Controlling String Noise

Do you have trouble controlling excess string noise...

Do your rhythm parts sound messy and unclear...

Even when you are playing the chord changes perfectly...

Are you frustrated that all your hard work to play something doesn't sound professional ...

 I have two different techniques that I'm going to tell you about that will help solve this problem with certain chords. 

The first technique involves muting your low E string. For example, suppose you're going to be playing a C major chord, and you don't want to be so precise with your strumming hand that you always have to hit the fifth string going down to the first string. There's a way in which you can mute the low E string. Instead of having my third finger precisely where it needs to be on the third fret of the A string not touching my low E string, I can take that finger and move it just a little bit towards the low E string so it's just touching. I'm not pressing down on the fret but lightly touching the low E string. That way, we get a muted sound on the low E string. You won't hear the low E string if you strum the C chord on six strings. All the volume of all the other notes will bury it in volume. You'll never hear it. Otherwise, it would sound messy if I were to play through all six strings without muting the low E string. 

Another way in which you could do this as well is by using your thumb on your fretting hand. 

You can bring it up over your guitar neck with the same idea and technique where we're lightly touching the low E string. You don't want to press down. Those are two ways to block the 6th string from being heard while strumming. You can go from messy to much clearer and cleaner chords.

Next, we will talk about applying that same concept to your first finger and muting the 6th string when using power chords. For example, use a power chord between the 3rd and 5th frets. Your first finger on the third fret, ring finger on the 5th fret, and pinky on the 5th fret, on strings five, four, and three to make a C power chord. If you take your first finger and lightly touch the low E string, you can play through four strings( E A D G), which sounds nice and clean. It sounds messy and sloppy if your first finger doesn't touch the low E string. It's easier to have this finger touch that string lightly than to worry about being so precise with your strumming hand. 

There's one other technique I want to show you, which also has to do with power cords. What we're going to do is take our first finger and, instead of having it arched up, we're going to flatten it out slightly just so our finger touches the strings thinner strings lightly. Doing this, you don't hear the high E or B string. 

If we combine that with the earlier example, we could play a power chord starting on the fifth string, mute our low E string, mute the high E string, and mute your B string and only be playing the notes that our fingers are touching. We can go through all six strings with our strumming hand and only have the strings we want to ring come through.

Just a quick recap: if you want to mute your low E string, you could use any finger on your fifth string to lightly touch the sixth string just by moving your finger slightly towards the sixth string. If using power chords, we could mute the low E string with our first finger, but we can also flatten our barre finger slightly so we're lightly touching the high strings. 

Always have fun with your guitar, and I'll see you next time…

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Have you ever heard extra notes played between chords and wondered, "Why do THESE notes sound good?" or, "How can I do that?".

Most guitar players struggle to find the right notes to play between chords to make their songs sound better.

The fact is, it's easy to do once you learn how. And the result is your guitar playing sounds much more complex than it is...

This is good news for you:

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About Mark Turko: Mark Turko is a professional guitar player and instructor with over 30 years of experience and teaches guitar lessons online.

About Mark Turko: Mark Turko is a professional guitar player and instructor with over 30 years of experience and teaches guitar lessons online.