Originally Posted by: Blakeney8

I have reached a huge stumblng block. I have been following Ander's rythm tutorial.[/quote]

Exactly what lesson is this? In which course?

[quote=Blakeney8]He has a lesson where you mute several strums of a chord while you are playing the chord. Unless I lay my hand directly down on all the strings, the high strings especially don't mute. When I do this, I am not quick enough to get out of the mute postion straight away to the next chord. Any exercises or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Muting can be tricky to get used to! Sometimes you can just hold a chord shape but release just enough pressure with your fingers to stop the strings from ringing while keeping contact with the string. This approach makes it easier to get back to the chord shape because you only have to reapply pressure.

But sometimes you have to mute more strings or more to another chord shape. In that case you are aiming for the minimal motion required to mute the strings but get to the next chord shape. It might take a little experimenting to find the smallest amount of motion required to mute.

The only thing that will help here is repetitious practice. You have to do the motion over & again until it's second nature. You can practice smarter by focusing on the problem area.

Strum the chord once, then mute using minimal motion. Repeat. Don't do anything else. Don't strum in time, add more strums or chords. Just focus on the exact thing that you are having trouble with.

I have a standalone tutorial focused completely on muting issues. The first couple lesson in the tutorial are aimed at beginner level muting. Those might help you.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=2281

Hope that helps!