String muting got me a little depressed :-(

stenio83

so here's the thing I'm a pretty good player. I've been playing guitar for a long time now, blues funk, jazz all with slightly dirty solos nothing to distorted, more played with good feel and I've been told I'm pretty awesome I gig and I have people that love my style and watch me rock out. 

I first learn classical guitar when I was a kid so for 10years my playing stemed from the that my left hand is more arched around the finger board rather than flat.

I dont have have a problem muting stings not being played with my picking hand but since I'm learning more shred type stuff I can really understand the concept of unwanted string noise especially now my gain is turned up. 

Now i feel like all these years I've been doing it all wrong :-( the concept of touching the neighbouring strings with the tip of  index finger and playing with a more flat left hand is so alien I know it's needed but if any one has any excisise and tips tricks or advice it would be greatly received. I just want to player cleaner at speed. I'm fine with fast I pretty fluent around the fretboard but the high gain is really enhancing all the unwanted noise.

I also think that I may need a new guitar so maybe that's how I will get my wife to agree to one, 'hey babe, I need a new axe cus the strings are noisy on this one lol'


also id like to point out that I'm currently using a 54 American strat single coils so know that's not gonna help with the noise aspect. 

Alnico

I had this exact problem.
Have you watched the Ben Eller YT video on this? It helped me get on top of it.



It does sort of feel wrong muting like that but nowhere near as wrong as sympathetic vibrations do at volume.

I've taken to draping my little finger on  my right hand across all six strings and then 'Allowing' Strings to be played, leaving the left hand less to do in terms of muting.

It doesn't always work out but it's turned me onto string muting and playing cleaner more often.

I find mega short nails on my left hand helps a lot too, meaning i can use more of the tip of each finger on my left hand to play and mute with.

Hope that helps.

Winny_Pooh

The Eric Johnson Total guitar video has him explaining muting. At its simplest:

The right hand palm/base of thumb progressively mutes the low strings as your hand picks closer to the high E. The left hand does not use anything to mute but the backs of the fingers muting from the high E onwards as you descend. 

stenio83

Alnico said:

I had this exact problem.
Have you watched the Ben Eller YT video on this? It helped me get on top of it.



It does sort of feel wrong muting like that but nowhere near as wrong as sympathetic vibrations do at volume.

I've taken to draping my little finger on  my right hand across all six strings and then 'Allowing' Strings to be played, leaving the left hand less to do in terms of muting.

It doesn't always work out but it's turned me onto string muting and playing cleaner more often.

I find mega short nails on my left hand helps a lot too, meaning i can use more of the tip of each finger on my left hand to play and mute with.

Hope that helps.

Hey dude use that was an awesome vid and actually it's put my mind at rest I kinda do a lot of those techniques naturally which is great the only one I'm not so hot at is left hand muting strings below which is prob because of the way o was taught but know I'm gonna practice this so hard and become a shred god lol

Alnico

^Brilliant !

Glad it helped.
I like Ben, i talk to him on email now and again and he's a great teacher. He also does skype lessons which, when i get a little more stable with my health and i get a decent internet connection, i will be having lessons myself from him.

here's something else that helps me so much that i'm having it printed and framed on our wall.........

http://i.imgur.com/viomNzv.png

Evilmags

stenio83 

also id like to point out that I'm currently using a 54 American strat single coils so know that's not gonna help with the noise aspect. 

The issue should not really be so much the single coils as fretboard radius. Vintage style Fenders have curved (7.5 inch) radius boards and thin frets. Guitars made for shred have flatter (between 12 and 16 inch) radius boards and fat frets. Makes shred a lot easier. 

stenio83

Evilmags said:

stenio83 

also id like to point out that I'm currently using a 54 American strat single coils so know that's not gonna help with the noise aspect. 

The issue should not really be so much the single coils as fretboard radius. Vintage style Fenders have curved (7.5 inch) radius boards and thin frets. Guitars made for shred have flatter (between 12 and 16 inch) radius boards and fat frets. Makes shred a lot easier. 

That's a good point, thanks for the info. I've been playing today some of my usual Hendrix and bluesy covers am and John fruisciante guitar picking and it's almost impossible to apply a flat left hand muted approach when playing all the tunes I know it seems that the arches had is to a necessary skill. Is it mainly a shred technique it's just my playing sounds fine and soling spot on but when i shred at high gain it seems to be where the need to mute is a must. 

stenio83

For example picked arpeggio style riffs and melodies where the not u just picked can ring out as your playing other notes other playing the opening intro to enter sandman doesn't seem right on the low 3 strings doesn't seem right to to have your fingers flat to the board for that 

stenio83

Just seen this 

great lesson and I think the summary at the end is very important 

andyoz

Enjoying this thread...something I struggle with having come to electric from an acoustic .

neil68

"I really wanna see those fingers!"

Good thread, I'm so sloppy and need to correct this.

BRISTOL86

Loved that Ben Eller video, an instant fan of his now!

Evilmags

stenio83 said:

Evilmags said:

stenio83 

also id like to point out that I'm currently using a 54 American strat single coils so know that's not gonna help with the noise aspect. 

The issue should not really be so much the single coils as fretboard radius. Vintage style Fenders have curved (7.5 inch) radius boards and thin frets. Guitars made for shred have flatter (between 12 and 16 inch) radius boards and fat frets. Makes shred a lot easier. 

That's a good point, thanks for the info. I've been playing today some of my usual Hendrix and bluesy covers am and John fruisciante guitar picking and it's almost impossible to apply a flat left hand muted approach when playing all the tunes I know it seems that the arches had is to a necessary skill. Is it mainly a shred technique it's just my playing sounds fine and soling spot on but when i shred at high gain it seems to be where the need to mute is a must. 

Pretty much everyone feels the same when they first plug into a high Gain Rig. Shredders tend not to be thumb over unless they are bending so that is one natural mute gone. Playing at high gain and muting are a lot easier than playing at the sort of hyperspeed some shredders do.  

stenio83

It’s great to hear about the positive impact of this thread! Its one of those things that is i guess we all experience from time to time from beginners to advanced players.

Like i say i started life as a classical guitarist for 10 years having lessons at a very young age, and as i got older i wanted to play more modern music so i taught myself electric guitar e.g. blues and specifically hendrix and classic rock. The basis of my technique spawned from my classical guitar training, as i played i become pretty good I played in lots of bands covering hendrix rhythm and lead and lots of guns and roses rhythm and lead and i love writing music. its at this stage i want to get into shredding that i noticed my struggle with string noise and i became so focused on it! it was the first time i got 2 handed tapping and that was where the problem was

So i kinda wanted to summarise what i think about all the videos techniques and things I’ve read on this subject. 

• I love the video of Ben Eller! it was awesome! but i think the title is a little mis-Leading i don’t think not muting strings means you ‘suck at guitar’, I definitely agree it makes you a better player all round but only in the sense that it adds another string to the bow!. At high Gain and shredding this technique is a must! (and i will be checking out his lessons more to improve my technique for sure) thanks to @Alnico for sharing that.

• What i did notice is that i actually do a lot of the muting techniques naturally some in my own way and not exactly as ben describes them and also some that are a little more rusty which recently became more noticeable at high gain. so i was really happy because i never analysed my playing in this way before but it was good to now that i was putting the majority of the time and it was only a tiny percentage that i may have not, but these where amplified when i was shredding and making me very paranoid about my whole technique. i think this would be the same for a lot of players.

• Arched fingers/and classical guitar technique i do think are really important too, especially playing John Frusciante style music, open chords, picking notes out of chords, arpeggios in fact i think its just as important to learn this skill because it creates awesome melodic music especially on a clean tone with delay and reverb. its very atmospheric and Im pleased i have that as my core skill set. the guitar without high levels of gain kinda sings and the synthetic vibrations that may happen kinda add to the whole effect (just my opinion) we would play more than one ‘E’ in a C chord, and we use pedals to add slight octave and sub octave. on stuff.  its music after all and there isn't really a right and wrong unless its x factor, or 

• I've also listened to a lot of famous guitarists and classic songs and these guys don’t all play super cleanly infact its part of the rawness that gives them there unique sound, but thats the differences between having a style and playing the music you write or enjoy if it sounds good it sounds good if your not covering a track your less likely to be put under close scrutiny where some people may compare you to the original artist/recording. I think there is a balance and in all honesty i quite like the rawness of a guitarist that isn’t to over produced or cleaned up, But if its vai, satriani, EVH or Guthrie Govan then it defo needs to be super clean and tight soloing theres not room for noisy strings there because thats the style.

• Also the video from justinguitar is very good cos it summaries that there is a fine line between worrying about muting and hindering your ability to play musically with good feel. 

Bottom line is i guess if it sounds rubbish fix it then practice how you fixed  and apply it it will naturally start to become more natural without (like what i did tell my self i was terrible beat myself up and nearly throw the guitar out the window lol! creative people tend to not acknowledge there skill and easily beat themselves up to a pulp don’t let this be a reason to get down about your playing :-)

oh and my thoughts on string dampeners are...

I won't use them because i believe in learning a skill and i like challenges but at the same time, I don't think it makes you any less of a skilled player if you use them because, there is so much to focus on when playing or performing so what if theres a little thing to make it a touch easier. technology and advances in technology are all about making our lives easy we are all guilty of being a little lazy sometimes lol! i sed my kid to get the remote to then change the tv it don't get any more lazy than that lol!!!

Peace and love fretboarders! :-)

StanleyAccrington

String muting? So not only am I  struggling to play strings that I  want to......I'm expected to mute the ones that I don't  want to!!
At least that 'Why you suck at playing guitar' gadgie  on the toob explains and demonstrates muting really well.