Right hand muting (again)

[Jabinski]

Hi

 

I wanted to ask a question about right hand muting, something that i've never been able to do very effectively.

 

After being refreshed (on this forum) about muting with the little finger of my right hand while playing fingerstyle I thought i'd try it. Boy was it difficult. There were two approaches I tried

 

(1) Holding the pinki accross the strings like a barr and moving it as little as possible - very hard

 

(2) Moving it with my changing thumb position accross the strings - way hard

 

When playing the e string for example, my two fingers are at an angle as they attack the strings, which is perhaps not optimal for speed, accuracy or indeed feel.

 

Is this the best way to play muted grooves or are there other ways to do it? (palm muting eg?)

 

Presumably to palm mute you need to play with your thumb?

 

Thanks guys. I'll practice till I drop on this technique I just want to go in the right direction.

[Jabinski]

Forgive me, the topic should read, 'Right hand muting' (again)....

 

doh

[EddiePlaysBass]

Since I'm a nice guy, and won't offer you my advice (I have none to offer anyway), here are some threads:

 

Thread 1

 

Thread 2

 

Thread 3

 

Thread 4

 

Thread 5

 

Not sure if ANY of them will help, but that's for you to find out

[Jabinski]

Thanks Eddie, i had problems with the search function and initially couldn't find anything about it.

 

Last night i started searching and it worked and I realised i didn't need to start my own thread. Thanks for these too...

[cloclo]

when i mute i do it mostly with my palm. lots of control there on how hard you mute, sustain, etc...

 

sometimes i mute with my middlefinger (or other finger) of my fretting hand for a quicker decay. takes a while to get the pressure right (we just want the muting, not the pressing of the string against a neighbouring fret)

 

i want to have on of those muting bridges with adjustable muting strength for each string and the ability to quickly mute or unmute. anyone have any good suggestions? do they also exist with some sort of cloth instead of rubber dampeners?

[Davo-London]

I do most of my muting with my left (fretting) hand. With split timing and raising the left finger off the finger/fretboard. I've found this is fine unless at the end of a song or passage I want to fade out, in which case the right hand palm muting is perfect and easy to master.

[Stuart Clayton]

Don't know if it's of any use, but I use what I describe as the 'travelling thumb' technique. I rest my thumb on the pickup when playing the E string, on the E while playing the A string, on the A while playing the D etc etc. This is a good habit to get into, and certainly encourages you to mute effectively all the time, so it's worth the effort. Obviously you can't do it onj very fast passges, but you should be able to involve left hand muting to help - that's what I do. I recently made the jump from 4-string to 5-string, and found myself having to think about it all over again, hence my response to this post! Hope it helps!

 

Stu

[Dave Brown]

Stuart does what I do, and also Ed Friedland (as mentioned a couple of times in Ed's posts in EPB post above.)

 

I also teach that while the RH thumb mutes the lower strings (B-e-a) the left hand fingers mute the upper strings (g-d-a) so that ONLY the string being played rings.

 

I find that when I slap (which is rarely, anymore....maybe once a year!) I generally use the second finger of my fretting hand to dampen the E string.

[Jabinski]

I think I have become confused and have thus confused you guys regarding the different types of muting.

 

What you guys have talked about is string dampening so that only desired strings ring. What I was wondering was whether there's a technique where you use the right hand to mute instead of say, using foam mutes, similar to palm muting in rock guitar...

 

I do need to change where my thumb rests in line with what you said however Stu, so all the responses have been very useful. Sorry to confuse you all nevertheless.

 

Stuart, I have your book, I think called legends of bass. I've used it to help me read standard notation after years of not playing and it's a great set of pieces. The only criticism is that there's no Geddy

[Nicklab]

My right hand muting technique is really keyed around using a pick or playing with my thumb as a pick. For fingerstyle muting I tend to mute using my left hand.

 

As for my right hand muting technique, it's totally based on touch. I've been playing with a pick a lot over the past few years and the muted sound has really become one that I'm almost identified by at this point. How it works is pretty simple. I use my thumb and index finger to hold the pick, and I use the pinky edge of my right hand to mute the strings. I can do the same thing while using my thumb as a pick. The degree of muting is totally dependent on how much pressure I apply on the strings with the edge of my hand. As a result I can totally cop some of Paul McCartney's sounds.

 

For fingerstyle I really prefer to use my left hand for muting. Using my right hand to mute while playing fingerstyle seems to limit my string crossing capability. HOWEVER, as Davebrownbass mentioned it's often very advantageous to mute the B, E and A strings using your thumb. If you play fingerstyle with your thumb anchored, why not place it on the lower strings? If you're playing on the A string the natural motion of your finger is upward towards the E string. You may not actually produce a pitch by having your finger strike the E string, but you could wind up with an unwanted ghost note, overtone or harmonic. Having your thumb anchored on that string to prevent the open string from ringing out will help alleviate this.

[Stuart Clayton]

Originally posted by Jabinski:

I think I have become confused and have thus confused you guys regarding the different types of muting.

 

What you guys have talked about is string dampening so that only desired strings ring. What I was wondering was whether there's a technique where you use the right hand to mute instead of say, using foam mutes, similar to palm muting in rock guitar...

 

I do need to change where my thumb rests in line with what you said however Stu, so all the responses have been very useful. Sorry to confuse you all nevertheless.

 

Stuart, I have your book, I think called legends of bass. I've used it to help me read standard notation after years of not playing and it's a great set of pieces. The only criticism is that there's no Geddy

Glad what I offered has been of some help! Muting can be so hard to get right, but it's so important!

 

The book you're referring to is Giants Of Bass, and it's one I'm very proud of, so I'm glad you like it! It was really hard picking the 20 artists to cover, and I would love to write a 'sequel' featuring Geddy, Bernard Edwards, Marcus, Victor and all the others I had no room for!

 

Cheers

 

Stu

[Tom Capasso]

I never used that type of muting sound, but mentioned to Nicklab one night that my band was considering doing "Everybody's Got Something To Hide", and he whipped out the "pick and mute" thing for that part. Thanks to him, I have learned to do that also.

 

Tom

[nosamiam]

I mute with my right palm, just like a guitar player would. Works fine for me. I like the tone in certain situations. The technique is highly sensitive to pressure/positioning, and it's possible to kill off a little or a LOT of sustain. I do it either with a pick to get a kind of Hofnerish, Danelectroish sound (my bass is semi-hollow, not sure how it would work with a solid-body) or with my thumb to get a more uprightish sound.

[BenLoy]

Mute with the palm and pluck with a downward motion of your thumb. It'll take some practice, but eventually you'll get a nice "thump".

[Jabinski]

BenLoy,

 

Do you mean downward as well as upward?

[Jabinski]

Stuart, sorry to have gotten your book title wrong, I wasn't at home when i posted.

[Phil W]

I use downward only when using thumb and palm-muting, and James Brown only lets his bass players play this way. I don't think I'd get the tone I'm after with up and down thumb movenments.