I’m a newby, only been playing for a few months. I feel that I’m doing pretty well so far. I find that I am unintentionaly muting the high E string while playing A, E and C chords. Seems that the palm of my hand is the culprit but am not having any luck consistantly keeping it out of the way. I have pretty small hands. Any suggestions?
Keep your thumb under the centre of the neck and keep the contact of your fingers on the strings as near upright as possible.
Hi @wterry8437
Check your hand, arm and body positions. It may be that it is your wrist position that makes the palm touch so check that especially.
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I can remember in one of Justin’s lessons, he describes teaching new players to think of the edge of the guitar neck as red hot, so you focus on keeping your fleshy bits away from the edge and hence away from the high E string.
I can empathise with the small hands, my fingers/hand is always very close to the high e string, so when practising playing the chords or even songs, I will intermittently pause and pluck the high e to ensure that it is ringing out, adjusting hand or finger position accordingly.
I’ll have a wratch, see if I can find the video lesson.
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I took ages, months and months to be able to play the A cord without muting the high e.
Now I have the same trouble if I am trying to play the A cord with my thumb muting the low E, so I think that is progress. Keep at it!
I think I will one day have the mute down, too.
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Thanks for the tip…much better. Will take a little work to break that bad habit but I feel a lot better now.
Great help! Feeling much better now. It will take a little time to break that bad habit but I know the way now. Thanks.
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One person’s problem is another person’s solution. You may want to refine your muting and even perfect it.
Can you demonstrate your technique for muting the high E string? I like leaving it out for most of the open chords. It’s too brittle and harsh for my ears. I just try not to hit it for the most part. I do like the high E on major & minor 7th chords and the “Wonderwall” chord voicings.
Continuing the discussion from Unintentionaly muting the high E string when playing open chords:
CT,
I found that I was letting the neck rest on the palm of my hand at the base of my index finger. When I curled my fingers around to make the chord shapes for A, C, and E, presto, the high E would be muted. Let me say that I do have small hands and short fingers. That may not work for everyone.
Went to post this problem, and see that I’m not the first person here.
So popping it up again.
Consolidation has exposed blindness.
GAS got me, and I purchased a mic (better than my computer mic), which I’ve been using as I consolidate my hard won skill set.
What using the mic has made clear, on listening to the recordings, is that my chords are not clear. Among other dalliances, my hand sometimes rotates so that the first bone of finger 1 mutes the high E string such as when playing the “folk” G.
awkward selfie…
I realize this needs to stop, it is sub optimal.
It doesn’t happen when I’m in focused practice, but when I migrate to reading chords & making changes & tapping my foot to the beat & trying to keep the beat & feeling for the proper strum, well then my hand tends to mute that high E.
QUESTION: Anyone else had this issue?
Suggestions for banishing this tendency to the netherworld?
From the images of Richard’s post 3 years ago, I see that I should probably be moving my thumb back down and away from the low E string.
Thanks,
Bruce
Hi Bruce, yes, I have this issue. You have your answer regarding the 2-finger G chord - move that thumb back behind the neck. That should allow you to curl your fingers a bit more, and make space between your finger (or whatever part of your hand is interfering) and the string. Until you have the chords clean, banish all thoughts of using your thumb to mute string 6 or (gasp) to fret a note on that string.
I also found useful: Justin’s Chord Perfect practice (the lesson in the link describes the process for the D chord). While doing this, think about how your the part of your hand that hits the neck or string feels when it is not touching the string. This helped me feel when the string does touch my hand - I definitely notice it when I’m thinking about it. Listening closely to the chord is useful too. If you do the Chord Perfect practice, you’ll be sounding each string, then the entire chord. You’ll start to recognize when that high E is muted while you’re playing songs. If you’re playing an electro-acoustic I’d personally suggest doing this unplugged.
Another tip - slow down. As much as I hate it, I have to do this all the time! Sometimes I’ll come back, after not playing it for a while, to a song I could play easily only to find I need to slow down and refresh my muscle memory.
Finally - I’ve found the beginner finger stretch exercises surprisingly effective. Start on fret 5, and don’t move to fret 4 until you can comfortably get clean tones on each finger. I made the mistake of “progressing” too quickly only to realize that I couldn’t do what I thought I could!
I don’t know if this will banish this problem forever, but I do know that I’m aware now when I’m muting strings. I have small hands, including short fingers, so I figure I’ll be working on this for a long time. But hey, we all have our challenges!
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So I have a similar problem, especially when standing up. My six string tends to be neck heavy and wants to angle down until it rests on my hand. I did my practice for my open mic goal a couple days ago focusing on keeping my thumb behind the neck and couldn’t play anything correctly. I missed the chords and after a few barres the neck would naturally want to lean down.
Hey Joe
I’ve been experimenting with a strap attached to the head stock versus at the heel. It seems to help a bit, and the neck drop is a thing of the past. I got a little gizmo for a few $$ that allows the strap to clip to the headstock, and it is then easy to switch between the two strap setups (the length needs adjusting each time though)
Bruce
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Thanks so much Judy for the great advice. Every one of your suggestions rings true. I’ve added metronome to my chord perfect (and changes too) to get me used to operating under pressure–that seems to be where my self perceived graces are exposed as not what I would call graceful. Nice clean sounds in Chord Perfect become mushy.
Question: why do you suggest to unplug the electro acoustic? I’ve been recording myself, infrequently, with a mic, and the pickup built into the Yamaha. The mic sounds “fuller” to me, and I prefer it a wee bit to the pickup, but I’m no sound engineer. Both methods expose me righteously.
Hi BC, I’m certainly no sound engineer either! My instinct as a beginner guitar player to unplug the guitar stems from this: to my mind, to learn to play a guitar we need to focus on the human/instrument interface. We make sound when we depress strings on the neck, and pluck them with our other hand. We feel the interaction with the guitar, and hear the result. As a beginner there seems to be so much one can do by focusing on that interface, without interruption. It’s both audible and physical - I’m better able to feel what I’m playing when I only have me and the guitar itself. I suppose I could argue that amplifying an acoustic would amplify my errors, but I don’t really know if that’s true. That is, the pickup could also be changing or hiding something - as I said, I’m no sound engineer.
I sometimes practice my electric guitar unplugged (it’s a semi-hollow, but still…). And plugged in, I play clean with just a bit of reverb. Again, I just feel like I can hear my playing skills better this way. I may be wrong!
I recall hearing an interview with some famous guitarist (I wish I could remember who it was - he might have been talking with Rick Rubin) who, when asked to play something clean, said something like: You want me to play it clean? You’ll hear all my mistakes! I think it’s fair and fine to use everything at our disposal to deliver the best performance. But as a beginner, I strive to develop my basic skills as well as possible.
Edit to add: I’ve been referring to how I practice technique - drills, scales, chord perfect, changes, learning new songs etc. When I’m getting good at a song, or playing repertoire songs, or jamming (ha! like I do much of that!), that’s the time I start playing with things like amplification. 
I’ve now written an essay, and like most essays, reasonable people can disagree! But that’s my thought process. Sorry I couldn’t put it in a nutshell! 
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Thanks for the suggestion. I also have a similar setup on my 12 string. It doesn’t have a pin on the heel. I used to just use some ugly looking twine. My wife got me a nice leather strap and headstock “loop pin” for Christmas. I have been thinking about using the same type of setup on my six string.