Importance of Muting

[tZer]

gnjpowell - there are a lot of non-technique related ways to effectively mute your strings and while I would advocate working on your technique, I also tell my student, "When it come to the gig, you do what you must to make the gig work" - meaning if your muting technique is still weak, then use other methods to get through the gig at hand - But when you are not facing a gig, WORK ON THE TECHNIQUE. Do not squander practice time practicing bad habits. Practice slowly - and focus heavily on the things that give you the most trouble - and force yourself not to give in to the desire to just wank when you have the opportunity to develop your technique.

Victor Wooten uses a hair scrunchie that he keeps up around the headstock and can quickly slide onto the strings when he's doing his more extraordinary double-thumbing and hyper-plucking stuff. There are also players who will put a spongy mute (like what used to be on your Rick and under the bridge covers on Fenders) to tame the unwanted noises - and those sort of mutes also bring a very nice, old-school sound to the bass if you are trying to capture that Jamerson/60's era 'thump'.

But - all that said, I believe developing solid left and right hand technique is the best way to go for more reasons than just muting. You develop a much better touch and are able to do so much more with so much less if your hands are trained. Rather than needing to rely on scrunchies and sponges - you just do it. It takes a lot of practice and you do need to be shown what proper technique is, but if you buckle down and work on it, it becomes second nature and you can tame even the most unwieldy instrument.

Develop the technique - it pays off in buckets.

 

[gnjpowell]

Agreed Mr. tZer! I always try to take the time to focus on the hardest stuff and the (many) things I'm not doing so well, I know it will pay off in the long run. Bet a couple of Pro lessons would be a big help too, 100% self-taught so far... Can't blame anything on unwieldy instruments, it's all me Just gottah "buckle down"! Good thing practice is FUN for me. Thanks for the ex advice!

 

[Mushroo]

I'm struggling with this early on. I've not even been playing long at all but the "sympathetic" vibration of strings I'm not playing is bugging me. The big problem I have at the moment is muting a higher pitched string after I've played it and am moving to lower pitched strings.

The only thing I can figure is to cover the higher strings with my fretting hand when fingering a lower note but I'm having difficulty because I keep wanting to fret notes with curved fingers that aren't touching any other strings but the one I'm playing. Kind of like guitar players I guess when they are fretting a chord. Hopefully I'll get my head wrapped around it sooner or later. It's just going to take time to get used to it all.

It's really important to keep your fingers arched when you're playing chords on a guitar. When you're playing open C for example, you don't want your ring finger on C to mute the E on the D string, so you have to really arch it.

Problem is that good guitar technique and good bass technique are not always the same thing. Study videos of your favourite players and try to learn from their technique. I think that if you study video of funk players with really tight muting (Rocco Prestia, Paul Jackson, Bootsy, etc.) you will not see a lot of arched, 1-finger-per-fret, "spider" left-hand technique. You want to keep your left hand soft, relaxed, and close to the strings if you're after that sound, IMHO.

 

[tZer]

A great player I studied under for a while has an amazing plucking hand muting technique where he uses his non-plucking fingers to actually mute strings he's plucking with his plucking fingers! So he's effectively getting a 'palm-muted' effect without having to palm-mute. It sounds killer, but it's a tricky one to 'get under your fingers', so to speak.

A huge +1 to taking some lessons - and the sooner the better. Bad habits are much easier to avoid than to fix down the road. A good teacher should be able to both help you get your bass setup properly for your playing style and teach you solid technique designed to both maximize the notes you play and minimize the notes and noises you don't want.

 

[TheVoiceless]

Muting is a great attribute to master. But its a small part of playing a note. Its combined with the attack/sustain/release/mute. When a note ends is just as important as when it starts.

Without restating already provided good advice, I would say my approach to muting is that I am always muting. When I am not playing anything either my left or right hand is making sure that no sound is coming from my instrument. Making sure that every squeak, or thud is intended at the proper attack/sustain/release/mute. So basically I take this technique that I use on each individual note and apply it to my playing.

It will take a lot of practice, but its a great technique to learn. It will clean and define your playing. The only other thing I would say is muting is all about " touch ". Its a soft and subtle thing.

Hope this was helpful, good luck.

 

[Jay2U]

Let's get back to sympathetic ringing of strings and vibration of the strings when lifting your fingers from the frets.

Other than muting is there a chance my bass needs set up properly? I get quite a bit of both when playing.

Some basses are just a little more alive than others. If it suits your style, you may want to try some foam underneath the strings, near the bridge. Many bassists do so. I've done this with my Ibanez for a while. In order to make this as effective as possible, without de-tuning the bass, you should apply a dense piece of foam for each string separately. Otherwise coupling via the foam may occur. Think of little dice of about 1/4 inch.