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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)
I'm curious how many of us do this.
Please read this edit/response to another comment: Yes, I do right hand muting, but because I use circular picking there's a part of my hand that doesn't quite touch the string immediately above the fretted note.
E.g. I fret something on the 3rd string. My right can cover 6th and 5th strings, but because of the way I pick, my 4th string isn't muted. If I try to move my RH to mute the 4th string, the picking angle is quite awkward.Last edited by brent.h; 02-18-2026 at 07:51 PM.
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02-09-2026 09:41 AM
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Can't say I do, sorry! The note's quite clear. but maybe other peoples' fingers are thicker than mine.
Just experimenting. If I play the Bb on the 4th with my third finger it's clear of the 5th but muting the 3rd because it's resting on it. And if I then play a D on the 5th string with my second finger it's muting the 4th because, again, it's resting on it. Does that make sense?
It might be because my hand is not directly and vertically above the fretboard, it tends to fall back like a blues player's would. So basically I'm muting the string behind the note I'm playing rather than the string in front. But it's not deliberate, it just happens that way.
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Yes makes sense. The higher strings (1st to 3rd) for me are always muted when I play that Bb note.
I kinda like that extra muting on the 5th string with my ring finger. Cleans up my sound quite a bit, but it is an adjustment to play on the pads of the fingers.
Yeah, my hand isn't curving back. My wrist is pretty much straight cos I hold my guitar almost in a classical position.
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That could be it.
Originally Posted by brent.h
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Comping, sure. Single note, probably not.
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I do this if playing legato on the thinner strings.
Not sure if I'd do it in the OP's example though.
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Playing with the pads of your fingers is a valid way of playing. This is how both Eric Johnson and Bryan Baker play. There are advantages and disadvantages.
Let's start with the disadvantages. You can't arch your fingers too much, they have to stay relatively flat. Keeping them flat like that means that your pinky is going to be much further behind your ring finger (unless you are one of those lucky types where your pinky is as long as your ring finger). And it's certainly not a universal technique, won't work as well when you want other strings to ring out (ie, a good chunk of the classical guitar repertoire, or you want a Towner/Frisell/Monder kind of sound).
But there are advantages. Muting is much easier: the string below is muted by your finger, and all the strings above are also muted by your left hand fingers, due to their flatness. I'm always stunned by Eric Johnson playing a Strat through a Tubescreamer and very loud Dumble tube amp, and having virtually zero string noise.
The other advantage is that left hand finger rolls (ie, playing the same fret on a different string, without lifting your finger) are much easier when your fingers are flatter. Very easy to play the string immediately above and below with just a slight adjustment. When Bryan Baker first hit the scene, everyone was floored by how he was able to play such incredible angular lines at high speeds. The flatted fingers definitely helped for things like fourths. It also helped he practiced 12 hours a day as a kid, but I digress...
It's not a hand position I've really mastered, but I should probably spend more time with it. The reality is there is no one, single left hand position that can cover every single playing situation. You either choose one and live with the limitations (and there's nothing wrong with that, plenty of great players do just that), or you accept that you will need multiple positions for certain situations.
The worst thing you can do is go along with Classical Guitar Technique Hegemony, and force yourself to adopt the traditional "fingers perfectly arched, play only on the tips, fingers always parallel to the frets, thumb behind the middle finger" technique for everything.
Maybe I'll write up my thoughts on general left hand technique if people are interested
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I'd be interested. Originally Posted by dasein
I have to say, as someone who has perhaps (over-) thought a lot about right hand technique, by comparison I haven't thought much about the left hand. I suppose I just get the left hand to do whatever it needs to, which means I accepted a while back the need of multiple positions that you mention.
I have to say though that I'm not sure what you describe as the Classical Guitar Hegemony is really a thing. I don't play it now but think I recall using the pads of the fingers for some stuff - probably some Bach. But the other things you mention might be more applicable to CG - the thumb position is really a necessity of the thick neck...
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So I just sat down and tried to just play and not think about this, recorded myself just free improvising and the answer is...
maybe? sometimes?
It's definitely not planned, but it also appears that I do occasionally do it. Definitely if I'm applying some classical style vibrato to a note, it seems to just sort of happen...Though I think being mostly a hybrid picker, a lot of my string damping/muting comes from the right hand.
It's an interesting topic. It's part of all those little things that come together as part of "sounding good."
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Depends what I'm trying to do. Originally Posted by brent.h
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dasein, I'd be interested too.
With this technique, I noticed that pull-offs require slightly more effort. (They also produce a different kind of sound; they're not as crisp as pull-offs with fingertips.)
Perhaps I could use the fingertips with my middle, ring, and/or pinky to do pull-offs while using the pad of my index to fret the the note. This way, I'll have the benefit of crisp pull-offs with some form of muting.
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I use a fingertip to mute the 5th while playing a pedal tone on the 6th, which supports chords played on the other strings.
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Why don't you just mute the lower string with your RH? Originally Posted by brent.h
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I do, but because I use circular picking there's a part of my hand that doesn't quite touch the string immediately above the fretted note. Originally Posted by jazzyfan
E.g. I fret something on the 3rd string. My right can cover 6th and 5th strings, but because of the way I pick, my 4th string isn't muted. If I try to move my RH to mute the 4th string, the picking angle is quite awkward.
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If I roll my finger from playing the F note on the 5th string it ends up like this. Originally Posted by brent.h
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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.
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I'm with Allen - it's a comping thing. I'll definitely do that to mute the 6th string when striking a 5th string-based chord with a pick. Especially, if it's a driving rhythm (for instance, 4-to-the-bar) where I don't want to be too careful about striking the open 6th.
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Yes I do (the 5th or the 6th strings) whenever I need to. Originally Posted by brent.h
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I appreciate the responses. I'd like to clarify my post - my question is not just about the 5th or 6th strings.
Even when playing lines at, say, the 1st string, do you use the fingertips to mute the 2nd string?
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I’ve never consciously thought much about muting the strings, it just seems to be one of those things that develops naturally.
I mute the string above (i.e. in pitch) the one I’m picking by using the side of my LH fingers, but I think that’s fairly normal due to the angle of the left hand fingers.
As far as I can tell, I slightly mute the string below the one I’m picking by brushing it with the side of my RH thumb, or maybe the RH palm. So when picking the 1st string, my RH thumb momentarily mutes the 2nd string. This just seems to happen naturally.
Possibly helps that I use a small Dunlop pick so my RH fingers are already very close to the strings.
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I only pick the strings I want to sound, therefore I have no reason to to mute those I do not, except in the case of certain open chord voicings.
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No matter how cleanly you pick, a note sounded on one string can cause another open string to vibrate in sympathy. I tried to address this when I was playing with lots of gain (where it sounds terrible) by using the tip of my first finger to mute the lower string. This means my first finger frets with the pad, but the others fret with the tips. I also rest my picking hand's thumb on the strings, muting the lower ones.
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About 30 years ago I was showing someone who was just getting started a few things. They asked how it was that the strings I don't want to sound remain quiet. I'd never thought about it and really didn't know. A few seconds of experiment (playing, then "freezing" my hands and examining how the unsounded strings were damped) I realized for the first time that both hands automatically knew which strings to damp. They had figured this out themselves for lines, chords, octaves, double stops, etc... particular strings might be damped by either hand in various circumstances, in no case do I ever use palm damping, but at every moment of my playing every string I wish not to sound is damped by either a left finger, a right finger, or the right thumb. Originally Posted by brent.h
I imagine this came about from being an exclusive ear player - every sound is constantly monitored for correct pitch, chord type, etc. That constant listening would act to make the hands figure out how to eliminate sounds not intended. This is not something subject to volition or normal learning; way to complicated, instantaneous, and effortless, completely self emergent. This was actually the beginning of my interest in what I call "micro-techniques", characterized by mechanical complexity, no conscious learnability, subconscious management.
My way of playing feels like I telepathically project the sound I want to hear to my left hand which is charged with determining a fingering solution on its own and executing it (only requirement or constraint is four fingers, all the time, all tempos, all styles, all positions, no exceptions). That solution includes the string changes which as a subset is instantly available to the right hand which is charged with doing whatever necessary to satisfy and sound the solution.
Apparently delegating fingering solutions to the left hand allowed the fingering solutions to include the quieting of those strings not part of the sounding solution of the moment (inverse of the sounding string part of the solution) and likely the left hand determining which of that damping by the right hand.
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I don't worry about inaudible string vibrations. Originally Posted by CliffR
It comes from developing phrasing and dynamics (e.g., build a phrase from a whisper to a roar). The latter is mandatory for classical guitarists but most electric guitar players guitarists don't even bother with it, and as a result their playing lacks expressiveness. Originally Posted by pauln
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Those vibrations are not inaudible. Originally Posted by Mick-7
You might PRETEND that they aren't there, but deep down you know they are.
They are "unwilled" sounds and are a MASSIVE flaw.
Also, it DOES NOT come from "developing phrasing and dynamics" as you put it.
What nonsense.
It comes from being aware of the sounds coming out of your instrument and finding a way to control every single audible artifact that you produce.
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