For the beginners..

[tommymal]

So muting is as simple as lightly laying a finger over the string to well....mute it, that's brilliant. I have been attempting to do this, but I am having a hard time taining my fingers to avoid fretting the note. As always, I will just have to continue practicing. I took a look at some videos with muting and I can't seem to see any fingers actually doing the muting. Take a look at the Grey Street intro video. This is a tune with a ton of muting and yet it does not appear that any is actually going on? Am I missing something? As far as the BEF intro, the tab on this site appears to be produced for a more intermediate/expert who can listen to the tune and understand that the tab is just a general layout of the song and that some of the chords are slightly broken up. As a beginner I was just lost because the recording of the tune clearly had many more notes/chords being played then what was shown on the tab and my ear is not trained to recognize what is what. I apologize if that made no sense.
As a general question, how popular is string muting among guitarist. It produces such an funky sound in Dave tunes yet I do not hear it being used by too many other artists?
I really appreciate the responses. You have no idea how much it helps!

[deceptivehero]

It's a pretty popular little technique. Almost every guitarists mutes in some of thier work (there of course exceptions) but not many do as much of it (nor in my opinion do it quite as well) as Dave.

[improv]

Naw, your not missing anything about not being able to see the muting actually happen. When it is done well, it is effortless and is not visible.

Also, as Kukini pointed out in an earlier post, there are different ways to mute the strings. YOu should experiment and find what is most comfortable for you.

One thing that may be hindering your muting ability....are you playing on an electric guitar by chance? Sometimes when you are beginning learning how to mute and you have a low action guitar, your *soft* touch of the muting fingers may be freting. Its just a thought. Anyway, keep practicing...I recommend just strumming one chord continously and working on muting and most importantly -learning the feel- !!

[GSR]

groovy.

[serialwired]

my ring finger stays stationary, but i alternate between index and middle depending on the chord.