The ONE Technique That Every Guitarist NEEDS To Master (Including Beginners)

Paul Gilbert had a great tip to help practice this. He said to practice with your amp gain turned way up and try to play clean. The excessive noise will instinctively drive you to try to control the strings you don’t want to hear. Try this for a few days then try to go back to normal gain or clean and it will be so much easier to control. This type of practice finally got me to understand and incorporate string muting into my playing and that one thing alone made me sound a hundred times better.

Great lesson!! Thanks Rick!!

Playing "Can't Stop" by RHCP really helped me to improve in muting.

I was worried I’d never get this, but then I stopped fretting about it.

This is such a big thing. One of the things I struggle with the most, is other strings ringing out when they aren't supposed to be. It's annoying and I totally agree that it's an underrated skill that needs to be worked on.

It is becoming more clear just why I am not a rock star.

Rick: goes from a G power to a C power chord Me: IT'S MORE THAN A FEEEEELIIIIIIIIIING

Muting is especially important for distortion. Its common knowledge but as a beginner, I never heard how bad it sounded when I let unwanted strings ring.

String muting is important, but don't fret about it.

“You don’t want to do that because it sounds like a mess.” - Rick Beato, 2020

Some of SRV's tone comes from his insane muting ability when soloing. He banged on all the strings for one note, and it thickened up that note like rue in gravy.

this is probably the MOST important lesson for anyone who gets a few years in to their playing/ writing. It's not just about the notes you play, but also the notes you don't play. Look at a player like Kurt Cobain. there is no way he could play with the amount of gain he used unless he had a mastery of which notes of the chords he wanted to play and which he didn't. I would add that the pick attack itself can help with this, as eventually you learn that you don't need to hit all six strings on every strum, but may only want to hit the three low strings on the down strum, and the three high strings on the up strum. It really does separate a real musician playing a song on an acoustic from that friend of yours playing around the campfire. This realization completely changed my playing.

When people learn the very basics of guitar, open/ cowboy chords, it is highly stressed not to touch a single other string in any way, shape, or form. “In absolutely no way can you touch any of these other strings if you want to play an open C chord. Only touch the fretted notes. You can’t mute any other strings if you want to play cleanly.” We have to internalize that and make it an ingrained and automatic habit. Then when you get more advanced, you have to throw that out the window because you realize that half the time, pros play only parts of open chords and chord fragments and so many lead lines and chordal lead guitar riffs require your fingers to touch the other strings. Now it’s “you have to touch every other string if you want to play cleanly.” I think this is why it’s hard to mute: it goes against the foundations of technique we learn as basic beginners.

I feel attacked, Rick

I’m so glad I showed you how to do this long ago!

Comment muting is also important :-P

"Getting the angle right with your finger," now there's some solid advice! 😊

Thanks Rick. My big problem is hitting extraneous strings with my fingertips or nails when I’m doing really heavy bends. Frequently I’ll accidentally pluck one of the lower strings when releasing a bend, which is OK acoustic but sounds really bad with any kind of distortion. Any advice?

"You just have to get gud." -Rick Beato, 2020

When people ask me what the difference is between playing acoustic guitar and electric guitar, I say the main thing I've noticed is that with an acoustic you have to focus on playing the strings you want to hear. With an electric you have to focus on muting the strings you don't want to hear.