How to Mute Unwanted Notes When Playing Guitar

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Video Chapters
00:00 String muting techniques for beginners
00:35 What is string muting, and why does it matter?
02:15 My advice for beginners
02:58 Muting strings when playing scales - The fretting hand
06:22 Muting strings when playing scales - The picking hand

[Eufratbre]

I've played the guitar for 10+ years now, but never really took any lessons. I started watching these to learn/relearn the basics and realized i've been doing many of these things without even knowing it. Over the years my fingers somehow naturally learned to move a bit and mute unnecessary strings.

[kom]

I suffered from this
I've been working on it for quite sometime now
I'm getting better at it
Thank you Justin❤️

[PsychedelicCheeseburgers]

I've been playing 20 years and always thought I was decent, but always just played at my desk, unplugged on an electric, just having fun waiting for work tasks and stuff. Finally got an amp after all these years and realized I am absolutely TERRIBLE!!! I suck so much, it just sounds like slop no matter what I do. I am just now trying to learn string muting with the techniques you show in this video and it's like a newborn playing for the first time again. I am so slow, and still can't do it. I thought I could play scales fast, but they are so sloppy and noisy from unmuted strings that I realize now I can't play fast at all! I can't even play slow! I can't play AT ALL. I have so much re-learning to do, I almost feel like giving up. After an hour of practicing, I am finally starting to get to the point where I can mute the strings SOMETIMES, like 10% of the time, the other 90% of the time it either has a partially muted string buzz or it just fully rings out where I don't want it to. That's with me playing not even "slow", not even at a tempo at all, just sitting there trying to play one note and get it to be properly muted on the other strings. UGH. Guitar is so much harder than I thought when you actually care about it sounding good.

[Mordant.Melodys]

Been watching your videos a lot lately. I’ve been playing since 13 years old and am 33 now. I never took lessons. My step-father is an amazing guitarist and tried to teach me, but as soon as I learned Am, E, Em and D, plus a rough idea of tabs and how to form a power cord, I quit asking for help.

Wish I hadn’t.

Anyway, I’ve recently gotten back into playing. I’ve always been mediocre and was able to get back to my base level within a few weeks. Now I wanna get better.

Ran through a ton of scales now and practice daily. Taking all your advice and rewatching your videos several times each.

I feel like in a few short weeks I was able to progress as a player and expand past that wall I was sitting on for 20 years.

Long “bla bla bla” message all to simply say Thank You my friend! I’ll be lurking around.

[sunriselifx]

Great video! What I am struggling with now is with muting strings in fingerstyle. If were able to do a tutorial playing some basic tunes with muting methods for the strings in between those you are playing I would find it incredibly helpful 🙂

[alienmoondudes]

Also this has been one of the best videos about doing scales an muting. Thank you for the clear instructions and visuals

[mperhus]

Thank you! Your words really hit home with me tonight. I’m trying to play Surf style music, which is really clean. I can hear the strings ringing as I lift off each string, and it doesn’t sound good. Thanks for your helpful lesson and mostly for your words, saying that this will take a while and not to get too obsessed with it. I was! 😥 Thanks again and best wishes to you!

[sorahashii]

Thank you so much! I found multiple lessons about this but they did not tell me what part of my right hand should be resting on the strings, this really helped me out! I've been practicing this whilst playing solos that I already know!

[BulgBeats]

Thank you Justin much appreciated mate 🙏🏼

[inayatsama]

Great technique man. Thank you for sharing. You great teacher ✌

[Daviddd]

Thabk you for this! I was googling all over to see whats the best way for the picking hand to be. I want to learn it the right way! Thank youuuu Justin

[bigdoggetom]

I've played bass for years and years. Muting 4 or 5 strings when you're fingering is super easy. When it comes to using a pick, that's really lost me. I though it was wrong to touch other strings with my right hand, but I get it now

[fpvtv]

Another great lesson! just what I needed!

[Madchris]

Oh man! This lesson is going to help so much!

[leighnaehanley]

That was brilliant! Thank you! I was wondering why I wasn't able to mute ...and I wash pushing down super hard with my "free" finger - I like how you explained to use all the fingers, and include the strumming hand. And I love the suggestion to do this with scales - that will be a perfect time to practice this. But it's sort of like a finger choreography we have to work out, isn't it?

[batman_outoftown]

Gosh, thank you so much for this lesson

[SlicedInThree]

Will the techniques shown in this video work for strumming all 6 stings while wanting only 1 note to ring out? For example; how John Frusciante of the Chili Peppers plays "Can't Stop", and how a lot of funk guitar is played in general. Admittedly I care more about that kind of technique than getting rid of excess noise while playing scales.

[alienmoondudes]

One of my problems is when I lift my finger off the frets there's an unintentional open strong noise. I can even lightly apply pressure to the fret and remover my finger and an open string noise is still there. Any tips on how to mute this sound?

[Soumil-f]

Regarding muting with my strumming hand I always do it instinctively with the side of my hand, unlike your technique that involves the heel of your hand . would you say that's bad technique?

[tariksadiku]

Hey Justin!
Great video, I just wanted to ask, how do you mix this technique with actual palm muting for rock and metal?