Muting and Posture Critique

[CalvinScarified]

Hello Troy, Brendan, Adam, and fellow CtC viewers,

Here is my video:

In the video, I play descending sixes at 110 bpm, 6 notes to the click. I also play the circular scale chunk at 110 bpm, 5 notes to the click. You will see a straight on camera view and a camera view using the DIY magnet. I ask my questions in the video after playing the licks. My questions are also included in this post in text form.

Picking Hand Muting
When I DWPS, I use the bottom part of my hand to mute unwanted strings. When I UWPS, I use the bottom part of my hand and my thumb to mute unwanted strings. I don’t use the pinky side of my palm to mute strings, which is what I would think of as the most common way to mute string noise. I believe this is how Gilbert and Malmsteen mute string noise. Do you guys think I need to switch to the more common way of muting, or is it okay for me to keep using my own style of muting?

General Posture
Even though I don’t mute with the pinky side of the palm, my guitar is still “up and out”. This helps with my fretting hand, but it also seems to help with my picking hand and muting technique. Having my guitar up and out seems to help with my approach angle and my edge picking. My hand seems to rest on the strings just right to mute out the strings I don’t want to ring. Finally, I have my right leg propped up on a footstool at the lowest setting. Does my general posture look okay? Does anything in my general posture look like it needs adjustments. Note that in my performance of the licks my posture may not have been exactly the way I imagined it because those licks are hard to play at those tempos.

Happy Picking!
Calvin

[Troy]

Hi! Sorry for the delay, we had an in-house interview and have been running around a little crazy.

Good playing here!

I don’t use the pinky side of my palm to mute strings, which is what I would think of as the most common way to mute string noise. I believe this is how Gilbert and Malmsteen mute string noise. Do you guys think I need to switch to the more common way of muting, or is it okay for me to keep using my own style of muting?

Muting contact points can vary based on all sorts of factors. Andy Wood appears to do something similar to what your’e describing. I pulled out this clip when we edited his first interview, precisely so we could get a closeup look at his contact points:

https://troygrady.com/interviews/andy-wood/clips-guitar/rhythm-metal-mutes/

But what really matter here is not what other players do - what matters is whether or not it’s working. In other words, are you getting the muting results you’re looking for? If so, no need to change anything!

Finally, I have my right leg propped up on a footstool at the lowest setting. Does my general posture look okay? Does anything in my general posture look like it needs adjustments.

Same answer. Is it working? Then don’t change it. I don’t use a stool so I can’t comment specifically on whether it’s helpful or not. I’m sure others can.

In general your wrist movement looks fine to me for straight uwps playing. We have lots of players on here that have struggled to do precisely what you’re doing, or who haven’t been able to get uwps working for one reason or another.

One comment I’d make is that the ascending side of the circular 2wps lick is a little jumpy. You can probably feel that on certain repetitions, when you transition back to the higher string, you may come crashing down a little more forcefully than you’d like. This is happening because you’re lifting the hand rather than simply turning the arm. Sometimes this kind of thing can happen when players “try” so deliberately to make pickslanting movements, that they end up making a whole different movement as a result.

One thing that works for me is forgetting about the movements entirely, or even actively trying not to make them. This might sound counterintuitive, but the key here is that the movements already have to be memorized. If that’s the case, then you might not easily be able to turn them off, even if you try. Instead, by ignoring them, you simply end up making them more smoothly. To put this another way, once chunking memorization has kicked in, there’s no longer any need to think about the movements, and doing so might only make them worse.

Another comment is the pick attack sounds a little aggressive. Are you using very light strings and digging in? Sometimes this can make it harder to make movements smoothly. Also, using too little edge picking can produce this result. Maybe try a lighter touch, more edge picking, or heavier strings, and see if things sound a little less “plucky”. What you’re looking for is moderate effort. If you have to put too much muscle into the movements, they can feel awakward, and that makes them harder to learn.

So basically this is all about smoothness. You have the one-way uwps movement already and it looks good - that’s no small task. You’re working on smoothing out the 2wps movement so it doesn’t look and sound exaggerated. You can “try a little less hard”, that could be the ticket.

Again, good work here!

[CalvinScarified]

@Troy

Thank you so much for responding to my post and answering my questions about muting and posture!

Are you using very light strings and digging in? Sometimes this can make it harder to make movements smoothly. Also, using too little edge picking can produce this result.

Yup I am using 9-42 strings and I think I’m digging in with not enough edge picking. Also I used a thin orange tortex pick in these clips. I used the red jazz III for a while but I was also getting too aggressive of an attack. I will make sure to try using some more edge picking and dig in less when I practice.

Thanks again for watching my video and giving me feedback!

[Troy]

I used the red jazz III for a while but I was also getting too aggressive of an attack.

Maybe, but sometimes using a heavier pick can subconsciously cue you to use a less aggressive grip, or to use less of it on the strings. I’d try more edge picking and a slightly lighter grip first, then maybe a heavier pick, then maybe 10s if that doesn’t work. Playing delicately on light strings is hard, the pick just mashes right into them.

[Hanky_Pooh]

Calvin, I mute with the flat part of my wrist. I think Neutral and UWPS setups do this.

[CalvinScarified]

@Troy

I tried experimenting with different amounts of edge picking today. So far, I still like the amount of edge picking I used in my video for UWPS. It’s probably less than what most players would use but for some reason, when I UWPS, it just feels right. I do think I might need to dig in less and maybe be less forceful with my pick strokes.

DWPS might be a different story. In my clips, it looks like the pick bends a lot while I was DWPS, or when I was attempting to DWPS. In the clips, I was intentionally backing off on the edge picking for DWPS. I still think, even after my experiments with edge picking today, that I need to use less edge picking while DWPS. I think I was just getting a bit carried away with how much I backed off my edge picking when I changed my pickslant. I tried keeping a constant edge picking today for TWPS and it felt awkward.

In regards to picks and strings, for picks, I am going back to the drawing board! I tried the red jazz III again today and it works well, but it’s still not my favorite pick of all time. The orange tortex also seems to work, but likewise, maybe it’s not my number one choice for picks. For strings, I am strongly thinking of trying 10s here very soon.

@Hanky_Pooh

Thank you for the feedback! It’s cool that you mute with the flat part of your wrist. Yeah that makes sense that a neutral or UWPS setup would work with this muting surface. Thank you for sharing what you know about classical position. I don’t know much of anything about classical position.

[Acecrusher]

There is no need to pick that hard and it makes playing harder. Try using just the tip of the pick instead of using so much of the pick on the strings.

[Hanky_Pooh]

This is a good point Ace but I think one should be able to pick that hard consistently if they want. I play hard as a MF for dynamics and tone. This is why I don’t need to carry a rack full of compressors with me anytime I want to play somewhere. lol.

It is important being able to control how hard you’re playing though. So like Ace says @CalvinScarified make sure you can play lightly as well if you want. It’s music. Dynamic control is expression.

On the muting topic Calvin if you notice at 3:36 your resting to that pinky side of hand mute also. We have close to the same muting approach. I rock to the picky side, and the thumb side occasionally. But flat part of palm is home base for me.

As far as the footstool goes, do you always want to be dependent on a footstool? Do you want to not be able to play if you go to Guitar Center or happened to be somewhere without your footstool? If you absolutely have to have the footstool keep your footstool… I knew a guy that put one beside his monitor on stage. lol.

My Approach is just playing normally on the right leg. If I am practicing for a live show or live material, I’ll either stand with the strap, or put the guitar between my legs classical style without a footstool. This feels similar to standing position to me.

[Acecrusher]

This is a good point Ace but I think one should be able to pick that hard consistently if they want. I play hard as a MF for dynamics and tone. This is why I don’t need to carry a rack full of compressors with me anytime I want to play somewhere. lol.

It is important being able to control how hard you’re playing though. So like Ace says @CalvinScarified make sure you can play lightly as well if you want. It’s music. Dynamic control is expression.

Thanks Hank! Also you’re right about dynamic range being an important part of music, although the super high gain amps of today have so much compression from the ultra high gain alone that you don’t get as much of a difference in volume from going from soft picking to hard picking in a modern high gain amp as you would in a 1970s or 1980s Marshall.

I believe picking hard, while a valid thing to have in your arsenal, is something that should be avoided when you’re trying to learn how to play a lick up to speed, if it’s a high speed lick. Start introducing the hard picking to your practice sessions after you’ve already gotten very good at playing the lick with a light to moderate attack.

[Hanky_Pooh]

Agreed

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