How to mute strings?

[castellar]

I hate starting a thread on this, but i couldnt find it using the search menu. I notice that many things that dave plays involve muting strings. This is very difficult and different for me. I love the way it sounds and i think it will help me with some my original pieces also. What i am curious about is, do you mute strings with your right hand (the one strumming) or the left hand (using the fingers that arent holding down strings).

Also please explain your individual techniques of muting and how to get comfortable doing it. Thanks

[smedley]

you can do either

one is just called muting (or at least i haven't heard of another term for it). that's when you just raise your left hand fingers a little above the fret board. this should produce a thunking sound. dave uses this a lot.

the other is called palm muting. it's when you are playing a chord, mostly power chords, and you rest your right hand palm on the strings where the bridge (i think it's called) is. this is where the strings go into the guitar and are held by the pins. this should produce a muffled sound.

if you need anymore help and explanation, just ask...

[castellar]

you can do either

one is just called muting (or at least i haven't heard of another term for it). that's when you just raise your left hand fingers a little above the fret board. this should produce a thunking sound. dave uses this a lot.

the other is called palm muting. it's when you are playing a chord, mostly power chords, and you rest your right hand palm on the strings where the bridge (i think it's called) is. this is where the strings go into the guitar and are held by the pins. this should produce a muffled sound.

if you need anymore help and explanation, just ask...

so for most of my songs that arent all chords i will be just muting (with fingers) and not palm muting?
is palm muting effective at all. Because i have tried palm muting but it is very hard to get a full strum when half of my palm is resting on some strings. Any recommendations?

[TaylorGuy110]

you can do either

one is just called muting (or at least i haven't heard of another term for it). that's when you just raise your left hand fingers a little above the fret board. this should produce a thunking sound. dave uses this a lot.

the other is called palm muting. it's when you are playing a chord, mostly power chords, and you rest your right hand palm on the strings where the bridge (i think it's called) is. this is where the strings go into the guitar and are held by the pins. this should produce a muffled sound.

if you need anymore help and explanation, just ask...

so for most of my songs that arent all chords i will be just muting (with fingers) and not palm muting?
is palm muting effective at all. Because i have tried palm muting but it is very hard to get a full strum when half of my palm is resting on some strings. Any recommendations?

really its a feel most of the time when your palm muting its only 1,2 or 3 strings (not always though). also it is very effective when your playing solo like areosmith's Dream On play that solo, if you don't P.M. the notes start running to together there are tons of effects that this can form! you'll get it! practice. practice. practice.

[guitardmb]

There are three ways that I mute. One would be palm muting, then resting finger just over a string, and another like barring over strings to mute them.

For palm muting you just have to get used to it. And realize that strumming should be more of a wrist action and not a full arm action. If you try to move your whole arm to strum it will ruin the mute, but if you just move your wrist its easier to mute. Palm muting (at least for me) is used more for in between chords and sort of slaping the side of your hand on the strings to get a muted sound out. But sometimes I use it for just muting certain strings.

Just like anything else muting takes practice, and you really just have to try different ways to stick with the ways you like.

[mlb1399]

To add to what guitardmb said:

Palm Muting-basically rest your strumming hand bridge muting as you play
Good songs to practice this technique: Taylor(Jack Johnson), Secret(Howie Day), a lot of Cars tunes.

Muted string while playing a chord-Pretty simple. You play strings while muting other strings at the same time. One of you fingers mutes a string while others are fretting notes.

Code: Select all

E |--------
B |-7------
G |-7--2-4
D |-7--x-x
A |-x--x-2
E |-7--2-3

Good songs to practice this technique:Lie in Our Graves, Tripping Billies, about any Dave song, Jazz style chords

Muted strings in between notes or chords: Play a note or chord followed by a mute. Lift the finger or fingers fretting the string until you hear a muted sound. Can lay finger of fingers across all strings or a couple depending on the situation and song.

Code: Select all

E:-2--------x
B:-3--------x
G:-2--------x
D:-0--------x
A:----4--2--x
E:----------x

Code: Select all

:-----------------------------------------------
B:-x--x--x--x-x-x--x-x-x----x--x--x--x-x-x--x-x--
G:-x--x--x--7-x-x--x-x-x----x--x--x--7-x-x--x-x--
D:-x--x--11---9-x--x-x-x----x--x--11---9-x--x-x--
A:-x--9---------10-x-x-x----x--9---------10-9-7--
E:-7---------------x-x-x----7--------------------

Good Songs to practice this technique:warehouse, dancing nancies, most dave songs, Polly

[Speenis]

To add to what everyone else has said/suggested...

Here is a tab for an easy Umphrey's McGee song called Uncommon. They start out by palm muting these simple chords with ALL downstrokes. Its probably the easiest song I can think of to practice palm muting...

Code: Select all

  E--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
  B--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
  G--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
  D---------2---2-----------2---2--|---------2---2-----------2--2---|
  A---2-2-2-0---0---2---2---0---0--|---2-2-2-0---0---2---2---0--0---|
  E---0-0-0---------0---0----------|---0-0-0---------0---0----------|

  E--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
  B--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
  G--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
  D--------------------------------|---------2---2------------------|
  A---7-7-7-7-6-6-----5-5-5-5-4-4--|---2-2-2-0---0---2--------------|
  E---7-7-7-7-7-7-----5-5-5-5-5-5--|---0-0-0---------0--------------|

[shaggy]

There are three ways that I mute. One would be palm muting, then resting finger just over a string, and another like barring over strings to mute them.

For palm muting you just have to get used to it. And realize that strumming should be more of a wrist action and not a full arm action. If you try to move your whole arm to strum it will ruin the mute, but if you just move your wrist its easier to mute. Palm muting (at least for me) is used more for in between chords and sort of slaping the side of your hand on the strings to get a muted sound out. But sometimes I use it for just muting certain strings.

Just like anything else muting takes practice, and you really just have to try different ways to stick with the ways you like.

your icon is my fav pic of dave period.

[c_tietze]

honestly, as a hack guitarist, muting still plagues me to some degree, if you watch Dave play you'll notice not only does his strumming hand move like a butterfly over tulips in a VA garden, but his fretting hand does as well and mutes strings with ease (or practice and/or the benefit of large digits)

[a1075dd63aa12]

honestly, as a hack guitarist, muting still plagues me to some degree, if you watch Dave play you'll notice not only does his strumming hand move like a butterfly over tulips in a VA garden, but his fretting hand does as well and mutes strings with ease (or practice and/or the benefit of large digits)

i guess i was somewhat lucky in the respect that muting came really naturally for me. but i think i mute too much, especially on original stuff.

[proudestmonkey41]

im still having some trouble with muting too, i can do like chop muting.. like at the end of the intro riff to granny, or in John Mayer's your body is a wonderland, but i have problems with something like One Sweet World- D&T, where they are muting what sounds like 3 or 4 strums and then diving back into the riff again so quickly.

[dmbfan101]

pruodestmonkey..wen ur playing osw, the mute part should b play the riff, and immedatly, wen u slide to the 10, stop ur left hand, like just leave it in position, but not fretting the notes, and rapidly strum with ur right hand....now, dave does not usually mute nemoe wen playing live with the band
superkappa19@aol.com

[proudestmonkey41]

pruodestmonkey..wen ur playing osw, the mute part should b play the riff, and immedatly, wen u slide to the 10, stop ur left hand, like just leave it in position, but not fretting the notes, and rapidly strum with ur right hand....now, dave does not usually mute nemoe wen playing live with the band
superkappa19@aol.com

thanks. i was trying to palm mute it before.. it was working alright but not as well as id like to. i'll give that a try though.

[guitardmb]

There are three ways that I mute. One would be palm muting, then resting finger just over a string, and another like barring over strings to mute them.

For palm muting you just have to get used to it. And realize that strumming should be more of a wrist action and not a full arm action. If you try to move your whole arm to strum it will ruin the mute, but if you just move your wrist its easier to mute. Palm muting (at least for me) is used more for in between chords and sort of slaping the side of your hand on the strings to get a muted sound out. But sometimes I use it for just muting certain strings.

Just like anything else muting takes practice, and you really just have to try different ways to stick with the ways you like.

your icon is my fav pic of dave period.

Thats funny, cause my avatar is a pic of Phil Keaggy.

[littlefriend]

There are three ways that I mute. One would be palm muting, then resting finger just over a string, and another like barring over strings to mute them.

For palm muting you just have to get used to it. And realize that strumming should be more of a wrist action and not a full arm action. If you try to move your whole arm to strum it will ruin the mute, but if you just move your wrist its easier to mute. Palm muting (at least for me) is used more for in between chords and sort of slaping the side of your hand on the strings to get a muted sound out. But sometimes I use it for just muting certain strings.

Just like anything else muting takes practice, and you really just have to try different ways to stick with the ways you like.

your icon is my fav pic of dave period.

Thats funny, cause my avatar is a pic of Phil Keaggy.

That's also funny to me because I looked and was like "Oh, he must've changed it, 'cause that sure don't look like Dave to me."