Stupid muting question

[Weazelslayer]

Hey! I have been playing bass for around 4 months now and have mainly been learning slap songs and have a few down well - relative to myself. I have my left hand muting down when using my fingers to mute all strings in between riffs and on rests.
The question i have is are all notes that are played usually muted after playing them (by lightly lifting off) or is this what rests usually indicate?

 

[SteveCS]

The rest is an indicator of time value, similar to the note head/stem - 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. There is an expectation of silence during rests, but other than an 'implied latest ending time' (due to the start of silence) they don't really have much to do with how the previous note is ended.

There are two elements to muting. The first is purely technical and is concerned with prevention and control of unwanted noises - open strings ringing is probably the worst offender, but there are plenty of others. The second element, which I think is where you question lies, is concerned with articulation. I suggest you look up the terms 'legato' and 'staccato', and see how they are indicated in standard notation. You will see that rests are not normally used to show muted, shortened or ghost notes.

 

[Weazelslayer]

The rest is an indicator of time value, similar to the note head/stem - 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. There is an expectation of silence during rests, but other than an 'implied latest ending time' (due to the start of silence) they don't really have much to do with how the previous note is ended.

There are two elements to muting. The first is purely technical and is concerned with prevention and control of unwanted noises - open strings ringing is probably the worst offender, but there are plenty of others. The second element, which I think is where you question lies, is concerned with articulation. I suggest you look up the terms 'legato' and 'staccato', and see how they are indicated in standard notation. You will see that rests are not normally used to show muted, shortened or ghost notes.

Thanks for your reply! That makes a lot more sense now - I didn’t realize staccato style would be notated in music sheets lol