How to Left Hand Mute On The Guitar

Okay the last thing that we are going to look at in this basic note rhythm technique view is called is left hand muting.

Now we have already looked to the technique where we are muting with the right hand at the bridge end of the guitar. But, this also is something that you can do with your left hand whereas you are holding a chord. The minute you want that chord to stop, you just release the chord that you are holding and just use your fingers to kind of block all the strings. Just say you get that stop, one of the many things you meet with rhythm is the fact that it is really choppy and really tight. If you get it sounding really precise, it can really help especially in the loud situation when you are trying to get it really tight.

So using this technique is going to be really good for kind of creating that tougher sound. So what I am going to do is I am just going to play A power chord and I am going to mute both ends of the guitar with my right hand at the bridge end, and then I am just going to release the chord that I am holding. Basically, I am just going to be keeping my first finger ready to play the chord again if I need to. But, I am just going to release the chord and then just let the rest of my fingers on my left hand relax over the strings so it is going to sound something like this.

That in itself is pretty basic but it is really trying to outline just the effect of what it is going to do. So you just play the chord and at the same time, you just let your fingers rest over the strings while catching at the bridge end at the same time. Also with that example is just using that technique in a natural kind of environment. But when you are blocking off the strings with the left hand, you can also do pick strokes just to kind of give more percussive sounds. So towards the end of that example which kind of took my right hand off – so palm muting – you notice muting of my left hand, if you kind of leave your fingers hanging over any kind of natural harmonics on the guitar. You can also get that kind of sound in between chords.

Generally, when you are playing lower down the guitar, you kind of get harmonics that you can use. It would be over the 2nd fret, 3rd fret, 5th fret and if you wanted to use the natural harmonics on the 7th fret as well, I am just kind of giving that really kind of lazy sort of sound.

Regarding all the techniques that we have just looked at so far, my advise to you will be to just take each one of the techniques, learn everything slow and then when you have a down slow, just kind of grab to be speeding up paying close attention to keeping it nice and tight and nice and clean. All of these techniques that we just look at is going to be relevant in the performances of this DVD. So it is going to be worth memorizing yourself with each one of those. So then when we come to learn the performances, it is not going to be too much of the strain doing each of the techniques. It is just really going to take a lot of practice.


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