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Hi Neil and everyone,

I'm trying to strum 'Down on the Corner'. I don't know if Neil went over this in the lesson- but it looks like he's lightly muting the chords when necessary by lifting his fingers off the strings a bit.

My question-
I have a problem with my G-string (settle down boys! I'm sure I'll hear about this in the pirate group)
Anyways, I'm hearing the G (3rd string) the entire time I play either the C or G chord- as no fingers touch it. It sounds annoying and I'd like to mute it with the other strings when necessary. I'm trying to do a palm mute or muting with my pinky- but would like to know the correct way I should be doing it.


Al

Hi Al,

In my opinion there is no mute. The syncopated rhythym where you miss the down beat is where you get the 'muted effect'. On the rests on the downs slightly raise the fingers off the chords, release pressure, this stops the chord from ringing. Due to it being quite a fast strum don't raise the the fingering too much just sufficiently to stop the chord ringing on. Its like a pulsing effect is one way to describe it. I think this will stop your G string ringing (oh boy you're right about getting some grief there)

Thanks for getting back to me Chas- but I'll still have the same problem with your suggestion. As you know, the G (3rd string:) is open for both the C-chord and G-chord. Fingers don't touch it, so I can't lightly lift them to mute it.

I've been messing around and I think Neil actually flattens his fingers a bit when he lifts them-- that lets him mute strings he's not touching during the chord.

Maybe I'll post a short vid of the problem if I get a chance.

OK- I just taped a sample below. You'll see how the F-barre chord sounds much better than my C and G chords (in my opinion)- as I'm able to properly mute all strings with a barre.



[video type=youtube][/video]

Good example Al! Just the sort of Vid that Neil was suggesting in on TG Live. Thank you so much for appearing with your G-string problem!

I just watched my video back. The video doesn't pick up the G ringing through as much as when I strum it live. But it's there and I'm still looking for options to mute it when I need to.

So far I've had limited success by palm-muting when I need to with my right hand (to match how I play the F barre)

Dude, I would not worry about it. The song sounds good. Perhaps one thing you can do is strum a little softer, but I don't see that making a huge difference. You're not going to be able to mute an open string unless you use your palm, or flatten your finger out against the string. You could use your pinky to mute that string (along with the rest of them), but I think that would be more trouble than it's worth.

Hey, here's an idea! I was just trying it out myself and noticed you can just roll your wrist slightly towards you, bringing your fingers down as you let off the strings and it mutes the G string! Sweet. This is probably only a viable option on C, as G is quite a long roll to cover that string and will probably mess up your timing. If you use Neil's favorite fingering for G (Middle, Ring, Pinky), then you could use your index finger to mute all the strings, but I don't think there's supposed to be a mute on G.

Hi Helloworld (good handle).

Thanks for your message. I think Neil does it the way you describe in the 2nd part of your message. It isn't easy, but I'm working on that now.

helloworld wrote:

Dude, I would not worry about it. The song sounds good. Perhaps one thing you can do is strum a little softer, but I don't see that making a huge difference. You're not going to be able to mute an open string unless you use your palm, or flatten your finger out against the string. You could use your pinky to mute that string (along with the rest of them), but I think that would be more trouble than it's worth.

Hey, here's an idea! I was just trying it out myself and noticed you can just roll your wrist slightly towards you, bringing your fingers down as you let off the strings and it mutes the G string! Sweet. This is probably only a viable option on C, as G is quite a long roll to cover that string and will probably mess up your timing. If you use Neil's favorite fingering for G (Middle, Ring, Pinky), then you could use your index finger to mute all the strings, but I don't think there's supposed to be a mute on G.

I agree, I don't believe its muted either... Neil feel free jump on in here and put us out of our misery and tell us the way it is LOL

If you really want to mute the G string you could always play those chords as bar chords rather than open chords