Pesky Mute Technique

Hi Guys, a thing I can’t do for the life of me is mute strings. I’ve tried muting when playing a G Major scale, as per Justin’s lesson, but it just frustrates me. Am I the only one that struggles with muting?

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Hi Maureen @Mozza5, I’m still developing my muting skills as well. It’s complicated, isn’t it: mute some with the palm of your picking hand, some with your fretting finger…as with most things I expect the answer is breaking it into small pieces, and practice. That said: if you can provide some more specifics about what specifically you are struggling with, it might help folks who have this technique down give specific guidance.

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It’s as much of a tricky skill as anything else guitar related! So no you’re not alone

Hi Maureen - I agree, muting is hard, but I really think it’s worthwhile sticking at it, I think it makes a big difference. There are so many different techniques that you need to use, so I’d suggest just thinking about one at a time and getting that down. Perhaps starting with the palm or with using your fretting finger to mute the string above it. I also think there is a lot of personal preference and choice with regard to how muting happens (in part as people hands are very different) so you should go with what works for you. I’m currently working on raking and some weird Hendrix lines that need odd muting and it’s a struggle, but hey it would be no fun if it was too easy right ? :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the responses and advice - Justin’s guitar community is great.

I think what makes it a bit tricky is that I don’t use a pick, I play finger style which I think might make it harder to use the right hand to mute.

However, I will, stop, take a deep breath, and try it slowly- using the fretting hand first until I’m confident. :blush: Thanks again.

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I need to use different methods between pick and fingers. With pick , I can palm mute with the side of my hand after a pick. With fingers, that is a really slow and awkward thing to do, so I tend to use fingertips instead. I still use the back of my palm to mute larger strings from sympathetic resonance with pick and fingers, however.

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Justin giving examples of two necessary muting techniques. And the classic blues lick has only two notes.

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Thank you. I’ll give both a look.