String muting is another technique which will help you define your own personal style. Muting will also enable you to generate cleaner, more professional sounding guitar chords and also solos be removing unwelcome sounds from your guitar.
You’ll find a couple of varieties of string muting, the palm mute with your picking hand and also the string mute with your fret hand. They serve very different purposes, but both are essential to great guitar playing.
Fret-hand muting is particularly crucial when playing chords and power chords. The aim is to use a section of you finger tips and fingers to mute the strings you don’t need to include in the chord being played. As an example the C major chord is played from the 5th string to the first, but you aren’t supposed to hit the 6th string. I use the tip of my third finger that is holding down the 5th string 3rd fret to rub up against the sixth string thereby muting the string. I use this same technique as well with power chords, but additionally I use the fat part of my index finger to lightly place across strings 1,2,3. With just enough pressure to mute the strings. The beauty is in case you get just a little wild with your pick it still sounds great. Fret-hand muting is utilised extensively.
Palm muting is much more generally utilized in distorted rock songs. The technique involves sitting the heel of your pick-hand palm over the strings as you pick. A lot of people rest it directly over the bridge, but you are able to experiment with various positions for diverse sounds. Also try various levels of pressure to modify the level of muting. This method creates a percussive, muffled or chunky sound. Combine quick down strokes with palm muting in numerous patterns with moderate distortion for sounds similar to Metallica or other metal bands.
With lead guitar playing at times it might be neccesary to further mute the fretboard. An easy way to achieve this is to simply fix a hairband round the neck of the guitar next to the nut. Be sure to have the hairband snug enough to muffle the open strings, but not too tight as to force the strings down on to the 1st fret. This simple tip can help “shred” style lead guitar players clean up their sound by muffling nuisance open strings.
Both the fret hand muting and palm muting are quite individual and stylistic methods. Integrate practicing this technique every time you pick up your guitar and before long you will take control of this crucial skill.
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