The muting thread

[phantom]

Yeah right obivion.. true - things are on their way.
It wasn't my intention to make that thing that big but in the process of writing it just became longer and longer. Duh.. . It just seems that i am not able to explain myself shorter .
It might become an article after all, we will see,.. indeed you are right.

[odradek]

Woah, that's heavy doc. !
Your muting analisys is simply excellent Sven;
Glad to have caught up this group; I'll spend here some hours for sure ...

[phantom]

Hey Mr. Ferro!

Thanks for that comment!

Great to have you onboard here.. and i hope to see you posting much!


Sven

[NG7]

Thanks for the reply phantom! Hopefully i'll get this stuff down soon T_T

Aren't there stickies in this place? This thread really deserves it.

[syan]

Caprica seconds...

Nice post, very helpful.

Btw, Sven, what cd is that song, "Cold Sweat" on and where can I get it?

[Padawan]

I guess it will be on his solo album about which we talked like 3 years ago
Funny I never teased him like that guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJDt2CMjmiY

[dragonsofeden]

sorry to bring p an old thread, but i recently switched from focusing on the acoustic the the electric and obviously i had some muting problems. would you say it is right to practice this technique with a good amount of distortion so you can hear the bad stuff as much as possible?

[irinamarella]

Well, I don't know about others, but that's what I do. That way I can tell without a doubt that I don't mute correctly or that the angle of my pick is wrong.

ETA: Oh and I think that this thread deserves to be bumped once in a while. That is the best stuff I've read on muting. Thanks for making it so detailed, phantom.

[phantom]

First to irinamarella: thanks for appreciating all this . As you know, that stuff is really important and can't be stressed out enough since it seperates the "boys" from the "man" when it litterly comes to playing in a proffessional manner.
Thanks for bumping .

Dragonsofeden:
Every way that reveals flaws in your playing is the way to go.
Don't go the easy way as it will hit you hard out there in the real world.
If you are in a recording session situation, nothing might be the way you used to play, so you have to have the most amount of control and cleanness and tightness as anyway possible.
If someone is just playing how it sounds right in his bedroom he is going to have a big surprise waiting for him in a real life recording or rehearsing/auditioning situation.
Be the best you can under any circumstances - that is what will seperate you from the lazy folks.

All the best!

Sven

[jade_bodhi]

I pretty much taught myself to play guitar (acoustic), and I learned to mute without even knowing I was doing it. It is an essential skill. I play with a this other woman once in a while at a pot luck supper where a bunch of musicians will jam, and she plays Indigo Girls stuff with a lot of forceful strumming, but she hits every string on every chord, and it sounds awful, just noise. Is there any way to tell her politely that she's doing it wrong? She has a strong personality and rarely listens to others. She talks a lot and rarely appears to hear anything that anyone else says. She's one of these people who think she knows everything.

By the way, these photos are cool, Phantom. I notice that jazz players mute a lot, sometimes hitting only three or two notes of a chord.

[NG7]

Challenge her to a guitar duel and win.

Maybe after that if you give her a few tips she'll give you a special thank you

hahahaha

i'm an idiot

[irinamarella]

I play with a this other woman once in a while at a pot luck supper where a bunch of musicians will jam, and she plays Indigo Girls stuff with a lot of forceful strumming, but she hits every string on every chord, and it sounds awful, just noise. Is there any way to tell her politely that she's doing it wrong?

You know, I don't think there is any way to tell that, while staying polite. lol But if I were you, maybe I'd start a discussion on muting with her and be all "wow, I am having so much trouble with this technique...do you have trouble with it?". Or you could casually talk about how you've come to realize that muting has helped you a lot get a better sound out of your guitar.

*Maybe* then, after your conversation she'd start thinking about it and realize that she should start working on her muting.

[phantom]

Jade,
Well.. why bothing playing with her when she sounds aweful and is such a kind of person as you told?

You could of course tell her what she is doing wrong - and in fact, as you know you are right there is nothing she could top you with.
On the other hand, why bother, just try to not play with her as it will make YOU sound bad as well! Most people can't tell what specificaly goes wrong if something sounds bad, so chances are high you are going to spoil your own reputation playing with that girl.

Wishing you all the best,
Sven

[Steinberg]

ohh thanks!
I have just found out that, my pinky is doing a kind of harmonic/string noise every time I move from the A string to the D.

Anyways I never used muting, because I always thought that players didn't mute their strings, when they played fast lines, but only when they did chunky chords.
So I'll definitely will try this, do you have any other comments/advices on avoiding string noise, maestro?

[phantom]

do you have any other comments/advices on avoiding string noise, maestro?

Well, there is only one big one - "being aware".
As plain and simple as it may sound.
Listen to what you play, if you can't seem to hear everything in detail in the first place, wich is quite normal, then record yourself (do that anyway )
Don't hear what you want to hear - hear what is on the tape. That is what others hear.
If you hear unwanted nose, go back to where it came from and eliminate the problem. If it can't be solved through the techniques i described then come back and give a explanation of the specific situation where that flaw occured.
Sven