Muting Strings

[Bullhead]

Hey Guys,
I have a question in regards of playing legato.
What technique for killing all of the unwanted string noises while playing legato? i can play legato fine when its just on one string, but when i start going up a scale, or just skipping strings i get alot of feedback from the other strings.. recently i have been putting my right hand (picking hand) on the fretboard behind my left hand to deaden the strings (like a string dampener), and have had good results. But i am a little reluctant to continue doing this, because it would probably get a little old seeing that live, and it probably would hinder my playing to a degree..

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.. thank you..

[Holger Persch]

Hi Bullhead,

The only thing I can suggest is to play as accurate as possible - your fretting hand shouldn't touch anything else than the string to play. And when you lift up a finger after a hammer on/pull off from a string then try to mute the string with the fretting finger. That's similar to the movement when playing sweeps.

And last but not least, the more overdrive/distortion you are using, the more difficult it will be to avoid unwanted noise.

[curiousgeorge]

One thing I noticed that was causing a lot of unwanted noise for me, was that I was using too much pressure in the fretting hand on the frets...I found that my accuracy and ability to mute was greatly diminished when I would try and force my hand to do these runs...Warm up really well beforehand... You should only use the amount of pressure you need to sound the note and no more....Also, try and focus on staying loose and limber, and don't play anything faster than your ability permits...IMHO... ;)

[newamerikangosp]

As well as being accurate, I would take my thumb, index and middle finger of my right hand to mute the unwanted strings. This is really good, being as you don't have to do much to go back into standard picking.

[EricV]

Agreed. Both a relaxed left hand technique as well as muting with the left hand ( kinda creating a "tunnel" around the string you´re currently playing on ) will help to get rid of unwanted noises.
A relaxed left hand usually is something that develops through time, but you can also work on it a bit by trying to relax the hand to the point where you apply just enough strength to have the notes ring out clearly, without applying too much force.
Eric

[curiousgeorge]

As well as being accurate, I would take my thumb, index and middle finger of my right hand to mute the unwanted strings. This is really good, being as you don't have to do much to go back into standard picking.

I use the those fingers to mute during tapping runs sometimes as well, especially tapping runs which only occur on one string. For example, the tapping part in B Major from Satriani's Always With Me Always With You occurs on the B string, so I mute the high E and G strings with the thumb and middle finger of my pick hand. I've found that it really brings out the clarity of the notes.

[Bullhead]

Wow, thanks alot Guys! Lots of Great tips! definetly going to start incorporating them into my practice! once again, thank you !

-Bullhead