I was about to do a lesson on left hand legato when I realised that I would spend much of the lesson discussing how to mute out unwanted string noise. In last weeks string bending lesson, I managed to touch briefly on this subject, but this week I want to discuss the whole topic in greater detail. Hopefully this will inspire me to get onto the legato lessons very soon.

Anyone who plays with a distorted guitar must understand the value of muting. Overdriven sounds are rich in harmonic content and are said to content a lot of upper partials or overtones. These are extra resonant notes which have different pitches from the main note (which is called the fundamental). Don't worry if this sounds too technical, I'll do a full article on this in the theory section sometime soon.

The important point is that these upper partials sound OK when a single note is played, however multiple notes ringing together can cause problems. Due to the pitches in the overtones, fourths and fifths sound OK as well (which is why we use them in powerchords so much) however other intervals tend to have terrible clashes and sound awful when distorted.

Of course, if random strings ring out when you are playing, you can pretty much guarantee that they'll sound completely out of tune with what your playing at the time as well...

If we start with the bass strings, we should look at the right hand. As you ascend through a scale, the heel of your right hand should start to damp the strings. As you move from the low E string to the A string your right hand should lightly mute the low E string. This prevents any noise from the low E interfering with the notes you are playing on A string.

Of course, many metal and rock players incorporate a light muting effect on the string they are actually playing (especially when playing bass strings) often to give a crisper picking sound. Fusion maestro Al Di Meola often uses this technique during his furious picking workouts.

This also brings about the question of where the right hand actually sits when playing. I believe most players will tend to pick somewhere between the neck and middle pickups on a Stratocaster. The right hand heel should site just in front of the bridge so that it effectively mutes any strings that it sits on. Practise playing up and down scales just on the bass strings and pay special attention to bringing the heel across the string and back off again.

Whilst the right hand mutes the lower strings effectively, many find that muting the higher strings is even more difficult. Certainly, if you are not doing it now then you may find incorporating left hand muting seems a little uncomfortable at first.

An important point about playing distorted electric guitar is that you should be playing the strings with the fingerprints of the left hand, not the fingertips. Players from classical or acoustic backgrounds may be surprised to hear this and a little disappointed about having to change technique. In acoustic music, strings are very often required to ring together and so the player is encouraged to use fingertips and use the fingers in a very arched manner to prevent them from hitting other strings.

Electric guitarists on the other hand, should be trying to mute the strings that they are not playing and so should keep their left hand in a much flatter shape so that the underside of the fingers damps the treble strings.

So, if you are playing scales across the strings, you should concentrate on make sure that your right and left hands are muting every string other than the one you are playing on at the moment. If any of you out there are thinking that this sounds like a lot of work... well... it is! However, paying attention to your muting will clean up your sound and give your solos a lot more power and definition.

If you haven't been muting properly up to now, then I do recommend that you go back to basic stuff (scales and licks) and practise them slowly with muting. Listen carefully to what you are playing and maybe even record yourself practising. You should be able to clean up your technique quite quickly and I'm sure you'll be impressed with the results.

Again, this weeks lesson doesn't really lend itself to any specific exercises. I recommend applying the ideas discussed to any other practise that you do in your scales or fast picking. It is going to prove to be especially useful when we start looking at legato techniques..

I hope you find this stuff useful and don't forget to write if you have any feedback!!