5 string muting

[kulabula]

Anyone got any handy hints on muting when playing up on the D and G strings? I've a couple of ideas but not sure if they're correct. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Andy

[Truckstop]

I tend to rest the ball of my thumb over the top couple of strings web playing the D and G. Sort of a variation on the floating thumb technique; rather than anchor the thumb on the top string on the pickup etc, I rest the side of my thumb on whichever strings I'm not playing. From the front, it looks like I'm damping all the strings with my whole hand.

Truckstop

[kulabula]

Gotcha thanks. I have come to the conclusion that if you leave your thumb on E and B, you have to leave a finger on A. But if you leave your thumb E and A you then have to mute B with your little finger. It's like algebra!! haha

[Fat Rich]

I use a combination of left and right hand damping.

I used to mute exclusively with my picking hand but when I tried playing with a pick (or occasionally slap) it was chaos.

I have my fingers fairly flat on the fingerboard muting any strings I'm not playing. Also fretting the notes fairly close to the frets means I can used less pressure to get a clean note and also seems to make stopping a note easier and quicker too as there's less movement involved.

For the picking hand, Truckstop's advice about the floating thumb technique is probably the most sensible approach. I've got into all sorts of bad habits over the years and sometimes hop my thumb onto the strings to mute, or sometimes I mute with my third and little finger while the other two are walking.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Fat Rich

[Cameronj279]

+1 for the combination between picking and fretting hand being used.