Muting Spotlight — Pick One, Kill the Rest
A 3-note motif (G → A → B on the G string) played clean once as a reference, then repeated four times — each time with a different single note ringing out and the other two killed as dead (X) muted hits. The exercise sounds deceptively simple but demands precise, deliberate muting control: you must strike dead notes with full confidence while surgically letting only the target note sustain.
Tablature
First few measures of the exercise.
How to Practice
- 1Measure 1 (reference): G(0) → A(2) → B(4) → rest. All three notes fully ringing, clean tone. This is what the motif sounds like when nothing is muted. Listen carefully.
- 2Measure 2 (spotlight: B): X → X → B(4) → rest. Kill the first two notes stone dead — left hand lays flat on the strings immediately after striking. Only B rings out.
- 3Measure 3 (spotlight: A): X → A(2) → X → rest. A rings, G and B are dead. The second X requires your fretting hand to mute right after picking A.
- 4Measure 4 (spotlight: G): G(0) → X → X → rest. G is open — you mute it with your picking hand palm the moment you hit the next dead X.
- 5Measure 5 (spotlight: G + B): G(0) → X → B(4) → rest. Now two notes ring, one is killed. The gap creates a rhythmic and melodic effect.
- 6Measure 6 (resolve): G(0) → A(2) → B(4) → rest. Full clean motif again. After all the muting, this should feel and sound like a release.
Tips & Techniques
- •Dead notes (X) must sound like a confident percussive thud — not a weak, accidental buzz. Hit them with the same pick attack as the ringing notes.
- •Two ways to kill a note: (1) left hand — flatten a fretting finger across the string immediately after the note sounds; (2) right hand — palm mute by touching the string edge with your picking-hand palm.
- •The hardest kill is the open G in M4. You can't use your left hand (it's fretted ahead), so use your picking-hand palm to stop it dead the instant you move to the next note.
- •Do not slow down before a dead note. The tempo is the same for X as it is for a ringing note. Same attack, same timing — only the sustain is different.
- •Start very slow (50 BPM). The transitions between dead and alive need to be intentional, not accidental.
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