In this lesson, explore how to mute unwanted string when playing guitar and elevate the sound of your scales!
View the full lesson at Muting Strings Deliberately | JustinGuitar
A couple of months ago, when I was learning scales, it annoyed me that the sound was all over the place. Thanks, Justin, I’ll incorporate this into my routine.
What is the relevance of the E minor pentatonic scale as opposed to any other scale, pentatonic or diatonic.
It’s an easy scale to start with as it’s in the open position.
Aha, thank you. I thought there was some kind of pentatonic pattern you could apply to any note and create a pentatonic scale. I was doing that on a baritone ukulele and it was fun because you can’t play a “wrong” note… Like, say, in G, you might play E,F or F,G and wish you hadn’t.
There is 5 patterns and each pattern has a major and minor
version that you can apply.
In addition to answers already given, it cennects brilliantly with learning some of Wish You Were Here.
Hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
This is by far the hardest thing we have learnt so far. My plan is just to nail one string or note at a time before moving on.
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Muting isn’t easy indeed and the gain you get from the effort does not shine through like in nailign a chord grip
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I got serious about thumb muting when I got tired of hearing the open E string ringing, and couldn’t make ring finger muting work with the C chord.
Just starting to see progress after a couple of weeks, but liking what I am hearing so far.
But it’s been a major change in my technique. My semi-classical-with-strap sitting position - which works beautifully with thumb at the back of the neck - is not so good with thumb in the muting position.
Not only is my hand position changing, but I’m having to experiment with neck angle, and a more casual sitting position - which I’ve always hated up till now.
But I’m paying attention and perceiving things in a new way, and it’s starting to pay off.
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Thank you, this was a great lesson. Good stuff to really start thinking about and working on as I play. When I lift my fingers off a string, I get some ringing on that same string- should I use the fretting hand or picking hand to try to mute this, or is that more a matter of changing how I am pressing down on the strings themselves?
There’s that and how you lift the fingers off the strings, Sarah. If you lift off vigorously and at an angle then you are beginning to execute a leader guitar technique called a flick-off or pull-off. So just a matter of experimentation and practice.
How do you mute with your picking hand if you don’t use a pick (classical guitar)?