Do you use the tips of your fretting fingers to mute the lower strings?

[Mick-7]

Those vibrations are not inaudible. You might PRETEND that they aren't there, but deep down you know they are. They are "unwilled" sounds and are a MASSIVE flaw.

If I or anyone else could hear them, they would not be "inaudible." Maybe you have to pretend you can avoid sounding the strings you did not pick, I don't.

[jazzyfan]

If I or anyone else could hear them, they would not be "inaudible."

Maybe you have to pretend you can avoid sounding the strings you did not pick, I don't.

Apologies, I was quite harsh with my response. I'm not singling you out.

I'm just making the point that sympathetic sounds are actually a VERY serious flaw in playing the guitar.
It's a fact that is often overlooked , and it shouldn't be.

[Mick-7]

E.g. playing a Bb note on the 4th string, 8th fret, with your ring finger. Do you use the tip of your finger to mute the 5th string? (effectively playing the fretted Bb note with 'pad' part of the finger)

Could you give an example of a single note line that you find requires such string muting? - because I honestly can't think of one. I only see the need for it with open chord voicings that have strings in between the strings I want to pick or strum.

[starjasmine]

Mostly classical guitar arched-finger hegemonist here :-) with a little slant when needed for jazz chords, or thumb-over for increased leverage to grab blues bends. I almost never play thumb-on-the-sixth-string chords, but that would be an exception too. Otherwise, I find arched fingers to be the most efficient mechanic for single-line melodies.

Learning to play electric guitar forced me to clean up a lot of unwanted noises (whether clean jazz or high-gain) so long ago that I really don't think about it. Funky unwanted noises are the first problem you solve playing through an amp...

Like Mick, I sound only the strings I want to sound.

Like pauln, everything else - anything that is not creating the notes that are intended to sound - has learned to autopilot-mute strings that shouldn't sound.

I don't really think about muting anymore EXCEPT when I'm ratholing on picking exercises ... which I've been doing a lot lately... in that situation, when the pick strikes a string it should not, muting is not the answer. Pick control is. Still working on that. For the most part, it's not a problem except when I am working on uptempo cross-picking.


$0.02,

SJ

[Christian Miller]

Mostly classical guitar arched-finger hegemonist here :-)

Top use of the word ‘hegemonist’. Have ten music education academic literature points.


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[Christian Miller]

I don’t think you can play rhythm guitar well unless you use a somewhat flat fingered approach. The left hand muting is kind of essential.

You can see that from the flatter guitar position and thumb over technique used by Freddie Green for example (the sort of thing I tell students off for lol). You also need the back of the guitar to ring for acoustic. A lot of classic jazz players who didn’t have classical input had single string techniques that seemed to grow out of this.

Not to mention funk etc.

I welcome counter examples tho.

EDIT: obviously as rhythm guitar became less critical in jazz (around later 50s maybe) I suppose you have a more pianistic or voice lead style of comping that suited a more classical left hand.

And there were obvious examples of guitarists with a fairly classical left hand that also played rhythm or a high level. Jim Hall springs to mind. There’s nothing to stop players from switching approaches either, which is kind of what I do.

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[MiniMerckx.22]

I play on the pads for the most part tips when needed. Damping with the side of my pad is a very common component of my technique. To answer the question why don't you mute with your right hand; I'm actually right handed but I'm forced to play left-handed due to an issue with my left arm. I have a rather rare birth defect called radio ulnar synostosis. Basically I'm I'm missing some material inside my arm and bones are fused in such a way that I cannot rotate my left arm palm up. So there's no way I can play right handed I simply cannot turn my left arm in such a way that I can get to the frets with my left hand so I play right handed. Also can't hold out my hand to receive change at a drive through, lift a heavy box or furniture with both hands under the object. I carry my end if your sofa one handed while trying to get some balance with my left. Could never field a ground ball. Because of this inability to fully rotate my left arm, I cannot palm mute my picking hand as most people can do so muting with pads is an integral part of .....the only technique I can use.

[brent.h]

To answer the question why don't you mute with your right hand;

See post #14

[James W]

I just watched this:

PG seems to use fretting hand muting too. Tilting the fingers at an angle allows him to do this quite nicely.

Tbh to me he doesn't look like he mutes the bass strings at all with his right hand and I can't tell whether he does with his fretting hand. I guess you can get away with that if you're not using any distortion or high gain or whatever.

What blows my mind about PG's right hand technique is that he appears to not have to place at least one of his right hand fingers below the strings on the pickguard to stabilise his right hand.

In my own quest to develop circular picking I have found that while it's easier to not mute the bass strings with my right hand, with a bit of practice i.e experimentation I can do it and still pick fast. I want to be able to mute those strings because I anticipate using distortion at some point in the future. As a result my right hand position/technique more resembles someone like Allan Holdsworth.

[CliffR]

If I or anyone else could hear them, they would not be "inaudible." Maybe you have to pretend you can avoid sounding the strings you did not pick, I don't.

Here I'm sounding a note on the 7th fret of the A, D and G strings in turn. I hammer on, then lift my finger just enough to kill the note on the fretted string. Clearly audible afterwards is a note from the string below. I do the same again, but while placing my picking hand forefinger on the lower string to damp it. This time, you don't hear any note once I kill the fretted one.

[Christian Miller]

I will say it’s amazing what you can get away with in the mix


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[Mick-7]

What blows my mind about PG's right hand technique is that he appears to not have to place at least one of his right hand fingers below the strings on the pickguard to stabilize his right hand.

That would not work because he rotates his wrist when he picks.

Here I'm sounding a note on the 7th fret of the A, D and G strings in turn. I hammer on, then lift my finger just enough to kill the note on the fretted string. Clearly audible afterwards is a note from the string below. I do the same again, but while placing my picking hand forefinger on the lower string to damp it. This time, you don't hear any note once I kill the fretted one.

Thanks for clarifying that. I guess my picking is very precise because I'd have to be intentionally sloppy with it to get an adjacent string to vibrate.

[CliffR]

Thanks for clarifying that. I guess my picking is very precise because I'd have to be intentionally sloppy with it to get an adjacent string to vibrate.

I was trying to demonstrate this has nothing to do with picking technique. The adjacent string vibrates without any contact from pick or finger.

[pamosmusic]

I was trying to demonstrate this has nothing to do with picking technique. The adjacent string vibrates without any contact from pick or finger.

But what if your picking technique is as precise as Micks?

[starjasmine]

EDIT: obviously as rhythm guitar became less critical in jazz (around later 50s maybe) I suppose you have a more pianistic or voice lead style of comping that suited a more classical left hand.

Exactly that. Unless I'm doing Freddy-Green-style strumming, or latin/funk grooves, I generally pluck the strings I want to sound as a block chord, as a fingerstyle or hybrid-picking approach. Obvs this limits me to four-note (or five-note if I ditch the pick) chords, but I find that to be more than enough for jazz situations; i.e. bass, third, seventh, and an optional melody note or color tone gets the job done.

I played in gigging funk/soul/r&b cover bands for years and never thought about changing my LH arched-finger approach. Again, I suspect that my damping technique in the LH has become so automatic that I really don't notice a problem. Consider that if you want a chord to stop ringing, you just stop pressing down on the neck - you don't have to actually lift your fingers off the strings. I have a really minimalist approach to LH technique, only moving the fingers that need to move, which is pretty common AFAIK. That's kind of one of the main points of the "spider" drill.

[CliffR]

If the unpicked vibrating string cannot be heard by anyone, does it count?

It also has to do with how hard you pick, I pick very lightly, I've noticed in your videos that you do not - that is an observation, not a criticism. Try to pick the notes you picked in the same way without producing an audible vibration from other strings - you must pick lightly to do so (or in your example, hammer on more lightly).

Actually, I think I have a relatively light pick attack. But it doesn't matter, because I take steps to mute the other strings and I like having some dynamic range to use in my playing.

But if you pick 50% lighter, the other string will vibrate 50% quieter too. The ratio of energy between the two remains the same, and the sympathetic string will be just as audible when you turn up the volume to hear your playing.

[Mick-7]

But if you pick 50% lighter, the other string will vibrate 50% quieter too. The ratio of energy between the two remains the same, and the sympathetic string will be just as audible when you turn up the volume to hear your playing.

Maybe so, but if it's there, I don't usually play loud enough to hear it. Let me bang out a chord melody of Louie, Louie with my amp turned up and get back to you.

[CliffR]

Maybe so, but if it's there, I don't usually play loud enough to hear it. Let me bang out a chord melody of Louie, Louie with my amp turned up and get back to you.

It's only going to manifest if you hit notes that are resonant with other strings. Why not try my experiment on your guitar? The more gain you use, the more opportunities there are for sympathetic vibrations for notes other than the octave. Maybe you don't care. Maybe this is a non-issue for you. But it happens.

[Mick-7]

Yes, if it was an issue, I'd correct it, or perhaps it was once, so long ago that I don't recall how I addressed it.

[Alter]

I do a lot of fretting hand muting. I almost always mute the adjacent heavier string with the finger that's pressing the note on single line playing, mute with the thumb also, and with the free fingers going over the ones playing.

Using Benson picking makes that a necessity, or you have to mute with the palm over the bridge which limits your pick placement and sound options.

It's mostly a traditional rock player technique I believe, that's how people used to play before noise gates.. Funk and blues playing greatly benefit from it also.

[Mick-7]

Upon examining this, I found that it's chiefly my fretting technique rather than my picking technique that prevents unwanted string vibrations. I apply the minimum amount of fretting pressure needed for notes to sound (usually anyway). When you do this, it becomes unnecessary to mute adjacent strings. I'd forgotten that this is something I had worked on a long time ago.

[jazzyfan]

Upon examining this, I found that it's chiefly my fretting technique rather than my picking technique that prevents unwanted string vibrations. I apply the minimum amount of fretting pressure needed for notes to sound (usually anyway). When you do this, it becomes unnecessary to mute adjacent strings. I'd forgotten that this is something I had worked on a long time ago.

You clearly are clueless about this topic. Totally deluded.

"Fretting pressure" has literally no effect on muting sympathetic sounds.
You probably can't hear just how much background noise your playing is producing,
Unless you are anchoring your RH on the strings to stop them ringing.

[rpjazzguitar]

I recall seeing Herb Ellis using the Van Eps string damper. Seems like a very good idea if you're not using open strings. But, it doesn't seem to be made anymore. It's possible to get a similar effect by using rubber bands, but they don't swing out of the way easily like the string damper.

My experience is that, sometimes, sympathetic vibrations will drive me crazy. I'll be in a situation where I need to lift a finger and I don't want to hear the open string ring out. If it's the low E, I might use my left index finger for damping. I might let my palm encroach on the lower strings near the bridge. Or, often enough, I ignore the issue and, somehow, it doesn't screw things up. I record gigs sometimes and listen as critically as I can -- and rarely think about undamped strings, for some reason.

[Mick-7]

You clearly are clueless about this topic. Totally deluded.

"Fretting pressure" has literally no effect on muting sympathetic sounds.
You probably can't hear just how much background noise your playing is producing,
Unless you are anchoring your RH on the strings to stop them ringing.

As I said before, no one else is hearing sympathetic strings vibrating when I play either so if it's a delusion it's a shared one.

[brent.h]

But if you pick 50% lighter, the other string will vibrate 50% quieter too.

I'm returning to this thread to re-read the posts. I think this is an important observation. A good reminder to have include softer sounds to our phrasing too.