Help with string muting

[cgalves]

I've been playing pretty consistently for a couple of months and am now starting to get into some DMB songs which require you to mute a certain string. I am honestly completely enraged and baffled as to how I mute a string. For example, on the different verse of So Much To Say, where he plays the 1 3 5 stretch and before he plays the 3 5 7 stretch, Dave plays a 7 10 X chord, and i can not mute that string for the life of me. It makes me want to hurt small animals or commit vehicular homicide (just kidding). Anyway, I am just looking for some pointers on muting a string. Generally, when you mute a string, do you just position an adjacent finger near it so that it makes no sound, or do you put an unused finger directly on the string but withot any pressure? Thanks for the help. Me figuring out this damn muting issue should enable me to play a lot more Dave songs.


Thanks for the help.

[CPTino3001]

I've been playing pretty consistently for a couple of months and am now starting to get into some DMB songs which require you to mute a certain string. I am honestly completely enraged and baffled as to how I mute a string. For example, on the different verse of So Much To Say, where he plays the 1 3 5 stretch and before he plays the 3 5 7 stretch, Dave plays a 7 10 X chord, and i can not mute that string for the life of me. It makes me want to hurt small animals or commit vehicular homicide (just kidding). Anyway, I am just looking for some pointers on muting a string. Generally, when you mute a string, do you just position an adjacent finger near it so that it makes no sound, or do you put an unused finger directly on the string but withot any pressure? Thanks for the help. Me figuring out this damn muting issue should enable me to play a lot more Dave songs.

Thanks for the help.

Let your index finger rest on the G B and High E strings...Or use the lower end of your middle finger to do the same...

Let your ring finger mute the A string...

I think thats how I do it...don't have my guitar handy though...

[TOMAMI]

Did you need help with muting all together or just how Dave mutes the A string in the 10 x 7 10 part of so much to say? This site has an instruction
video with the tab check it out. I think you will see he mutes using his ring finger or 3 finger while he holds down the low E string on 10th fret he lets
this finger rest on the A string at the same time. Dave is a muting master and learning his style can be frustrating at times so please don't go postal.

[cgalves]

Yea, I am just having trouble with muting in general, and the So Much to Say verse was an example. My problem is whenever I mute a certain string and I start to strum the chord, the sound which subsequently eminates from my guitar is not pleasant. Oh well, practice practice ...

I just want to know if whenever I mute a string whether I should rest my finger lightly on the string or put some pressure.

[MattyTrane]

the key is to use your fingers above or below that string (above is usally easier) rest on the string, so you get that 10th fret e done with ring finger, and just let it hang on the a string to mute it, it comes with time and practice, keep tryin.

[TOMAMI]

Play around with muting all the strings and then half with one finger and holding chords with the others like a bar chord listen to the different sound that come from the guitar with different amounts of preasure. pick slow and strum fast. learning muting makes for a relaxed and fun style of play.
the way to silence a string is let a finger rest on it with very little preasure.
like in so much to say.

[cgalves]

... and in an ironic twist of fate, I just tried playing Stay (wasting time) and I actually made some progress in the muting department! It actually was somewhat reminscent of the actual song! Hell yeah.

[fatjack]

Yea, I am just having trouble with muting in general, and the So Much to Say verse was an example. My problem is whenever I mute a certain string and I start to strum the chord, the sound which subsequently eminates from my guitar is not pleasant. Oh well, practice practice ...

I just want to know if whenever I mute a string whether I should rest my finger lightly on the string or put some pressure.

the sound you are getting is probably the result of using another finger to mute by laying it directly on the string... to explain why this happens: it's like the string is thinking you are trying to get a harmonic but you aren't on the right fret for a harmonic...

to avoid this... don't waste a finger for the specific purpose of muting, let one of the fingers that is already fretting a string take care of the muting.

[dmfollower]

chances are the string that you wan't to mute(if its a dave song), should already be muted if you are doing it correctly. now the whole "correctly" thing is the tough part. for the most part(98.8% of the time) the tabs on this site should steer you in the right direction, and if they don't, a little thought and dedication should put you in the right place. for me, "SMTS" just came natually(sorry, didn't mean any harm). the muting just came to me, i just played what i had been hearing.
ok, i'm drunk right now. my wife is out of town for 3 days and so that's why this post is at 4:54AM, my advice is just to listen and learn the song by ear and lyrically "thuroughly" before you began even attempting to learn in on the guitar.......(passed out)