I've been working on scales lately and I'm noticing that the strings tend to ring open even when they're not struck creating a muddy sound to my notes. To remedy the situation, I've been trying to play with my palm muting the low (tonewise) strings as much as possible, since they seem to ring out most. Problem is that this is a lot more uncomfortable than my regular picking technique, and I can feel a lot of tension building up when I try to mute constantly.
Any advice on playing clean and keeping unwanted strings from ringing?
"There's no easy ways man," he said. "You gotta learn the hard parts for yourself."
Hi Ebuchednezzar,
I recently noticed a very similar thing. One of the recommendations I got was to mute the lower strings with my palm, as you are doing. As you pointed out, this feels kind of akward in your hand. Other advice was to check that the guitar has proper intonation and also possibly put some graphite on the nut.
Here is a link to where I asked about it so you can see all of the advice I got on this subject, maybe some of it will help you too. :D
Interesting, I just learned how to and then adjusted my intonation today. It wasn't very bad though, so I haven't noticed much of a change.
Do you find that palm muting the low strings makes you contort your arm and wrist into an uncomfortable position? Right now I'm a lot more at home lightly touching my pinky on the pick guard and picking without touching the strings at all hardly. Of course, that creates the problem we both posted about.
Been watching some DVDs though of some guitar heroes and they seem to mute pretty consistently when playing lines. Maybe I'll practice the new way for awhile and see if it becomes more natural over time.
"There's no easy ways man," he said. "You gotta learn the hard parts for yourself."
I was doing it that exact same way, my pink was against the pick guard and the rest of my hand was above the strings. I am trying to teach my self to do it with my palm on the 2 thickest strings, but it takes effort to remember to do it that way.
