Left Hand Noise

Watching Tosin doing his selective picking etudes

Or Steve Vai do this LH only freakshow

Really makes me wonder why there isn’t more focus on the left hand on this channel. I think when Troy points out that M.A.B. doesn’t even need his string damper when using non muted picking technique, there should be some investigation. Maybe they could film players’ left hands?

Having said that, what do you guys work on for clean left hand playing? I incorporate all the RH and LH muting guidelines. The only thing I don’t really do consistenly is muting both sides of the string. I do this consciously for muting notes in chords, octaves, and power chords. But for my lead playing, I actually find that muting both sides of the string causes more inadvertent string noise. Like if I’m on the A string, muting both sides of the string, and I lift a finger, it creates the possibility of having A, D, AND E ring out.

My muting technique with both hands is adequate. But right now, I am not able to play with just my left hand without getting copious amounts of noise, even on clean.