newcarcaviar

For the past 3 months or so I've been teaching myself the ol' six-string. For the most part it's coming along pretty well. I can definitely see myself improving. But I've come across one thing every so often that just baffles me.

Sorry to ask this here, but I don't even know how I would Google search something like this.

E:----0-0-0-0-0---0---0-0-----------0---:
B:----7-7-7-7-7---5---3-1-----------0---:
G:----0-0-0-0-0---0---0-0-----------0---:
D:----x-x-x-x-x---x---x-x-----------2---:
A:----9-9-9-9-9---7---5-3-----------2---:
E:--0---------------------2-2-2-3-2-0---:

That's a riff that my friend wanted me to learn for her. And that D string confuses the hell out of me! See, obviously you're strumming when you're playing guitar, so how would you hit the A and G strings but not hit the D string? You're not fretting anything on it, but you also can't leave it open. Do you just sort of put a finger on it but don't press it down onto the fretboard or something?

Because I've tried that and it's mighty hard to do. I think of it like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. It's hard to focus on fretting the A and B strings and only holding the D string so it doesn't twang. If this is really how it's done, I sure hope it gets easier! Riffs aren't really my thing yet. I'm still learning chords.

Thanks, guys!

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Maximus

Yeah, you have to mute it, that to me is a pretty hard thing to do, but is possible. Practice, practice, practice.

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ganja-man

Yes. It takes some practice to do it right but once you get the hang of it, it's just one of those things you do without having to think about. I play a lot of things where I need to mute one or two strings while leaving others open, I just need to lean my finger back enough to touch the string and stop it from ringing but not enough that it touches the frets.

I hope that helps. Good luck man, learning can be a bit of a pain sometimes but it's definitely worth it.

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jdogg2112

Sometimes you can cheat by figuring out what fret that string would be if it were not muted and just play that.

For the sake of accuracy, though, learn how to mute it. Patting your head and rubbing your stomach is one of those things that just takes practice to get right

greenmonster2420

you would mute it with the finger that is fretting on the A string. Keeping the A string held down, lean back the finger that's holding it down (probably your ring finger for that riff) so that it mutes the d string

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