Stone Help! Strumming stone?

makey · Unread post by **makey** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 7:53 am

Hey! I am new to this website and I love every minute of it. I am 23 but have only been playing for 8 months and I have gained more respect and love for Dave's music everyday. I learned how to play stone from this website but I saw a private concert of dave's on tv and he was STRUMMING stone and I have no idea how he did it. Any suggestions?

PlayLikeDave · Unread post by **PlayLikeDave** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 8:00 am

The only thing that you really can do is pray that you can strum and manage to make only one string sound a la Dave Matthews. Someone had a similar question before, but it was about the strummed mutes on the verse to One Sweet World. But the best suggestion is practice. I duno what motion you would want to try to ensure hitting just one string, but if you watch the video of Dave on Charlie Rose, you can hear that he hits muted strings. So learn how to mute the strings around the one you are playing and just keep practicing, and practicing and practicing and practicing and practicing.....

peace

Speenis · Unread post by **Speenis** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 8:10 am

Try a search, this has been brought up a lot. But since you are a noob, I'll try to help ya out. If you look really closely to that vid you were talking about, look at his left ring finger. He uses that finger to rest on all of the strings that are not being picked(muting them). That way he can actually strum all the strings, but only the string he wants to get sound out of will make noise since he mutes all the rest with his ring finger. Does that make any sense?

djs488 · Unread post by **djs488** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:04 am

does dave mute all five strings besides the one he's playing? i usually only mute the two below the one im playing with the finger im playing the note with, and just dont strum all the strings. is this a bad technique?

The Man of The Hour · Unread post by **The Man of The Hour** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:13 am

I play it how you do. I didn't teach my ring finger to mute the low E string, so usually i just aim to strum the other 5. I think I am finally realizing it would help, so I get a little better each day at it. Not a bad technique, just a little different.

mattm · Unread post by **mattm** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:19 am

ahhhhhh ..... the elusive muted-strum. hell, if that's not the essence (and most difficult part) of dave's technique. i'm surely no expert at it. but, i've gotten much better, recently.

the Stone is sort of the same shit with a different stink. although i haven't SEEN much of any dave vids (i have the LS dvd only), i think i generally have the ideas down. but the Stoner requires, what i call, 'over-muting', where he reaches over and above the A and D to mute the E (probably with his middle and/or ring finger. so the stone is a bit of an anomaly. i haven't spent much time playing it, and i can't play it well with a muted-strum. but i can play it fairly well by alternate picking the quick notes on the D string, just not quite fast enough.

but in regard to muting, in general, my index finger does most all of it. i lay my index across all strings (muting them) while also using it to fret whatever notes on the E and A string. works wonders for me, cuz i don't have to worry about only strumming specific string. i can instead strum away, and the muted strings add that percussive sound -- the DM tradmark.

so with, say, One Sweet World (verse) i go

E:--------------------------
B:--------------------------
G:--------7----8/10-10--x-x-x-- <---finger 4
D:----8--8-----8/10-10--x-x-x-- <---finger 3
A:-6----------------------x-x-x--
E:-----------6------------x-x-x--
1 3 1

i lay my index accross all strings, and use it to fret the A6 and E6. i also strum 8 7, instead of just picking 8 7, cuz i think it sounds much better. but mix it up. when i do the slide i can just strum it hard without worrying about hitting the E A B e strings, cuz after hitting the last E6 i just slightly lift my index to mute all strings behind the 8 10 slide. works great. sounds perfect.

same thing with Two Step. throughout the whole song, muting is required. but instead of trying to mute individual strings with a different finger for each type of chord, i just use my index always ... laying it down while fretting the E or A string. again, works great for me.

or with Dancing Nancies verse, index does all muting. the list goes on.

i know some people work hard at muting with each/all fingers, but i often find it totally unnecessary (and often worse-sounding) to produce a great Dave sound.

so that's muting, from my perspective. practice definitely makes perfect.

-matt

paywad927 · Unread post by **paywad927** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:21 am

i had the same question too. the way it was explained to me was that he is actually picking the one string. the way he does it just looks like hes strum-picking. i never could get my ring finger to straighten out to mute the low strings, i guess that will come with time. but i just try to alternate pick the string that im playing. if you do it right it looks like your strumming it. im not sure if this is correct way that dave does it, im pretty sure this is how it was explained to me a while ago. but do it however your comfortable with it and do it the way you can get it to sound the way you want it. and always practice.

mattm · Unread post by **mattm** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:29 am

yeah, i think you all have the right idea with Stone. either 'over mute' like i was sayin before.

or simply avoid strumming the E and A strings (which isn't terribly hard to do). but again, if doing it this way, your index finger can do all the muting of the G B e strings.

i alt. pick it, and i agree that it looks very much like strumming. but for me, i'm not really strumming. i believe dave can literally strum it, while muting all other strings. but hey, that's really f*ckn hard to do.

congrats to those who can

makey · Unread post by **makey** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:02 am

Basically, I am more and more impressed with his ability every time I listen to him... Thanks for all your help!! Any other advice would be appreciated. I am buying a takamine acoustic electric in a few weeks to replace my piece of shit squire....so hopefully I can put some songs on here for you to judge......I can't wait for the DVD kanter!!!!

thejoe · Unread post by **thejoe** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:38 am

dont alt pick it... please

that sounds like crap and is completely wrong

*waits for flames*

just strum wildly and mute all the otha strings

and watch listener supported

thejoe · Unread post by **thejoe** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:40 am

makey wrote:piece of shit squire

well said!!!

mattm · Unread post by **mattm** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:58 am

FLAMES INDEED!

Crashme: why not explain how to truly strum it well. surely it's not enough to just say 'please don't alt pick it'

if that flies, i'll just say from now on: "play everything better than Dave". that way no one will be confused as to what to do.

:wink:

thejoe · Unread post by **thejoe** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 12:03 pm

crash_in_to_me wrote:just strum wildly and mute all the otha strings

there....

thats all

really

mattm · Unread post by **mattm** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 12:19 pm

call me crazy, but there must be a way to describe how you go about doing it well, assuming that's the case.

thejoe · Unread post by **thejoe** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 12:26 pm

mattm wrote:call me crazy, but there must be a way to describe how you go about doing it well, assuming that's the case.

http://www.dmbtabs.com/boards/viewtopic ... +strumming

^^^^^^^ read

DMBTabs.com

Stone Help! Strumming stone?

Stone Help! Strumming stone?

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