Good ways to practice string dampening/muting?

[pfizer]

Hey guys, it's pfizer here and I've just found a huge problem with my playing.

 

For those of you who know, I practice almost exclusively on acoustic since it's my only working guitar right now, and when I practice, I practice mostly songs meant to be played on electric. Somebody once told me that playing on acoustic will also help improve my electric playing.

 

When I finally got my electric guitar fixed, I tired playing John Petrucci's "Glasgow Kiss" on it which I practice on my acoustic and it sounded horrible mainly because of one thing: NOISE. Everything rang like crazy and even when I turned down the distortion, I could still hear some unwanted string noise like scraping. Turns out that while playing on acoustic builds hand strength, electric guitar requires not as much strength as it does control.

 

To avoid confusion, palm muting is something I have a good grip on; I just lay the fleshy side of my right hand close to bridge to make those chugga-chugga type riffs. Single notes and lead lines are what I'm having trouble with. Also, riffs that require me to play both the chugga-chugga stuff in tandem with clear, ringing notes are quite difficult, in particular the verse riff from Trivium's A Gunshot to The Head Of Trepidation:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQqQNlsb-IM

 

I read up on string dampening and found an excellent thread here that deals with muting and dampening :

 

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums...ighlight=muting

 

It's an excellent thread for sure but I want a sort of practice routine I can do everyday to perfect the technique. A daily regimen and maybe even vids would help immensely I broke out my ancient electric guitar and am in the process of distilling my playing ability; I've already built up the strength and calluses; what I need now is clarity, speed and coordination. Anyone care to help?

[Jasco]

Make sure to mute with your fretting hand in addition to your picking hand.

[Vbrook]

 

Make sure to mute with your fretting hand in addition to your picking hand.

 

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

Personally, I only mute with my picking hand for effect. I mainly mute strings (for the reasons you're talking about) with my fretting hand.

 

Another big thing to consider is the settings on your amp and guitar. That can make a lot of difference in terms of how much noise you're hearing---regardless of how well you're muting while playing.

 

Practising on an acoustic to build up your chops is a good idea. You may need to get used to a new fretboard scale when switching to electric. I don't find it a big deal, but some people do. Alternatively, you can practise in clean tone on an electric. But, don't ignore practising with distortion on. It requires a special type of muting, as you're discovering.

[gennation]

The best way to do it is probably the opposite of how most people do it now...

 

How most people think to do it:

 

they fret the notes THEN try to mute out the unwanted sounds

 

The best way is:

 

mute everything THEN try to fret the notes you want to ring out

 

Most people are so cocerned with playing then muting that their whole hand position chances just to mute. And it many cases this new position is very uncomfortable and may NEVER become second nature.

 

But, grab the whole neck and all the strings with you left hands fingers and thumb and and place your right hand over the strings back by the bridge...

 

then start adjusting your left hand fingers and thumb to start fretting the wanted notes. Then work your right hand to free up the want strings and BANG!!!...you are playing the wanted notes and the unwanted notes are still muted.

 

IOW, it's always best to start with a muted guitar THEN make the notes you want to play ring out.

[ANameYouTrust]

 

I couldn't agree more. Another big thing to consider is the settings on your amp and guitar. That can make a lot of difference in terms of how much noise you're hearing---regardless of how well you're muting while playing.

 

 

This is true. If you have a guitar with a higher output, you'll get a lot of unwanted noise. If you have your settings right, it'll be a lot more noticeable when you get it right.

 

In that song on that Youtube video, take note of which notes are being muted. The only notes that are muted seem to be open strings. Just get that chugga thing down and let the other notes ring. When you go back into the chugga the notes will stop ringing, and it should sound like that song.