Muting

[jcopas]

Good Lord, Everytime I try to learn to play bass I get stuck on the same thing. Muting.

It is so absolutely frustrating, everytime I move my thumb it takes a good one to two full seconds seconds before I can find the strings again with the plucking fingers. I keep switching instruction methods hoping I come across either some different way of muting, or at least some different way of teaching it. For me it is no where near as simple as "move your thumb down as your hand moves". The useless appendage gets stuck on damn near anything. Pickup, string, neck, pickguard, hell even the flaming screw holding on the pickguard is a gigantic obstacle to my athleticly challenged thumb it seems.

Now that I have had a few minutes to vent. Are there any suggestions anyone could give me on how to really break the method down to Barney level?

 

[buldog5151bass]

There are lots of ways to mute. I like using the palm of my right hand. This doesn't affect your plucking in anyway.

 

[lz4005]

If you're having problems with floating thumb, leave your thumb on the pickup.
Jam your ring finger between the E and A when you play the G.
Rest strokes and your left hand do the rest.

 

[jcopas]

It seems silly that I have two or three different "teach yourself to play bass" books, and a phone based app, and all they ever cover is this thumb technique. But 5 minutes has two other suggestions on an internet forum...

Thank you both, I will give them a try tonight.

 

[Tazziedevil]

what kind of muting? Just keeping open strings from ringing or making "dead" notes?

 

[juggahnaught]

Good Lord, Everytime I try to learn to play bass I get stuck on the same thing. Muting.

It is so absolutely frustrating, everytime I move my thumb it takes a good one to two full seconds seconds before I can find the strings again with the plucking fingers. I keep switching instruction methods hoping I come across either some different way of muting, or at least some different way of teaching it. For me it is no where near as simple as "move your thumb down as your hand moves". The useless appendage gets stuck on damn near anything. Pickup, string, neck, pickguard, hell even the flaming screw holding on the pickguard is a gigantic obstacle to my athleticly challenged thumb it seems.

Now that I have had a few minutes to vent. Are there any suggestions anyone could give me on how to really break the method down to Barney level?

Can you explain what happens when you try to move across the strings? I'm not sure I'm understanding exactly what's going wrong. It sounds as though you're trying to do floating thumb and you're having trouble floating it?

If this is about floating thumb, there are two methods of "floating thumb", really - movable anchor, where you rest your thumb on the string before the one you're playing (so, while playing eighths on the D string, your A string will be your thumbrest), and true "floating thumb", where you're actually resting the side of your thumb across all of the strings below the one you're playing (so, while playing eighths on the G string, the side of your thumb will be resting on the D, A, and E strings, muting them). Note that for floating thumb to work, your hand position needs to be parallel to the body of the bass, not perpendicular to it, so that your thumb can rest across the strings.

If this makes sense, just practice it slowly - forget the fretting hand for the moment and just practice alternating finger runs while alternating strings.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense; if not, I can post pictures.

 

[jcopas]

what kind of muting? Just keeping open strings from ringing or making "dead" notes?

Just keeping unused strings from ringing out sympathetically.

 

[jcopas]

Can you explain what happens when you try to move across the strings? I'm not sure I'm understanding exactly what's going wrong. It sounds as though you're trying to do floating thumb and you're having trouble floating it?

If this is about floating thumb, there are two methods of "floating thumb", really - movable anchor, where you rest your thumb on the string before the one you're playing (so, while playing eighths on the D string, your A string will be your thumbrest), and true "floating thumb", where you're actually resting the side of your thumb across all of the strings below the one you're playing (so, while playing eighths on the G string, the side of your thumb will be resting on the D, A, and E strings, muting them). Note that for floating thumb to work, your hand position needs to be parallel to the body of the bass, not perpendicular to it, so that your thumb can rest across the strings.

If this makes sense, just practice it slowly - forget the fretting hand for the moment and just practice alternating finger runs while alternating strings.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense; if not, I can post pictures.

Movable anchor seems to be the way everything I have describes "plucking hand muting". The issue is that when I try moving from string to string the thumb either doesn't want to move, or gets caught/hung/distracted by something. That basically turns into a "stop plucking, move thumb, re-find strings with the plucking fingers, figured out where the song has moved forward to, get the timing back, join back in" process.

I've had slightly better results using my ring/pinky finger for muting. Somewhat of a take on @lz4005 suggested. It seems to be somewhat more natural for the end of my ring finger to rest on the E string while playing the D, and when moving to the G string the pinky can land on the A. It is still somewhat clunky getting there, but they seem to disconnect naturally as I come back up to the A and E string.

I've had some issues using the movable anchor with the thumb simply deciding to stay anchored turning the "pluck the E string" into "pinch the E string".

FYI I'm not there most graceful and coordinated fellow. Part of the reason I decided to try and learn to play a musical instrument, as well as fly fishing for that matter,t was to improve my coordination.

 

[Tazziedevil]

Movable anchor seems to be the way everything I have describes "plucking hand muting". The issue is that when I try moving from string to string the thumb either doesn't want to move, or gets caught/hung/distracted by something. That basically turns into a "stop plucking, move thumb, re-find strings with the plucking fingers, figured out where the song has moved forward to, get the timing back, join back in" process.

I've had slightly better results using my ring/pinky finger for muting. Somewhat of a take on @lz4005 suggested. It seems to be somewhat more natural for the end of my ring finger to rest on the E string while playing the D, and when moving to the G string the pinky can land on the A. It is still somewhat clunky getting there, but they seem to disconnect naturally as I come back up to the A and E string.

I've had some issues using the movable anchor with the thumb simply deciding to stay anchored turning the "pluck the E string" into "pinch the E string".

FYI I'm not there most graceful and coordinated fellow. Part of the reason I decided to try and learn to play a musical instrument, as well as fly fishing for that matter,t was to improve my coordination.

What you're describing would probably work. Honestly pedagogically the "moveable anchor" is the best way to go, but when I did play a 5 string (briefly, I didn't like it) I would use my pinky to deaden the low B string, it just worked better for me.

I use a lot of left hand muting when possible but that really only comes with some practice.

 

[jcopas]

What you're describing would probably work. Honestly pedagogically the "moveable anchor" is the best way to go, but when I did play a 5 string (briefly, I didn't like it) I would use my pinky to deaden the low B string, it just worked better for me.

I use a lot of left hand muting when possible but that really only comes with some practice.

Either way I'm sure a lot of it is just practice, practice, practice. Thanks for the tips, as I was playing around tonight I seemed to be hodge podging a bunch of different stuff together as I went. I'm thinking I might be putting to much weight on the thumb.

 

[Tazziedevil]

Either way I'm sure a lot of it is just practice, practice, practice. Thanks for the tips, as I was playing around tonight I seemed to be hodge podging a bunch of different stuff together as I went. I'm thinking I might be putting to much weight on the thumb.

Yeah, you really don't need to "dig in" with your thumb. Keep it flexible and untense (is that a word?) you're literally just resting on the string.

 

[Malcolm35]

I cured my muting problems with flat wound strings and some foam rubber under the strings at the bridge.

This also got me close to an upright bass sound, which I was shooting for. Do a Google on foam rubber under the strings.

 

[SteveCS]

Yeah, you really don't need to "dig in" with your thumb. Keep it flexible and untense (is that a word?) you're literally just resting on the string.

This is the key. Just resting the inside edge of the thumb on the strings under it's own weight...

It seems I've been doing it since the 80's, 25 years before I'd even heard of Gary Willis, who is commonly credited with inventing the technique...

 

[nnnnnn]

There are lots of ways to mute. I like using the palm of my right hand. This doesn't affect your plucking in anyway.

It doesn't? It would be a complete change of hand position for me, which would affect my plucking. Do you have any photos showing how you do it?

 

[SteveCS]

...
It would be a complete change of hand position for me, which would affect my plucking. ...

Likewise.

 

[mcnach]

Good Lord, Everytime I try to learn to play bass I get stuck on the same thing. Muting.

It is so absolutely frustrating, everytime I move my thumb it takes a good one to two full seconds seconds before I can find the strings again with the plucking fingers. I keep switching instruction methods hoping I come across either some different way of muting, or at least some different way of teaching it. For me it is no where near as simple as "move your thumb down as your hand moves". The useless appendage gets stuck on damn near anything. Pickup, string, neck, pickguard, hell even the flaming screw holding on the pickguard is a gigantic obstacle to my athleticly challenged thumb it seems.

Now that I have had a few minutes to vent. Are there any suggestions anyone could give me on how to really break the method down to Barney level?

practice, practice practice.

I don't ever recall consciously thinking how to mute here or there. It just happened gradually over time. I think I first found how to get the right notes, and little by little getting cleaner over time. If you asked me now how I mute unwanted strings on any given bit of music, I won't be able to tell you: it just happens, right or left hand, whatever happens to be easiest in any given situation.

My point is: you'll get there. It seems like a long road at first but it is not as long as it seems. Just ensure you keep at it, regularly (better 20 minutes every day than 3 hours once a week and nothing else for 6 days again) and you'll get there. It's tough at the beginning.

 

[Mark White]

the thumb either doesn't want to move, or gets caught/hung/distracted by something.

Newbie with a couple of month's experience here, who was finding a similar thing with this technique. I slowed it down and realised I was leading with the thumb instead of the fingers. So when it didn't place accurately, it threw everything else off.

When I focussed more on making sure the fingers were striking accurately when I wanted them to, the thumb found it's own place, and in the process it's resting a lot lighter than it was and moves around a lot easier. This was achieved through spending time on alternate plucking, 4 plucks on each string, up and down the strings, at slightly increasing bpms.

 

[Nobis17]

practice, practice practice.

I don't ever recall consciously thinking how to mute here or there. It just happened gradually over time. I think I first found how to get the right notes, and little by little getting cleaner over time. If you asked me now how I mute unwanted strings on any given bit of music, I won't be able to tell you: it just happens, right or left hand, whatever happens to be easiest in any given situation.

My point is: you'll get there. It seems like a long road at first but it is not as long as it seems. Just ensure you keep at it, regularly (better 20 minutes every day than 3 hours once a week and nothing else for 6 days again) and you'll get there. It's tough at the beginning.

to stop unwanted string noise I've always "muted" with my palm/extra plucking hand fingers that aren't doing anything/extra fretting hand fingers. It really is just what feels most comfortable for whichever style I am currently playing. I've tried the floating thumb technique, and it never really has felt comfortable to me. Most of the time I will rest my thumb on the top of the pick-up or E-string. A lot of instructors will tell you that this is a lazy technique, but I don't feel it has really held me back at all. The one thing that I have done over the years in an effort to increase speed, is not to move my thumb, but to not "anchor" it so hard, just lightly let it sit where it feels natural. This has allowed me to increase my speed.

As far as muting/deadening the strings to achieve a motown sound/feel, I have a piece of soft packing foam that I cut to fit under the strings. It does the trick for the most part, the rest of the feel comes from a bit of conscience palm muting.

I hope this helps, this is a great community, and they are always full of suggestions But mcnash is right, best way is to get in the shed, if even for a few minutes everyday

 

[Dana R Gregory]

Rocco Prestia of Tower of Power fame developed a unique muting method that he explains in detail in a video on youTube. I have tried this method and it is very effective. Worth a look.

 

[Matty Koff]

This has been something I've recently been having to think about because I decided to start playing a 5 string. This hasn't been much of an issue for me on a 4 banger, might try a thinner low B next string change.

If I'm not muting the low B, that thing will start ringing out anytime I pluck any other string. For some reason my finger technique has me always anchoring below the string I'm playing. Low B my thumbs on the pickup, E string my thumb's on the B, A string my thumbs on the E and so on. The only real way I've found to fix it is to consciously flatten my thumb so it's also touching the strings below the one my thumb is anchored on.

From there the aim is consciously focusing on it while playing over a period of weeks until it's muscle memory imo.

IF you're struggling with technique at speed, slow it down, figure out what your malfunction is and fix it, then speed it back up as it becomes muscle memory. Sounds counter intuitive, slowing down so you can play something faster, but it really lets you diagnose and correct what is happening to stop you from nailing it at speed.

If your plucking technique doesn't allow for muting.. that's something to correct. Like any new adjustment to technique, it will feel weird, until you've done it enough times for it to be muscle memory. Remember learning to write?