fret hand muting or palm muting

i've been asking around forums as to how to get rid of unwanted string noises when i lift my finger off the string. there's been mainly 2 suggestions, fret hand muting and light palm muting. i've been told by some people to mute unused strings with my fret hand. on the other hand, i've also been told to float my palm lightly over the strings near the edge of the bridge to cut unwanted noise. so which method should i use to cut noise? also, i've noticed that my single note lines sometimes sound very sloppy because the notes seem to overlap each other and after a while it sounds like they're all ringing together. how do you get a tight concentrated sound when playing? will fret hand muting or palm muting help me to achieve a tighter more concentrated sound?

Actually, you have to learn how to mute with both hands, using palm muting and individual fingers to stop the noise depending on what you're playing.

You definetely need to incorporate both types of muting to get a nice clean playing style. One thing that helped me a lot was using my fret hand first finger to mute the strings above and below the one I'm playing. Its a little hard to explain. basically you fret the note the same way just kinda extend your first finger a little higher so it's touching the string above it and gently resting on the string below it thus muting them both. For the strings ur not playing you can use your picking hand to mute those out. So if you were playing on the 2nd string...your 1st and 3rd string would be muted by your 1st finger...or other finger depending on the lick...and the top 3 strings would be muted by your fret hand.

Hope that helps a little.

A couple of suggestions...

1. You can mute the low strings with your thumb on the fretting hand.
2. If your playing a fretted note, lets say the 5th fret 2nd string, then you can just lift the finger fretting to stop the ring after its time is up. If that doesn’t work then instead of entirely lifting it then just lift it enough to take of the pressure and that will completely mute it.
3. Or if your playing finger style you can just rest the finger on the string ringing after its time is up.
4. It might also be helpful to use your index finger on your fretting hand as a mute. Just place it over all the strings being played lightly and use the other finger for the notes you want to ring.

These techniques help me out along with many others but trying to explain them would probably be a disaster.

Originally Posted by: InfectiousYou definetely need to incorporate both types of muting to get a nice clean playing style. One thing that helped me a lot was using my fret hand first finger to mute the strings above and below the one I'm playing. Its a little hard to explain. basically you fret the note the same way just kinda extend your first finger a little higher so it's touching the string above it and gently resting on the string below it thus muting them both. For the strings ur not playing you can use your picking hand to mute those out. So if you were playing on the 2nd string...your 1st and 3rd string would be muted by your 1st finger...or other finger depending on the lick...and the top 3 strings would be muted by your fret hand.

Hope that helps a little.

I was just checking out the forum, and found ur tips really really cool, right on man ;)