String muting

Ostrom

This seems to be one detail I cant quite nail - I've been practicing (focusing on proper technique and theory rather than playing from tabs) for around 9 months now and I'm still getting more than a few unwanted noises, particularly when improvising.

My question is, is this something you consciously need to work on (i.e. slowing down, paying attention to muting positions on both hands, making corrections and practicing), or does it just develop with further practice? One particular annoyance is the tendency for the strings above the one I am bending to sound.

-=al=-

ah welcome to the world of guitar, where you spend more time muting strings and unwated noises than actually playing notes


It kinda just comes with practice and playing... theres not really a way around it, but if you cant do it slow your not going to be able to do it fast so slow it down and work out what you need to do


Kinda hard to explain too, but i guess if your playing on the higher strings you'd use your palm on your picking hand to mute the lower strings, and if your playing on the lower strings you'd use your fingers and the side of your palm on your frettings hand to mute the noies

strobe

efla wrote: »

This seems to be one detail I cant quite nail - I've been practicing (focusing on proper technique and theory rather than playing from tabs) for around 9 months now and I'm still getting more than a few unwanted noises, particularly when improvising.

My question is, is this something you consciously need to work on (i.e. slowing down, paying attention to muting positions on both hands, making corrections and practicing), or does it just develop with further practice? One particular annoyance is the tendency for the strings above the one I am bending to sound.

I feel your pain man. Drove me pretty close to insanity trying to get the hang of it. I don't think anything really just develops. So yeah, take your time and slow things down, work out what part of which hand you are going to need to use to mute particular strings at particular times and work at it. It will eventually become second nature to you like fingering a chord does but it takes a little time.

For the one you mentioned specifically, the 'D' or 'A' string sounding when you bend the 'G' for example. I would pretty much always mute that by using the 'heel' of my picking hand. So when I bend the 'G' I'd have the heel already just slightly touching the 'A' {it tends to be the string two strings up that makes the noise rather than the next one up in my experience} as the bend was on it's way up. When I bend the 'B' I'd have it tipping the 'D' etc.

It also helps if you make sure your bend is smooth going up and back down. If it is 'jerky' it will make any mutes you miss sound out louder.

I'm awful at describing this stuff in words though so not sure if any of that makes sense.

Ostrom

No, that makes perfect sense! I'm just not advanced enough to consciously position the hand properly (I'm probably overthinking it, but also want to avoid any possible bad habits developing).

It just seemed strange, not being mentioned in any of the guitar books I have, and yet it seems to be the most noticable defect aside from misplaced notes.

JonathanAnon

What way do you hold the plec... I use muting a bit.. It's important to have good picking technique.. But I use muting as backup, if I hit another string by mistake, I have a finger ready to touch off the errant string.

Ostrom

I think I'm holding it fairly standard, it doesn't slip when strumming, not too far out etc.. If playing single notes I rest my lower finger on the body

Johnny Storm

Eric Johnson will show you how, starting around 1:00:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MDw8XpZlJs

That bollox makes it look so easy :mad: