In electric guitar playing, it is crucial to achieve clean muting and avoid noise, which requires both right and left hand skills.
From the perspective of right hand skills, the most commonly used method of muting is palm muting. Gently place the hypothenar part of the right palm (the side close to the wrist) on the strings close to the bridge. When playing, apply pressure in a timely manner according to the needs of rhythm and notes. When muting is required, appropriately increase the contact pressure between the palm and the string, which can effectively prevent the vibration of the string. For example, when playing the rhythm guitar part of heavy metal style, the combination of strong down-plucking and palm muting can create a very impactful sound effect. When using palm muting, pay attention to the balance of pressure. Too much pressure may cause the sound to be completely incapable of sounding, and too little pressure will not be completely muted and there will still be noise.
The right hand fingers can also be used for muting. After plucking the string, the finger can immediately touch the string that has just been plucked to stop the string from vibrating. This method is suitable for some single-note muting situations that require precise control. For example, when playing blues-style guitar music, muting in a single-note melody can increase the rhythm and expressiveness of the notes. When using fingers to mute, the action should be quick and accurate, and the contact between the fingers and the strings should be just right, otherwise additional scraping sounds may be produced.
The left hand also plays a key role in muting. When the left hand fingers press on the strings but not firmly, that is, the strings are not completely pressed on the frets, the strings are slightly pressed and the vibration is restricted. This virtual pressing muting can create a muffled effect. For example, when playing the prelude of some rock-style music with strong rhythm, the left hand presses the strings in a virtual manner with the right hand plucking the strings, which can produce a unique and powerful sound effect.
In addition, the left hand can also reduce noise by muting after sliding the strings. When the left hand fingers slide on the strings to the target frets, the fingers should quickly stabilize to avoid additional vibration of the strings caused by finger shaking. At the same time, if you need to mute the sound immediately after the slide, you can touch the string with your finger at the moment when the slide ends to stop the sound cleanly.
In actual performance, the mute technique often requires close cooperation between the left and right hands. Whether in the rhythm guitar part or the melody guitar part, by constantly practicing the mute action of the right hand palm and fingers, as well as the mute technique of the left hand after the virtual pressing and slide, so that the connection between them is natural and smooth, clean mute can be achieved in the electric guitar performance, adding rich colors and textures to the music, and avoiding the damage of noise to the performance effect.
