Hello! One of my friends say that whenever I play a chord, there is squelching in the recording. All of my other friends, and my own teacher, haven’t pointed out any squelching whenever I play chords. Here is an example recording: Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
He also sent me this:
"Definitely quieter but still there
This is me trying to highlight it from the first recording – the second chord, followed by repeating the snippet where the artifact is the clearest"
Here is the audio file he sent: Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
Hard to tell without a video, but it sounds to me like you might want to look at your strumming mechanics. It sounds like you are digging in and not getting a smooth strum.
Perhaps look at your pick angle.
I can’t immediately find this lesson on the JustinGuitsar site, but take a look at this …
I agree with Paul @mathsjunky: your strumming needs to be softer and smoother, with the pick, held less tightly, passing over the strings at an angle to them.
Hello, when trying to strum, there is this very weird and distracting noise when I strum. I am holding my pick pretty loose and strumming at an angle. Here is the recording: Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
I followed this advice in a previous thread, in which I also sent a recording.
describe what you hear. I don’t hear anything distracting. What I hear is sometimes missing some strings in the strum, or maybe hitting some you didn’t intend.
It is like a rubbing, clicky noise. Here is a cropped version, hopefully it makes it more obvious of what I am talking about. Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
It is like a Pingy, high pitched noise that sounds like I am strumming the guitar with the strings muted.
if you use a really flexible pick as Justin recommends for learning strumming, you’ll hear it more than you would a stiffer pick. I only use picks that thin for specific things anymore. For my acoustic, I tend to use a .60 Dunlop pick. For my electric, I’m using a really fat (it might be 2 or 3mm) Attak Pik that’s concave and has nice texture for grip. That one doesn’t make much slapping noise at all. The .60 Dunlop one does some, but it’s not as noticeable as the .38mm Dunlop super thin pick.
If the thing I hear is what the issue is, then I presume the issue isn’t in the picking but around the fretting hand.
I could (or not) have a multitude of causes and probably it’s a bit of a combinations of things.
It almost sounds like an unwanted frequency created by partially muting a string.
In that case either one of your fretted strings gets fretted with irregaular pressure or the side of a fretting finger slightly touches a string next to it.
It sounds a bit like a harmonic overtone of a note that doesn’t belong. Perhaps you are pressing certain notes too hard, isn’t your guitar intonationed precisely enough, … I think the issueis somewhere in the thinnest strings.
I sometimes have something likewise, yet different in nature, on my quasi flawless Maton guitar. I know it’s ME causing it and it defintely happens on the fretboard when I’m touching something I shouldn’t I could be the loss of pressure somewhere…or a harmonic of an overpressed fret which note is too high.
Get into methodical testing
Your testing might show a pattern
play only shapes of a chord, like two middle string, 2 top string etc and strum. Does it happen?
play slow. does it happen?
Try to apply the softest touch possible without buzz, does it happen?
try pressing too hard on purpose, does it happen?
Combine small chords and touch force in different combinations and strings.
When you hear it some some cases and not in others; check your fingering. are you sure you don’t touch unwanted strings?
I could be the loss of pressure somewhere…or a harmonic of an overpressed fret which note is too high.