How to mute the strings when pulling up. Rattling strings: causes and solutions to the problem

Friends, I have finally found one chord with which you can play all the songs. But seriously, today we will talk about the Powerchord or fifth chord. And it is designated as follows: G5.

Powerchord replaces any chord in rock songs or any other.

It is so universal because it lacks a third, that is, a third step.

Accordingly, it has only two notes: the tonic and the fifth degree. And it’s the third that gives the chord its character: it makes it major or minor. Since the Powerchord does not have a third, it sounds neutral and can replace any chord. Real rockers love it, as it sounds as strong and powerful as possible even at the highest overload on an electric guitar.

There are several options to take Powerchord:

E5 - on the second fret we pinch the fifth and fourth strings, and the sixth is open.

A5 - start with the fifth string, clamp the fourth and third on the second fret.

D5 - we clamp the third string on the second fret, and the second string on the third fret, the fourth string is open.

To use Powerchord in songs, you need to learn the placement of notes on the sixth and fifth strings of the guitar. The root of the Powerchord is where the first finger is.

Powerchord works great if you have the same chords in the chorus and verse, but want them to sound different.

Try, find new chords, experiment.

Muting the strings is one of the most important techniques used to play the guitar. If you want to achieve a pure sound, get rid of unnecessary interference and noise that arises when extracting sounds, then you need to learn how to properly mute the strings.

Notation on tablature

On tablature, palm jamming is designated “R.” M. "or "RM", dotted or dashed line - duration of jamming. If the heights of muted notes can be distinguished, fret numbers are written, otherwise the symbol “X” is placed. If this symbol is present, but there is no indication of palm muting, then it is necessary to mute this string with the hand holding the frets. To muffle extraneous sounds on an electric guitar, we recommend using a volume knob or pedal. During large pauses of more than 8-10 seconds, this method will help to avoid extraneous noise.

Muting the guitar strings with the right hand

Palm muting is a technique for muting strings during sound production with the edge of the palm of the right hand, which allows you to reduce the amount of extraneous noise in the performed parts. This technique is also used in short pauses to avoid feedback. Palm muting is used on both classical and electric guitars. This technique is very often used by guitarists in any genre that uses an overdrive effect on an electric guitar.

Muting the strings on an electric guitar produces a warm, dull timbre similar to the sound of a double bass.

When playing high notes in passages, you can reliably mute the strings by placing your thumb or the edge of your palm on them. When changing the position of the left hand, the strings must be muted completely with the right hand at the bridge. To do this, lean the edge of your palm against the strings with palm mute, covering a large area. Move your fingers at the same time and try not to touch the strings with your left hand fingers when changing positions.

How to mute strings with your palm

What matters first is the amount of palm pressure applied. The stronger it is, the stronger the jamming, the effect appears, percussion, the notes are less recognizable. With low pressure during contact, a slight dampening is created.

The most common method is to mute the strings with the edge at the bridge. The further the hand is from the bridge, the harsher the jamming. However, this method of playing the guitar also has disadvantages:

• To mute the strings, it is necessary to make unnecessary movements, which is an obstacle for some techniques;
• The guitarist's hands often sweat while playing, as a result of which the sweat accelerates the corrosion of the metal bridge;
• Also, pressure on the bridge can sometimes affect the guitar's tuning.

Muting the strings with the left hand

Muting the strings with the left hand seems quite difficult at first. You can try this technique on the E5 chord: pinch the fifth and fourth strings at the second fret with your index finger. Since we don't need to barre, we pinch the strings with only the first knuckle of the finger, the other fingers come into contact with the strings and mute the unused strings.

Dumping

A guitarist must be able to not only mute the strings correctly, but also control the duration of notes. This jamming technique is called “dumping” (from the English damp - jamming), designated “D”. This technique is very important when playing because the fingers of the left hand do not control the duration of the notes. Damping is also necessary when the next note needs to be played in a different position, which requires moving the slide. If you see a “D” sign, then the sounded string should be muted.

Power chords with muted strings

(power chords) – chords consisting of the root and fifth tones of the same scale. For example, the A power chord is written as A5, and the C power chord is written as C5, and so on. Power chords are played on an electric guitar with an overdriven sound.

Since there are strings that should not sound, it is necessary to use the muting technique. For example, in the above tablature of the A5 chord, the first, second and sixth strings should not sound. Also, during a simple fight, the technique of muting the strings is used. First, the fingers clenched into a fist straighten and strike a chord, and then the palm muffles its sound.

String muting technique exercise

We offer you a series of exercises to develop the palm muting technique. Perform them slowly, pay attention to the positioning of your hands, since muting the strings on a guitar is one of the most important fundamentals of guitar playing.

Exercise 1. Play downstroke.

Exercise 2. Play with alternating strokes.

Exercise 3. The first two notes are downstroke, the third is upstroke.

Exercise 4. The main thing here is the correct playing technique.

Exercise 5.

Exercise 6.

Exercise 7.

Exercise 8. Try to arrange the strokes yourself.

Exercise 9. Play all notes downstroke.

. Translation by Arsen Shomakhov.

Almost every guitarist I've met rave about the sound of the slide. However, for many musicians the technique characteristic of this unique style remains a mystery. The following rules and exercises are extremely important in order to learn how to play the slide cleanly, accurately and quickly. They will allow you to avoid ineffective trial and error.

Short of bending, there is no other way to produce notes "between" frets. There is no other way to achieve the sing-song, voice-like sound and sustain of a slide. Sound is very closely related to the type of slide you are using.

Pictured (from left to right): thick brass store slide, medicine bottle (Duane Allman had the same one but longer), chrome plated spark plug socket, store glass slide, handmade green glass bottleneck, metal store slide .

Although slides are sold in stores, I prefer slides made from the neck of a wine bottle (at least 1/8-inch thick) because the weight is good for vibrato and the surface is very smooth, making the strings much less noisy). Although different players use different fingers of the left hand to play the slide, I would recommend using the little finger. This will allow you to use your free 3 fingers for fret playing and to dampen unwanted string noise (more on this topic later). A bottle of Mateus wine makes the best slides. Matheus is not the finest wine in existence, but its bottle has a rare long neck that is straight enough (without flaring) to be used for playing a guitar. There are glass slides on sale that can be used, but they are not heavy enough and therefore more difficult to play (the heavier the slide, the better the sound and the easier it is to control the game).

The hardest part of making a good glass slide is cutting the neck - sometimes you just have to chip it off. A glass cutter or hacksaw can be used to make a groove before breaking off the neck, and then trim the rough edges with needle nose pliers. (Caution: When breaking glass, be sure to protect your eyes from small fragments with safety glasses.)

Once the neck is separated from the bottle (good luck - prepare to ruin a few bottles), the chipped area needs to be sanded smooth. Since this process can take several hours, you may be able to drink some wine. A sharpening wheel and a bath of water work best for final polishing, but remember to use a bath of water to reduce friction and protect against splinters. It is very important to make the edge (the one that was chipped) round and smooth.

When you have finished making the bottleneck, try it on your finger. (I prefer a slide that is long enough to completely cover my pinky finger). The bottleneck will sit loosely on your finger, so you will have to hold it with your little finger curved, which will help give your hand the correct semi-circular position for muting the strings with the fingers of your left hand. (Fig.1)

About 80% of bottleneck playing occurs on the first string, so let's start there. Keep your hand in a semi-circular position and place the slide on the 5th fret of the first string. (Remember, to play out of tune, you must place the slide directly above the frets; if you think about how notes are played on a guitar, you will realize that it is the frets, not the fingers, that determine the length of the string and the pitch of the sound.) Once you have determined where the desired note, touch the slide to the string. Don't press! At the same time, allow the bottom of your left index finger to lightly touch the string behind the slide. This muffles the strings and cuts out extraneous noise, allowing you to achieve a clear, tinny-free sound.

Fig.1. Left hand position. View from above.
Fig.2. Cross-sectional view of the neck.

The first thing to do when you install the slide over the 5th fret is to slowly slide it up and down the string. Listen to the sound that is produced and try to maximize the smoothness and sound by slightly changing the position of your hand. It is very important that the hand with the slide is absolutely relaxed! Also, notice how playing with your right hand affects the sound depending on how close or far from the saddle you play. Once you feel comfortable playing slowly down and up the string, you can move on to simple exercises.

Since all of the following material only affects the first string, it applies to any guitar tuning. In addition to the above, I recommend using an instrument with medium-height top strings and a string height of at least 1/8" above the 12th fret. Otherwise, you will suffer from extraneous sounds, missing notes, and poor signal-to-noise ratio. Here are some common guitar tunings to experiment with: For electric guitar, I recommend A tuning (E A E A C# E, low to high) and E tuning (E B E G# B E, low to high); since these keys are very often used in rock and blues. For acoustic playing, I recommend the G tuning (D G D G B D, from low to high) and the D tuning (D A D F# A D, from low to high). I myself use a lower action because string tension above standard puts unwanted pressure on the body and neck of the instrument. Because the G tuning is so widely used and allows you to play licks associated with country blues, this tuning is best suited for acoustic playing.

From sounds to music. When playing slide, sound and timbre are most important; phrasing is the next stage. The following exercises are designed to develop good sound production and playing without falsehood. Although only the first (D) string is used, perfect control can be achieved by playing this exercise repeatedly on the other five strings.

At a medium tempo, play very short clean notes from the 1st to the 12th fret and back. Mute the strings with your left index finger as you raise and lower the slide over each fret. The goal is to prevent extraneous noise by raising and lowering the bottleneck.

Alternating staccato/open string playing. Play the same short clean notes as in the previous example, but this time lift the slide and mute finger to play the open first string between those notes. Here it is important to carefully lift and return the hand (slide and muffling finger) to its original place, keeping it in the same semicircle shape. Make sure you play the notes correctly, trying not to make any extraneous noise.

Alternating staccato/open string playing

Playing with gamma slide. Here you must try to play cleanly, accurately and intelligently. Slide the slide from a given place to each note, and accurately play the next sound. While it is helpful to follow your left hand with your eyes, once you are comfortable with the technique, playing without looking will help you listen more intently. The exercise needs to be made more difficult by playing a slide for each note.

Playing gamma slide

Playing a note and sliding. Here you need to start with the G note on the fifth fret and slide to the next note. Keep track of the durations. This exercise is also very useful for developing the ability to play in rhythm, without falsehood and accurately.

Playing a note and sliding

Long jumps. By consistently playing the notes of a G7 chord on the first string, you learn to cover significant distances with your left hand. This is difficult to play cleanly, and must be practiced in two ways: playing staccato and sliding to each note. The more you practice, the more prepared you will be for different situations in the game.

Long jumps.

Vibrato makes the slide sing. Vibrato is a quavering, sustained singing sound characteristic of slide playing. It's best to start learning this important technique on the first string. Vibrato is achieved by quickly moving the slide left and right from the desired note. However, in practice this happens unconsciously. Your hand and slide should hang down under their own weight, resting on the thumb of your left hand, pressed against the bar. It creates support for movement left and right. The best way to describe vibrato is to compare it to teasing someone by dangling a bowl of jelly in front of their nose. The hand with the slide should move very gently, slowly, relaxed, without putting excessive pressure on the string. It will take some time to get the hang of this technique, so be patient.

Vibrato Range: More than half a fret down from the root note. If you make it rise from the main note, it will not sound right. The vibrato speed varies, but should be slow enough to allow relaxed playing. If your hand muscles are tight, your playing will sound just as tight. It takes time to learn how to play an even, relaxed vibrato, but without knowing how to play this technique, you might as well just play with the fingers of your left hand.

Rice. 3: Same view as in Fig.2. Playing on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings
Fig.4: Same view as Fig.2. Playing on the “inner” string (in this case, the 3rd).

The chords for the basic I IV V blues pattern can easily be played in an open G tuning (just like A, just a tone lower) by covering three (or more) strings with a slide at the same time. For example, the first three open strings, as well as the three strings at the twelfth fret, produce a G chord (the tonic or 1st degree chord). The first string is the fifth degree of the G chord, the second string is the third degree, and the third string is the tonic. At the 5th fret, the same three strings produce a C major chord (IV), and a PE chord can be played at the 7th fret (V). You can also add a fourth string (the fifth chord degree) and a fifth string (the root note). There are literally thousands of blues songs that are just I IV V chords.

To play individual notes on other strings, you need to change the angle of the bottleneck (while continuing to mute the strings). In Fig. 1, 2 and 3 you can see three angles allowing you to play only the first string, several strings at the same time (up to six), and a separate “inner” string, respectively. Muting the strings while combining all these positions is not an easy task, but it is still doable. When playing slide on multiple strings, use the full length of your index finger to mute the strings. When playing on one inner string, use the tip of your index finger to mute.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn the fingerboard well in order to play well in different tunings. And don't forget that you can use the index, middle and ring fingers of your left hand for fret playing. There are many unique chord voicing combinations that can only be achieved in these tunings that are worth exploring. I think the most interesting slide playing in open tunings comes from country blues guitarists like Robert Johnson, who used fingerpicking and slide alike. In addition, you should listen to such great bottleneck guitarists as Muddy Waters, Tampa Red, Son House, Lowell George, Duane Allman, Beau Wevil Jackson, Kokomo Arnold and Bukka White. If you listen until the sounds come out of your ears, it will be much easier to produce these sounds with your hands.

To summarize, let me reiterate my thoughts on slide playing: choose the right hand position and play as relaxed as possible. Play primarily on the first string for a week or so, trying to achieve a fat, soft, twang-free sound without the slide hitting the neck and frets. Allow your hand to hang freely under its own weight, resting on your thumb on the back of the fingerboard and producing vibrato with your hand and slide. Don't force your hand to move back and forth, just wiggle it slightly, like jelly on a plate. Try playing each note from different angles. Learn to slide down and up to a specific note, achieving different shades of sound. Play with a relaxed hand and do not forget: to play without false notes, you need to play notes above the frets. Don't think you can master this style in a day - there are no shortcuts. Play and listen until playing the slide feels as natural as singing in the bathroom.

Bob Brozman - www.bobbrozman.com
Translation by Arsen Shomakhov.

Slide Guitar Basics: Developing a Clean Technique. - original article.
Bob Brozman 1984, 2004
The material is published on the websites Blues.Ru, BluesGuitar.Ru with the kind permission of Bob Brozman. The use of materials without the consent of Brozman is prohibited.

Pay attention to the fingering of the right hand. The thumb here should play two notes in one sliding motion. When these notes are not on adjacent strings, the thumb can play without support. If two notes are on adjacent strings, then naturally the thumb should play with support.

Analysis by bars

1st and 2nd measures

There is immediately a temptation to play the entire C chord and no longer think about where to place your fingers. At the beginning of the piece, this is permissible; if we play only the first chord, nothing bad will happen, because there are no transitions, and we are not limited by time, we can calmly put out all our fingers.

But our task is to develop the right habit, to teach the hand to “walk” along the fingerboard, so from the very beginning we point out our fingers as we move forward. First we place the third finger on the bass C. Play the first double note. After that, we put the second finger on E and immediately play. And after a note we put the last C. Thus, we installed the C chord in three stages. All the strings that were previously pressed do not release, this is an important point. We do not move from finger to finger, releasing the previous notes, but add new ones to the already pressed notes.

The next time you repeat the chord, there is no need to reinstall the fingers; they should remain in their places. There is no point in reinstalling them. I emphasize this because some students try to reset their fingers when repeating a chord.

Naturally, after we have placed all the fingers, they need to be held throughout the entire measure, until the very end.

When moving to the second measure, all fingers must be removed, because neither the E note nor the Do note is part of the next G chord. Between the C and G chords there is only one common note - Sol. That is, an open third string. Which will sound anyway if it is not accidentally drowned out, which should not be done.

Pay attention to the junction of the first and second measures. A common mistake beginners make is cutting off the last notes in a bar when changing position. The last note Do must be held and listened to until the last, it should smoothly transition into Sol. The sound should not be interrupted for a moment.

3rd and 4th bars

In the third bar, there are two open strings on the first eighth of the bar. There is no need to press anything. We just play two open strings. By this point, all the notes from the previous measure should have already been removed, since there are no common notes between the G and Am chords.

After the two open strings are played, you can put the second finger on E, play, then the third finger on A, play, and finally the first finger on Do. By the fourth eighth bar we will have completed the chord setting. And not before! We hold all pressed notes until the end of the bar.

When transitioning between bars 3 and 4, the E note on the fourth string, pressed with the second finger, should not be removed. It is part of the next chord Em. It turns out that E needs to be held on the fourth string for three measures. Why three? Yes, because the note E is also part of the C chord, which is played next after Em when repeating the exercise.