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The Mute Technique on Bass Guitar

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    Part of the video series: How to Play the Bass Guitar

    Summary: Use the mute technique on bass guitar; learn how with tips from our professional bass guitar instructor in this free music lesson video.

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    Presenter
    By Carl Shepard
    eHow Presenter

    Carl Shepard is a professional bass instructor that works at Keller Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he is not busy teaching his students he spends time making music with his band...read more

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    on 5/10/2009 again, im sorry but completely wrong, what mr shepard describes as MUTE-ing is actually called ghost notes... usually heard when playing with swing. one great song that uses this technique is "foot stompin music" by The Grand Funk Railroad... go search it and listen for the faster part after the verse... the kinda sick thing about this is that the mix up in lingo is caused by mr shepard's inability to execute a ghost note properly therefore creating the illusion to him that the note isnt being played, while in reality, any bass player who knows what hes talkin bout knows that mute-ing is done with the pinkie side of your palm against the srtings lightly, effectively ghosting the note... there you go boys and gals, look at the rest of my comments, go read a book and then tell him hes crazy... its great.

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    Video Transcript

    "Hi! I am Carl Shepard with expertvillage.com. We are talking about different bass techniques today and I have got a different technique here that is not necessarily that common, but it is definitely effective especially when you are playing with a drummer. Between notes, say we are just playing a groove in the Pentatonic scale here, in between notes, you can make a muting sound, and how I do that is just by resting my finger over a fret and not pushing it down and pluck it at the same time with your finger, and in between notes you do not want to just do a whole line with muting, you want to be able to use that in between a bass lick, so that you have an extra groove there to follow. So if you are playing with your drummer, you can have this little extra percussive sound to help him out and help you out and everybody sounds better. So basically what you have to do is hold your finger over the fret and don’t press the fret down all the way and just rest it there and pick that particular string. "

    eHow Article: The Mute Technique on Bass Guitar

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