Mike, I was having the same problem, so what I’ve ended up doing is just making sure that my palm is a little *lower down what it starts to connect with the strings. This has stopped my high E string ringing out.
I noticed that Justin is picking very close to the fret on the sound hole, almost over the fret which helps with the" click" sound we are after. He is also using Left hand damping of the chord immediately before the hit, which he makes no mention of. Anyone else noticed this refinement?
Sorry, I meant the left hand damps immediately after the percussive hit! Not before.
Do you mean turning your right hand so there is more outer side palm when hitting the strings with your pick at the same time? Or do you mean hitting more towards the bridge?
Mike, hopefully these two pictures will help make it a little clearer. As you can see in the second image my palm is lower down on the strings. This helped with stopping the ringing out of the high E string.
ahhhh that makes sense, thanks for taking the time to snap some pictures, I’ll give it a shot!
that damn high e string is always partially ringing out… no matter what i do… i think its because my hand is too short to cover all strings at the same time… i think i am just gonna mute the bottom four strings and strum those to get the percussive sound
@jkahn Hi JK, I’m starting with the percussive hits and I’m interested, if you ever found easy songs to start with? Was the CCR song " Have you ever seen the rain"? Somehow my brain doesn’t send me any suggestions for suitable songs 
Anyone else with some hints?
Hi Helen, not hijacking the question (well kinda… 
) But after my challenging song selection for the hits I did look at others, but in my mind I was committed to me choices. One that did come up that I’ve got on my list to do is More Than Words by Extreme, a lovely song and quite well paced for where you’re at I’d say.
Just my tuppence 
Hey Andrea, yep have you ever seen the rain is a good one. Once I got the hang of it (basically I only used that as a learner song) I started applying it to anything that it sounded good with I like percussive strumming so much. Sunny afternoon sounds great with it but it’s not super easy. Anything Jack Johnson is great for this if you can do barre chords.
I’ve never played it, but I think “Stuck in the Middle With You” has a percussive hit in the strum pattern.
I don’t think “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz actually has the full percussive hit, but it kinda has that vibe. I’m sure a strum with hits on 2 and 4 would work nicely.
“Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffet, also.
@Notter Thanks a lot Mark, that’s a good idea as it is a slower song, I’ll check that out. At first sight, a lot of changes and downtuning, have to see, if there’s a simplyfied version, as I want to concentrate at the strummimg part.
@jkahn I have this song in my repertoire. First it only was a practice song, but meanwhile it has become one that I really love to play and have on my developper list anyway. So good point to start…thanks!
@jjw Thank you, I’ll check them out.
Hi Andrea, @Helen0609
I just put some chords from the same key together a while ago and learned how to hit it…choose the easiest order and chords for you so that it doesn’t distract you…it worked for me 
Greetings…
Thanks Rogier, that’s what I will do first. I’m only right at the beginning, first have to manage to change simple chords before going into songs… but it doesn’t hurt to know where it could be used in the future 
. Advice appreciated as always! Welcome distraction from a printer problem I’m fighting against…
Have a nice day!
Yeah I did notice the same with the tuning, but it’s “only” half a step down, could be a good exercise in transposing to simplify it
I like @jjw 's suggestion of Stuck in the Middle With You.
Actually here’s a TAB in standard tuning, but the chord list looks unnecessarily OTT compared to the original Gb tuning. May be best to just ignore me!!
Stand by me has percussive hits in Justin’s lessons. Really easy song too with basic chords.
Good call Alexis. A nice starter for the percussive hit.
@Notter Thanks for that! Maybe better to tune down? Maybe my excuse to buy a second guitar 
?
@alexisduprey Didn’t think about that one. Good advice, thank you!
I should have watched this one a lot earlier. This lesson really turned my playing up a level! (Still just a beginner though ).
Somewhat unexpected I got the hang of it quite fast (actually during playing along with the lesson) and it perfectly suits one of the songs I’m currently playing (have you ever seen the rain).
So thanks a lot for this one!
