The secrets you need to clean up your playing! Your Muting SUCKS! This Is Why You Suck At Guitar 13
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2016
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Lords and ladies! Its time for a brand new installment of the semi-legendary, mildly amusing, sublimely informative, and oddly arousing This is Why You Suck at Guitar lesson series, here with your new best friend, Uncle Ben Eller!!!
MUTING! Its the thing every pro does that none of them talk about! Its the secret technique Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen, Gilbert, Holdsworth, Govan, and Bubbletrousers use to keep their playing sounding clean as a dang whistle. Even rhythm guitar giants like James Hetfield of Metallica use these techniques to keep their metal riffing precise and clean. It seems like a lot of bedroom/youtube shredders use a hairband or fretwrap to mask all the noisy junk their playing produces, but have you ever noticed how you never see any of the legends of guitar onstage with a hair tie around their necks? Do you think Eddie Van Halen would be caught dead with his stepmom's hair band around his board? Most great players use the tricks we're going to talk about in this video, but don't even realize they're doing them!
I don't care if you have great sweep picking, legato, alternate picking, economy picking, tapping, or whatever... if you don't have your muting game on lock down, your playing will never sound as good as it potentially could.
The guitar, especially the distorted electric guitar, is especially prone to sympathetic vibrations caused by your slightest movements; this can cause a tidal wave of noisy shit that makes you sound like a real poser. And posers don't get chicks.
We're going to talk about whats causing this tidal wave of noise pollution, and how to clean it up using right hand over muting, left hand under muting, and a third secret freemason technique i call right hand under muting. All tricks are guaranteed to clean up your playing, no matter if you're a beginner or an advanced shredi knight of any style. I'll even give you super sick Cracking the Code style views of my arm hands courtesy of the Magnet camera rig Troy Grady himself gifted me.
So buckle up, grab a guitar, and get ready to say goodbye to that dang hair band or fret wrap or whatever the shit that thing is you're using to hide your dirty playing. Save that shit for your stepmom.
Suhr Modern Satin
Kemper Profiler
JC Penny shirt from the 70's
Norelco shavers - เพลง
Uncle Ben why you so smart
hello Robert !!!
well hi there :)
Robert Baker your vids are awesome keep makin em
I agree haha I've been learning a lot from you two haha
cuz he loyal
Hey Uncle Ben , after watching this video and making some adjustments to my playing my step kids stopped crying and my wife finally stopped hitting the crack pipe every time I picked up my guitar. Thanks.
🤣😂🤣😂
1993
😂
Man, guitaring is so complicated... just hitting the right notes is hard enough, but now I need to work on cleaning up all this extraneous noise too. This vid was what I need, thanks.
I picked up the guitar over 9 years ago, haven't practiced diligently all that time. However, I did have a guitar teacher and used some online lesson services. Never once did anyone mentioning using my index finger to mute the other strings.
Without hyperbole you have improved my guitar playing radically. For years I couldn't get songs to sound right everything was always a little off with distortion. Now, with just one day of drilling my hands to play like this all the songs I played sound better and I can play them hard and passionately. I sound the best I ever had and am having the most fun with the guitar than ever.
So thank you from the bottom of my very cramped hands, you are a hero.
Brandon Soares cheers man, thank you for watching!!!! Happy to help!
I have all of my students doing this nearly from day one. Most teachers wait a number of years, teach you a bunch of stuff, you think you're getting better, and then eventually they say, "By the way, you ALSO need to do this other thing!" So stupid.
I've wondered how they've managed to sound so clean for a long time. All the lessons I've seen on youtube, and this is the first time I've seen one about this. I can't believe no one ever addresses this.
No shit. I'm learning guitar, and primarily acoustic. I grabbed an electric with a pedal, and was stumped and where the fuck all this other noise was coming from, lol. This helps, a lot.
I think it becomes kind of obvious when you're playing and you start asking yourself the right questions. Plus it helps to just watch other people play too. When you realize that the good ones move their hands around a little differently, you start to catch on that there's more to their technique than just banging out chords.
@@raym.778 No joke. I picked up the electric and had no idea how to mute or what muting is.
@@daoyang223 When I initially picked up an electric guitar when I was in high school, I was lucky because I was listening to the band Veruca Salt and they do a ton of muting when playing power or barre chords. So, I learned that initially from them and I think I came across the same technique it in Guitars for Dummies.
I started playing again recently and it randomly occurred to me that I could use my right hand to mute strings that would ring sympathetically when I was playing chords. Then I found out that was an actual thing, so I'm kind of just experimenting with it. I feel like it takes away from the power of my strumming so I'm not crazy about how some things sound, but I also don't have solid technique and probably could stand to work those muscles out in my pick hand. So, I'm just going to see where this goes.
I get it though. Depending on the type of music you listen to, you can go for a while without ever being aware that the technique is being used. Had I not been listening to the band I was listening to, I would have had any interest in learning and probably would have glossed over the technique when reading about it.
a major part of playing electric well is muting especially if you have high gain. acoustic if not amplified you can literally not think about muting because there is hardly any sustain
Just found you.....absolutely love you.....you great!!!
Hey Tim, thanks a lot! Your channel is killer!!!
@@BenEller you’re missing one muting technique of the left hand often used by swee picking can be used for alternate as well for extra security. The bar finger will only work for strings under but not for above. You can leave one fingertip on the previously played string above thus making the use of the right completely unnecessary, use both and maximum muting is achieved.
Yeah. Ben is awesome. As are you.
The reason why I stop playing guitar everytime I start practising a lot is this.
I don't understand why I've never come across this in books and websites!
Bless you Unlce Ben.
"You are djenting now" lol pretty good description of the genre
this is the most helpful guitar lesson on youtube.
I wonder how many comments like this there are on TH-cam.
*This is the most helpful lesson on youtube
On the other hand, this is the most helpless comment on TH-cam
Kanye=Good Muting..... Tears from laughing and yet it is so true!
Good tutorial but it really wasn't the funniest joke.
I never knew he preformed that song. I’m so shocked I’ve never seen any memes about it lol
😂😂😂😂 I'm cryin'!!!!!
What
Freddie Mercury said do whatever you want with my music.....just never make me boring". I think even he'd cringe listening to it.
this is exactly why I suck at guitar! well, that and the other 12 videos in this series but this was really bugging me! thanx for doing these
I had never heard someone mention sympathetic resonance before! Helps make it clear why muting is needed ALL THE TIME, and not just when strumming across more strings than you need. Great video.
@@chopholtz4950fine, but here are people who want to avoid noises they don’t wanna hear 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@Ben Eller
I've been playing for many years and, of course, I heard of palm muting. I've watched many tutorials but they all say "put the edge of your picking palm near the bridge and mute the strings. Full stop." I love how you explained how palm muting actually works. I've followed your advice from this video and my playing got sooooo much better within 2 weeks. I've always thought I wouldn't be able to play extremely fast because either my left hand is too slow, my brain is too slow to process all the sounds and finger changes, my right hand is not accurate enough. However, when I used your advice I immediately saw how accurate my picking hand actually is and how my brain totally stopped worrying about the string buzz because I gained full control. This, in turn, freed lots and lots of brain space to focus on WHAT I play instead of HOW I play. I immediately noticed that my fretting hand is actually extremely fast, something I wouldn't have been able to say some months ago. There was a time that I was planning to sell almost my entire guitar collection because I felt I'd reached my peak and can't go beyond. Hell, how wrong I was! Once more, thank you for opening the doors to progress for me!!!!!
1 hour ago I was trying to cover GOJIRA - L'Enfant Sauvage and I had no idea why my sound was so bad. After watching your video I realized what I was doing wrong in 2 min. cheers buddy
Uncle Ben, thank you thank you thank you! I am 60 years old been working on muting my entire life. I started playing in 1978. I’ve really been working on my muting for a long time. Your lesson seemed like it was the most straightforward and I really really analyzed it over and over and over about a month ago. I just sat down and said this is gonna take me years to learn. I was shocked in two days. I started improving. I am way way cleaner than I have been in my entire life so I’m so very grateful to you! Amazing, freaking lesson.
Neither of the guitar teachers I had as a teenager told me about this - I assume they were the dudes who did it without thinking so they never thought to explain it! Great video!
Can you make a tutorial explaining why my tone (amp & guitar settings) sucks?
I'd love to see this cus my tone sucks ass too.
yeah.
an amp/tone tutorial in a live situation would be interesting.
Please uncle ben
yeah this is sth that we don't have a real good video about, would be real nice to have some real pro advice about how to get the tone closer to the song we're trying to play
needed this one uncle !
"This is Why You Suck at Guitar" are probably most valuable materials for guitar players on TH-cam. Thanks dude, you helped me a lot!
One of the best guitar tutorial videos I have ever seen. On such a crucially important topic (even on acoustic, may I say). So detailed, to the point, all-encompassing, beautifully filmed and explained. Thank you, thank you , thank you!
Brilliant lesson! I've been playing for years and hated, hated, hated what I call "squelchy sounds" when letting go of strings or extra noise when riffing. These muting techniques are precisely what has been missing. Thanks so much!
I know this video is old as shit now lol but i just wanna say that this is the absolute most helpful video on string muting i have ever come across on TH-cam especially when you got up close and personal with the right hand muting, something NO ONE ever does in these kinds of videos. It really helped me alot in figuring out what the hell i've been doing wrong all this time xD Thank you so much Ben! you're the best dude! \m/
Bonus meta-tip: With all that muting in place, you are now free to bash all the strings really hard, and add a whole bunch of attack and nasty attitude to your single-note lines. See SRV and Hendrix for example.
Good point. I've seen that referenced usually with power chords and punk songs (like muting the low E with the tip of the index when doing 5th string power chords). Then you can strum as crazy as you want and not worry about accidentally hitting the wrong strings.
listening to begginer players playing without muting is painful as hell, I always tell them to control their sound and muted when necesary, and im not even a Pro-Guitar-player. Good Video uncle Ben.
"You're djenting now ... losing all definition and resonance from those strings"
Yep, sounds about right :D
I also do a left index finger under the next lower string muting (playing A and muting E with the tip of index finger). This can give my right hand some freedom when picking. I just noticed that I do it automatically the other day when trying to describe how I mute to someone else.
Yes!!!! This ^^^^^ .... That is another GREAT super secret muting technique I use all the time!
Same here. It happens sort of subconsciously for me, heh. Definitely a great addition to these other techniques.
I do this all the time too! Never noticed until I saw your comment it just happened automatically
I've seen this mostly mentioned for power chords that start on the A string.
Never mute with excess foreskin!! Hurts so bad
Pro tip!
Your just soft and not true metal ...:P
What?!? Works great for me
Paul Gilbert teaches this on his online classes. Another good muting idea he teaches is to use the left thumb over the top of the neck to mute the E when playing open chords and power chords not using the E. Also he teaches to let the left index finger touch the E string when playing chords that don't use the E but require fretting the A string. Just thought this might be a good add to an awesome lesson. Always enjoy your lessons. Thanks Ben.
Picked up playing again after about 30 years of not playing and no one has ever told me this. Now I know why I always sounded like crap. Now just to master it.
thats one of the most useful vids I have ever watched. thanks mate and keep up the great work.
I've been watching your videos off and on for a while now. You're a great guitar teacher and I could have really used a guy like you when I started playing 15 years ago. You address A LOT of the little things that make or break technique. Good job!
Oh, and you gained a subscriber 👍🏻
The Chewbacca taking a shit has to be one of my favorite lines. Will have to use that more often
I started again to play the guitar after 8 years of break. I didn't really play through an amp, much before ( no amp, POD through headphones and this kind of stuff) when I've started playing again recently, I bought an amp. Then I realised how bad my muting was. Today I was thinking again about how to mute. I figured the left hand myself then with your help uncle Ben I learned the right hand approach. I wish I had a teacher like Uncle Ben years ago, then maybe I would continue music career. But instead I burned out because of lack of progress. But now I'm getting back into it and I'm better than ever (still suck though but progressing). Perhaps it's too late for a full-blown music career, but hey I love playing guitar again. Thank you Uncle Ben.
I'm a former non-muter and didn't even know it until my friends started pointing it out. I wish I had had this lesson years ago because I had to figure it all out on my own - gradually! One thing that helped too was learning slide guitar. I learned it using fingers - without a pick - and realized that you can basically devote one right hand finger to each string for muting out unwanted sounds using those same fingers to pluck the notes (slight alterations: I don't usually pinky pluck and you still need palm muting for lower strings). If you practice that regularly, it spills over into your lead playing with a pick - though you then have one less finger, so you finally learn to mute two strings with your middle finger and two with your 4th. Like all technique, it just takes practice. Excellent video!!!
Excellent. Very thorough lesson in sympathetic muting. My former “teacher” couldn’t understand why the strings keep ringing when I played even while doing my best muting only with my picking hand. Thank you.
I don't understand how come Ben doesn't have 1000000+ subscribers.
Your explanations are very clear and informative. Thank you very much! I've been subscribed for your channel for a long time already and I'm very glad you are making all these precious videos for us.
I just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for these videos. Every issue I have that I don't even know how to describe (like sympathetic vibration!) to ask for help with, you address it so clearly. It's easy to feel like you're just bad at something if you aren't given all of the information you need to accomplish it, but then you come along and fix that for us. Thank you!!
That last "good mute" is very important. Thanks. for that.
I just started learn guitar chords. And the noise would frustrate the hell out of me. I've heard about muting, been told about muting but never fully understood it until now. This is the most in depth coherent explanation I've seen to date. Your camera angles are what really helped me see how to properly mute the left, and right hand. I thank you for willingness to help others.
Happy to help, buddy! Good luck on your musical journey! I’m always interested to get some good ideas for more beginner-related stuff, so please post some other topics you’d like to see broken down on here!
@@BenEller As a beginner I'm getting mad crickets between chord changes. At this point I'm unable to get my fingers to form the different chord shapes in a timely fashion. Can you show a good practice technique to build this skill? Thanks.
@@Thaipeople196 It's a bit late now, but in case someone else is reading.. JustinGuitar has some good practice routines for switching between open chord shapes.
Also if you have a lot of distortion and amplification, regular chords may not sound great in general. Having so many strings ringing out at once can become really noisy and muddy. So people who use lots of distortion more often use power chords that limit the amount of strings that ring out at the same time (often also muting strings that aren't being played in the chord). To practice regular chords, probably want to use as clean a tone as you can.
I saw Francis Bubbletrouser live with "The Spicy Weiners" in Toronto '91
this video really helped me. Everyone who I've talked to has said "just lay your hand across the bridge." that never worked
I really like this. It’s the one thing that really separates a beginner from a pro. And beginners don’t even see it. Starting out on a small practice amp then switching to a 120 watt monster. Playing with lots of gain and volume will make bad muting sound just terrible.
Amen, and amen! Really great video. Ben does a great service to the playing community. I might as well quit teaching (lol). Ben, you can make my check payable to....Just kidding. I do actually send my students to your vids. It helps. Sometimes new guys get too nervous in person and watching actual GOOD videos takes the "in person" nerves out of the equation. Great job.
I'm gonna object cos some beginners do. :P It used to drive me crazy, right from the beginning, first not knowing how and then knowing how but unable to do it consistently/well made me avoid playing with distortion for quite some time, despite metal being the main thing I'm interested in playing.
I'm definitely still in the beginner category and I think my teacher seems to think I'm obsessed with muting in regards to my level a bit too much lol. Can't help it. It's still so easy for me to accidentally bar some strings that I don't intend to bar or not mute them while I meant to mute them and I can hear that pretty well when they ring.
This is one of my pet peeves.. "dampening" means making something wet or diminishing the impact of something (like your enthusiasm for getting a new comment being dampened by its message). The technical term for reducing oscillation in a mechanical system is "damping," like the damper (not dampener) pedal on a piano.
James Murphy well..... well damn!
What if good muting technique makes me damp?
@@bmjames yes
ben... its great to see someone serious about guitar but is still able to see the lighter side of teaching and learning. Thank you immensely!
Dude! Not only are you Hilarious!! But a great teacher! Took a while to find this video which was EXACTLY what I was looking for!!! Those camera angles were ESSENTIAL to show exactly what's going on! Something that I've always hoped I could find but until now haven't been able to! You sir have a new subscriber!! Thanks!
Only you can make muting so interesting for 19 minutes. You are awesome Ben!! (as always)
truth
Wish I knew this 15 years ago, palm muting I did subconsciously. The soft capo technique for lower strings and vibrato parts is going to be a game changer. Also a great explanation into this resonance glitch in the matrix. I honestly suck at guitar less since watching your videos, thanks and keep up the quality content. Even Kanye would would have to recognize your Gandalf level muting skills.
Excellent instruction and demonstration! I've been playing my whole life, and this is my biggest challenge. Thanks much!!
Brilliant video Ben, I've just learned quite alot, many thanks, keep up the great quality videos 👍🤘
“Im Ben Eller and my guitar collection is beyond sick.”
You tell no lies.
oh my god. I have never expected to see my playing take such a leap in quality in literally 19 and a half minutes. This is why Ben Eller is one of the best guitar TH-camrs. I had written like a riff and got frustrated too why it didn' t sound good AT ALL when I played it so I just wanted to forget about and start my daily practice found this. Applied what I had learnt from this to my riff, and it sounded 100 times better. ever since I started watching Ben Eller I've like tripled how good I am at guitar it's a great feeling.
You're so good Ben, concise, effective....this is gold!
Thanks for the tips, uncle Ben! Your videos help me a ton.
thanks Ben, now I can mute properly I no longer need to ask my step mum to sit on the headstock and mute the top strings with her sweaty steak drapes😉
I hope your dads name is Drake Stapes !
i wring out my G-string every once in a while
You're going to need to after you dampen it
Great video and sense of humour. The best string muting video I have seen and a real help. Thank you.
God bless you!
I started playing electric guitar about 6 months ago and I've faced all those issues which I didn't face in an acoustic. Over time I had to come up with workarounds and Though I did figure out some of the techniques mentioned above, it wasn't sufficient. This is awesome and MUST be in every guitar course. Thank you so much.
"Now my G-string Is ringing out, it's a real mess."
That Kanye bit cracked me up.
This has to be the most helpful guitar tip I have ever seen. As an online taught beginner I knew my playing sounded like crap and that other strings were ringing out but I didn't know why or how to stop it. THANK YOU !!!
This is the best description on how to handle this issue. THANK YOU!
"Sounds like Chewbacca takin' a shit" XD
or korn lol
Hahahahahaha made me laugh while wife trying to sleep Hahahaha
I have to play the strings that I'm not playing !? **throws guitar in air and gets beer**
Randy Gast lol!
Hands-down the most valuable electric guitar lesson I’ve ever seen on TH-cam. Complete game changer!!!
I've seen a lot of Guitar tutorials and this has been the first time I'm seeing this muting technique. Should have been the very first one I learned before learning all those scales. Thanks man!
Damn.... that's my struggle... muting 🤘🤘🤘🤘 I hear them often when I play certain notes.... other notes being hit on accident 😥😥😥😥😥🤬🤬🤬 But thank you for this upload!
After 4 years of playing and sounding like shit, within a couple of days of practicing this my playing sounds 10x tighter and cleaner, Cheers Ben!
Ben, that's the best lesson you've ever done. And it's the most important. You did a great job showing us how you do it. Thanks
Love this video man. Great job, and you’re right I’ve never seen that camera angle down the neck before to show muting. Very helpful video.
"Sounds like Chewbacca taking shit", I had to pause the video lol...
Just saw this, and almost woke up my toddler from laughing out loud!
im pretty sure guthrie uses the scrunchy for two hand tapping
Yep
You can still mute unused strings while two hand tapping.
I've also seen him pull the scrunchie on for legato
Correct, and specifically it's two-hand tapping where he's skipping strings and all that jazz. I have a feeling Guthrie would be able to mute those other strings sufficiently, but that it has more to do with him not wanting to take any chances when playing live, thus giving the audience a cleaner listening experience.
For more linear soloing, T. J. Helmerich is a great example of someone tapping with all eight fingers with a distorted sound, and not using any muting devices.
The most ive seen Guthrie use it for was for soloing with one hand
Just dropped on this video and it was really, really helpful! Thanks for taking the time to share - great.
Thank you a lot for the lesson. It clears so much of my guitar questions!!!
ben please use that device to show how to pinch harmonic
You said Metallic in your vid. I'd expect a call from Lars wanting money. : )
Or a call from an entitled piece of shit that steals other peoples property and thinks its okay. Go to a dock in alaska and steal the fisherman's fish they caught, I'm sure theyll be calling you for money too.
Or you can get all bent out of shape about people playing your tunes on Napster and be a complete ass-hat about it.. Send those coins whenever you busk a cover on a street corner.. Lets get all proprietary about it.. Send some money to all the estates of all the musicians the artists "stole" ideas from.. like notes, chords, etc, etc..
sheesh
@@johnbraucher1499 it's not really comparable. More comparable to sneaking in the cinema without paying.
I'm playing off and on over 30 yrs and this lesson was the most important change to my technique ever, fkin excellent mate makes a massive difference and it is something you just dont think of THANK YOU
Thanks a tonne @Ben Eller. This is exactly what i was looking for.
I think this is something that any guitarist learns to do naturally as they continue to practice and learn, but they never actually realize they're doing it. Just a habit you'll create as you grow.
quit telling me i suck at guitar for fuck sakes, I don't need to be reminded of it everytime i watch a tutorial, just a country boy trying to make it in the big ol' city
Thanks so much man...understanding the fact that it's not just a random misplaced finger causing the strings to ring out all the time is helpful...going to implement these techniques with a much clearer understanding now..yes!! Left hand-strings above..right index- strings below...left hand can get a lil funky and do above and below during vibrato ...awesome..I'm sure you have a video on it but I'd like to improve my up and down picking speed as well.
This is the video i have been looking for YEARS! THANK YOU!
"dudes" "guys" ....well hello there from one of your female subscribers lol great lesson btw :)
You remind me of an educational Steve terreberry, I love it!
Yea, without being so cringe-y that it's actually painful, and having to scroll down to the comments section to avoid actually seeing the video if you wanna know what it's about :p
Except not annoying af
Thanks dude. This is the best palm muting video I have watched on youtube (and I am sucking at it and was looking for ~ 1 year) + showing from different angle was extremely helpful as well.
OK, I don't know what the magna-cam was, but Ben sure used it well in this video to get in close, both right and left hands. Well done!
This is the best video I've seen on this! Thank you!!!
OMG I WAS ALWAYS SAYING TO MYSELF "I DIDN'T HIT THAT E STRING WHY IS IT PLAYING WTF" I LOVE YOU BEN
Kanye West, a man who has stretched way beyond his capabilities
a TRUE imbecile
Ben Eller David Bowie (probably did some mind bending drugs in the 60s), Prince (got his painkillers messed up), Lemmy(going crazy with the amphetamines), yet stick Kanye West in a room full of carcinogens and yet he walks out ready to party . No justice
This aged way better than it should have
Awesome work! Love it.
This is by far the best tutorial on the subject. Thank you so much
You’re a god (edit) - not because you can mute but because you can understand our problems
Stop calling men gods. There is ONE GOD, and it's The God of Israel.
Dampening is sprinkling water on it, Ben. When we prevent certain strings from producing sound, that is called "damping". Same with shock absorbers and cueing levers: damping, not dampening. You don't call it nuke-ya-ler power, do you?
Along with making wet, Dampening can also mean dull or deaden. Simple definition.
In danish damping is _dæmpe_ and dampening is _fugte._ You don't wanna _fugte_ your guitar, now do you?
Uncle Ben gives the most useful and on-point lessons I’ve ever seen on youtube
Cheers!
awesome lesson..great teaching and loved the camera angle as it really helped shed light on the pick hand position and that final muting technique was the cherry on top..I've never heard about that and can see the benefits.
best way to learn muting with your palm is to have a step sister like mine( if you know what i mean)
why your bends suck?
Thank you ben, for everything in all your videos.
Man, you are a legend. I appreciate all that you do for us and I really think that you should be more popular. You deserve waaay more attention. Keep up the good work!
Your advice is a breakthrough for me, big thanks Ben!
Great video, love your teaching style. I’ll be referencing this as I start working on my soloing. Thanks
Thankyou for the really genuine and brilliant post. This I will consider, a honest lesson coming from generous heart. Thankyou so much. God bless. 🙏
Been trying to get better at muting for a while. You're a big help. Thanks so much!!