I read a tip that when you're picking notes, you should be muting the strings that you aren't playing with your right-hand. Is this something that you should always be doing (besides when playing chords, obviously), or do you only do this in certain situations? Also, do you always just mute the upper-strings? For instance, if you're playing the 5th string, would you always just mute the 6th string, or would there be times where you'd want to mute strings 1-4?
What you read is right. For example when soloing and you're using gain/distorsion you'll get a lot of unwanted string noise if you don't mute the strings you're not playing.
This takes a bit of practising but after a while it becomes second nature as you develop a feel for it.
"Talent is luck. The important thing in life is courage."
????? you mean - just for an electric guitar?
Of course you could use this technique on an acoustic too, but it isn't as necessary as on an electric. It isn't as common to solo on an acoustic.
"Talent is luck. The important thing in life is courage."
Alot of what you do on an electric guitar is with power chords...NOT always but generally when using distortion you don't play open chords too much. It's not too difficult to mute strings when playing power chords. If you are playing clean then you will use open chords more. You can mute with your right OR left hand depending on what you're playing. When I play power chords I play using a double barre (index finger & ring finger). I can then mute the unused bass strings with the tip of my index finger and any unused treble strings with he rest of my left hand. You can also rest the fleshy part of your right (strumming hand...sorry lefties...I almost forgot about you!) on the strings near the bridge. It takes a lot of practice to feel comfortable doing it. I am still working on palm muting with my right hand and I have been playing for 15 months.
most times I find myself avoiding the unplayed strings.
my pick is able to dive in between the strings.
not sure if this is technique or habit.
either way I dont have a problem with unwanted vibrating strings.
