How to Muffle Notes on Guitar

Experienced guitar players know that a great deal of the sound type they get depends on fingering and other techniques. One really popular way to get different sounds is to "muffle" notes. This common technique works with both acoustic and electric guitars (albeit in different ways). On acoustic, it gives chords and notes a flattened sound, in metal guitar, it works to give a percussion aspect to chord and note play. Here's how to use muffling to your advantage.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Try muffling notes on an acoustic guitar. Play out a good rhythmic chord progression and then put the side of your right hand near the bridge of the guitar, and prepare to muffle.

2. Move your hand slowly down onto the bridge, just at the very bottom of the strings. Not too much, just enough to "brush" the strings. Keep playing. Listen to how your chords sound. They're duller, more clunky. They're muffled.

3. Amp up your note muffling technique. When you've mastered the art of just creating muffled tones on guitar, you can try a more extreme method: this is more useful for electric guitar, but you can do it on either electric or acoustic. Press a little harder with your right hand and keep playing. The sound tones are almost completely lost and you're left with this flat percussion sound of your pick strumming the strings. In electric guitar, combined with effects, this can sound really interesting.

4. Use an "on/off" muffling technique. Again, this works better on electric guitar, and even better when you amp up effects like distortion and gain to get a great sustaining sound on the strings. When you have the right setup, practice playing a series of notes of chords, with some muffled and some not, in a rhythmic sequence. You'll hear how this style accentuates your rhythm and makes your play more powerful.

5. Practice "interlude" muffling. With the same setup: an aggressive electric guitar sound, practice playing through your chord progression regularly, and then adding just a few short bursts of muffled strums, for effect. Rock bands use this a lot, setting up a contrast, where a muffled, toneless riff suddenly bursts into tone when the guitar player removes his/her hand.