[pcx]

Hi all,

I'll like to find out how you guys mute strings that are not being played. Pick or fingerstyle, both.

Since on both my classical and electric guitar(just started on it), harmonics from the treble strings tends to get absorbed into the bass strings and they make some sounds(soft, but annoys me the player since I can hear every detail).

Most of the problem is when playing either open strings or strings where the next few notes are not going to be on that string.

For pick, I know it's mainly palm muting (mute top when playing bottom strings and vice versa). But it's kinda wierd to pick,mute,pick,mute for every note (assume say a simple piece with all quarter notes), but if I don't do it, there's that slight hum/noise from the other strings vibrating.

For fingerstyle, I can only think of using the same finger plucking to mute it after. But there's no equivalent of the palm mute to mute the bass strings while playing the treble strings.(Cause it's fingerstyle, position is kinda like classical, so it's not economical to palm mute)

Before I start to play the electric guitar, this problem didnt really bugged me.
Now I notice it with the classical too (probably also because I play it louder nowadays, used to play real softly so the soft "noise" is almost non-existant).

P.S : The fretting hand thumb-around trick doesn't work for me, due to small hands

[Chaotic Kittie]

I know what you mean... I have exactly the same problem, and I'm trying to cope with it. I use palm muting, and when fingerpicking I mute them with the picking thumb. I'm not very good at it yet, but it works!
For me it's only the harmonics on the D string that go off whenever I play a D on any of the treble strings...

[randomaire]

You could try lifting the fingers slightly off the string, not all the way, but just enough to mute it. Doesn't take much to mute it doing this, its like just learning when you would mute all of those notes because your fingers didn't have enough strength... on the high E you could use your left hand palm a bit to where you touch that string.

The low E you can use your thumb of the left hand.

Say you're playing the 3rd string 1st fret.... press on that fret and use the rest of your finger to kind of drag on the the 1st and 2nd string.

It takes practice, but there are actually a lot of ways to mute.

Hope this helps you.

[bamagirl]

This is becoming a problem for me lately also. I am having a hard time muting strings that are played open. Especially like pcx said, when it is quarter notes, or eighth notes, it is cumbersome to try to mute each note. Some songs that I am running across have a series of notes played on open strings. It is the same effect as the sustain pedal on the piano; yet on the piano you have to do that on purpose and it is easy to control. It's making me nuts. I can play the song correctly if I slow it down tremendously, but when I try to increase the pace, forget it.

[JWing]

Palm muting while fingerpicking is an extremely important technique. Once you get it, you can sound like there are two guitarists playing. Tough to describe and seemingly impossible to learn, once you get it, it's easy. See fingerpicking instructional DVD's by Happy Traum or Stefan Grossman - both are excellent instructors.