properly trained right hand.

Voodu Child

Karl Hungus wrote:

I've started muting a lot more lately, such as muting the strings next to the one I'm fretting, but it's a bit hard to do all the time, especially at speed.

Unfortunately, unlearning bad habits can be much harder than learning the actual technique youre going for. I dont know how good a player you are, but I know youre anything but a beginner, and id imagine youve some fairly decent chops. When you can shred like a monster, theres nothing more frustrating than taking your technique right back to the basics and building it back up again (I know, I did it a few years ago), however in this case thats my best suggestion.

Take some chromatic exercises, or three note per string scales, or just any particular exercises youre fond of (obviously they should be exercises that go up and down the strings). Forget about how fast you can play them, and just slow them right down. At any point, just 'pause' and check that your
picking hand is muting the strings above the one youre playing, and youre fretting hand is muting the ones below. Actually check, pick the strings and see if they ring out. Stick with it for a couple of weeks, going through all your favorite exercises. After a while your technique should have adjusted so that no matter what your playing, youre always muting the strings your not playing.

Also, they did some 'guitar gym' column in guitar techniques a couple of years ago. The first couple of lessons had some good practical advice on things to consider about picking hand technique.

Karl Hungus

Thanks, that's some seemingly excellent advice I'm going to put into practice sharply.

Just one thing...

voodoo_child wrote:

At any point, just 'pause' and check that your
picking hand is muting the strings above the one youre playing, and youre fretting hand is muting the ones below.

Which way do you mean above and below? I mean is it in the sense that when you're looking at tabs, it ascends E A D G B E, so A would be "Above" the E string. Or is it the other way around?

Sorry, that confuses me sometimes.

pyure

by above and below he means sound wise, so if you're playing on the d string, your picking hand should be muting the low e and a strings, while the fretting hand mutes the g,b and high e strings

also you might try using the spare fingers on your picking hand to mute the high strings if you're having trouble using the fretting hand - i find this very useful when playing legato parts

Voodu Child

Yeahm sorry, i just meant physically, as in looking at the fretboard in the mirror.

Theres no 'right' technique, everyone does things different, but I never anchor my picking hand to the guitar body (ie some people put their pinky on the scratchplate for example). My right hand sits on the strings at the bridge, and just tilts back and forth slightly as i move up and down the strings (if you can, never physically move your picking hand up or down, that will make more noise, just try to tilt your hand a little). Just from practicing chromatic exercises etc. your hand automatically knows how to position itself in such a way as that the fleshy part on the side is resting on all the strings lower in pitch to the one your playing.

The underside of one or more of your fretting hand fingers will mute any string higher in pitch than the string you are playing. Again, actually check that its working, by stopping at some point in a lick or exercise, and actually look at what your fingers are doing, pluck a string and see if it sounds.

Like someone else said, legato exercises are good
at improving the cleanliness of your hammeron/pull off technique, this can help to clean up your overall sound alot. Three note per string scale exercises are good at this, something very simple is just the old 1234 2345 3456 ascending/descending sequence. Try playing without picking at all, it will help streamline your fretting technique so you dont brush off other strings as you hammeron/pull off, and will also help you fretting hand muting.

Giblet

Are you using excessive gain?

BossArky

Karl Hungus wrote:

I think I definetly need help with playing more cleanly, so if there are any tips, lessons, resources or links that anyone here can provide for me, that would be great. Thanks.

Post up a tab with soundfile of something you are trying to play more cleanly and then people will be able to tell you if at all there is something you can improve upon.

Karl Hungus

voodoo_child wrote:

Yeahm sorry, i just meant physically, as in looking at the fretboard in the mirror.

Theres no 'right' technique, everyone does things different, but I never anchor my picking hand to the guitar body (ie some people put their pinky on the scratchplate for example). My right hand sits on the strings at the bridge, and just tilts back and forth slightly as i move up and down the strings (if you can, never physically move your picking hand up or down, that will make more noise, just try to tilt your hand a little). Just from practicing chromatic exercises etc. your hand automatically knows how to position itself in such a way as that the fleshy part on the side is resting on all the strings lower in pitch to the one your playing.

The underside of one or more of your fretting hand fingers will mute any string higher in pitch than the string you are playing. Again, actually check that its working, by stopping at some point in a lick or exercise, and actually look at what your fingers are doing, pluck a string and see if it sounds.

Like someone else said, legato exercises are good
at improving the cleanliness of your hammeron/pull off technique, this can help to clean up your overall sound alot. Three note per string scale exercises are good at this, something very simple is just the old 1234 2345 3456 ascending/descending sequence. Try playing without picking at all, it will help streamline your fretting technique so you dont brush off other strings as you hammeron/pull off, and will also help you fretting hand muting.

Thanks, that's all very helpfull.

What I was doing before was actually trying not to hit any other string at all while fretting, but that of course ended up in more noise. I abandoned that in favour of muting the strings, as described, the underside of my fretting fingers, muting the strings higher in pitch, which I got the hang of pretty quickly, but I wasn't sure about anything else, so this is certainly a help.

I've no problem with changing my technique though, I seem to have gone through a lot of that lately, as before it was my picking that was a problem, in that I wasn't really alternate picking as such, but rather doing a little sweep when moving up or down a string, so I wasn't keeping a steady alternate pattern. I managed to correct this fairly easily though, and it's payed off a lot.

Giblet wrote:

Are you using excessive gain?

No, it's not a case of excessive gain, it's definetly my technique. Besides, I generally practice clean anyway.

Voodu Child

Karl Hungus wrote:

I've no problem with changing my technique though, I seem to have gone through a lot of that lately, as before it was my picking that was a problem, in that I wasn't really alternate picking as such, but rather doing a little sweep when moving up or down a string, so I wasn't keeping a steady alternate pattern. I managed to correct this fairly easily though, and it's payed off a lot.

What you were doing originally would be called economy picking. Theres no real right or wrong between economy picking or strict alternate picking, it all depends on what youre aiming for. Generally, economy picking would be faster, and strict alternate picking would have a more even/precise rhythm, and is easier to do (once you get the hang of it, you can nearly just turn your picking hand 'brain' off....). As with any of these things, there are tonnes of amazing players from each camp.

Its good that you were able to change your technique though, because its a tricky thing to 'unlearn' something

Karl Hungus

voodoo_child wrote:

What you were doing originally would be called economy picking. Theres no real right or wrong between economy picking or strict alternate picking, it all depends on what youre aiming for. Generally, economy picking would be faster, and strict alternate picking would have a more even/precise rhythm, and is easier to do (once you get the hang of it, you can nearly just turn your picking hand 'brain' off....). As with any of these things, there are tonnes of amazing players from each camp.

Well, either way, I found it really wasn't working for me, and once I got the hang of alternate picking, I was flying.

voodoo_child wrote:

Its good that you were able to change your technique though, because its a tricky thing to 'unlearn' something

I've basically changed so much of my technique last year alone, I don't think it's a bother any more. I really used to be a terrible player (But who cares, I enjoy it so much!) but my playing has improved so much, it's unreal, and a lot of this improvement was due to changing my technique, and unlearning any little bad habits I had. Aswell as getting some lessons.

killswitch

simple answer to this....drop ur gain a little bit and use a lighter pick...sorted

Karl Hungus

killswitch wrote:

simple answer to this....drop ur gain a little bit and use a lighter pick...sorted

Wow, I wish people with no clue what they're talking about wouldn't reply.

jptk

killswitch wrote:

simple answer to this....drop ur gain a little bit and use a lighter pick...sorted

Not if you wanna play up to al di meolas or john mcglaughlin standard.

Karl Hungus

Alrighty, thanks muchly for the help, I definetly think I've got the hang of it now, so I'm playing with a hell of a lot excess noise now. Still got a bit to work on getting rid off, and I do end up muting the wrong thing the odd time, but I really think I'm soaring now.

jptk

Karl Hungus wrote:

Alrighty, thanks muchly for the help, I definetly think I've got the hang of it now, so I'm playing with a hell of a lot excess noise now. Still got a bit to work on getting rid off, and I do end up muting the wrong thing the odd time, but I really think I'm soaring now.

make sure you take your time though, things like this can take a long time to perfect so that it comes without thinking about it

pyure

just a quick follow up question -
how do you mute pull offs to open strings? is it ok to use picking hand fingers, or could my legato technique be better ?

BossArky

pyure wrote:

just a quick follow up question -
how do you mute pull offs to open strings? is it ok to use picking hand fingers, or could my legato technique be better ?

Palm-mute the lot, e.g. 5-3-0 (all palm muted) played as one pull off.