Muting notes while sweep picking.

[Jake Arnold]

Hey everyone! I have been doing the sweep lessons for about 2 months now and am starting to pick up some decent speed on lesson 4.
My only problem is that when I switch to my electric guitar I am having a little bit of trouble muting the notes so that they don’t blend together when cruising or so when I release the string it doesn’t ring out.
My question is, when muting sweeps do you use a palm mute style to mute or do you use the back of your thumb?
Palm muting isn’t too hard but I do have to practice sweeping differently and it makes it harder for me to add tapped notes to the sweeps.
I started using my thumb to mute behind my pick but I don’t want to screw myself in the long run by playing weird.
Thank you!

 

[Jake Arnold]

By thumb I mean more like the thumb side of your palm rather than pinky side.

 

[Ed Seith]

Muting as a technique is a constant thing, especially with high gain things. I try to use a combination of right hand (fleshy part, like palm muting) on the strings thicker than the one I need to ring, and a mixture of right hand pinky and left hand “lay-overs” on the strings thinner than the one I need to ring. Learn to move them with each string switch. You also need to ensure only the note you’re playing is fretted, which can be especially difficult if the sweep has a barre in it.
I’m not especially good at sweeps (patience issue), but I was thinking about doing a quick lesson on the art of constant muting. I’ll try to get to that in the next week or so.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I feel your pain Ed I dont have the patience to really learn sweeping yet. Altho It’s getting a bit better.

 

[idssdi]

I kinda use my fleshy part for muting and my palm as well. Another thing that is really important is kinda only play the next note after you lift off slightly(so the note is chimed) before you play the next note

 

[D K]

What Ed said. Both hands are used for muting, picking hand for the lower (lower in pitch) strings and fretting hand for the higher strings. As to which part of your hand you use, I think this is largely personal preference, so you need to experiment and figure out on your own what works best for you.
Personally, I’m not entirely sure how I mute with my right hand, I think it’s more of a combination of thumb and fleshy part with more of a preference toward the fleshy part.

 

[Guest]

Depends on the shape for me. 9 times out of 10 I’ll use my palm, but if a roll is involved I must use my fretting fingers to cut the note.

 

[Jake Arnold]

Thank you guys! I appreciate the help! You’re all awesome.