Problem with strings still ringing after being played

[Troyboi]

Hi guys, so Im trying to learn how to play the opening Riff to Sweet Child of mine on electric guitar. Ive been practicing it all week everynight whist sitting on the couch watching Tv just to learn the seqeunce of notes and commit it to memory.
However when I connect up to the amp I notice that my strings keep ringing out after Ive played them.
What makes it worse is that I have to use a fair amount of gain for this song. Im assuming its a technique problem but Im just not sure what Im doing wrong.

Im using the neck pick up and I did lower it which helped a little bit. Im also trying to touch the strings as lightly as possible but Im still getting them ring out after Ived play the note.

Any advice to help stop this??

[Tony Done]

I can't offer much help, but I can tell you that poor string damping technique is the reason I do not consider myself a competent electric guitarist. Maybe the answer is to practice with something that requires a lot of good damping technique, like a fuzz pedal, that will really show up your shortcomings.

[TBman]

Check out youtube instructional videos on the topic of "palm muting."

[Mandobart]

Palm muting works. I also use left hand (fretting hand) muting. After playing the note/chord I release the fingers from the fretboard but keep them on the strings. Sometimes I'll lay my fretting hand fingers across the strings after releasing. All sound stops.

[jseth]

To me, that's a HUGE difference between playing electric guitar and playing acoustic guitar... there is a LOT more muting with an electric, especially if you're in "high-gain" territory!

Learn to mute with either hand, and get in the habit of muting strings that aren't being played, before they become problematic.

There is definitely an art to it, and it is learn-able....

[1neeto]

It is definitely a technique that comes with tons of practice. I always found it funny that many guitar players say that playing with high gain only covers mistakes. That might be true unless you’re playing leads!

Sometimes those notes that ring are harmonics from the open strings when you play certain notes. You have to develop a technique that allows you to mute individual strings as you’re playing the notes. I’m nowhere near good at it, I certainly can’t play the sweet child riff, it’s just one of those riffs I tried when I was a beginner and got frustrated and never re-visited again. Keep practicing!

[Troyboi]

Bloody hell, Its near impossible to play a note, then mute, play another note, then mute etc etc I can do it really slowly but at speed its impossible.

I tried lifting the fingers up but not all the way to mute the string. Im a bit better at that but I find I make the strings ring just by lifting my fingers off them.

This is so frustratingly hard.

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by Troyboi

Bloody hell, Its near impossible to play a note, then mute, play another note, then mute etc etc I can do it really slowly but at speed its impossible.



I tried lifting the fingers up but not all the way to mute the string. Im a bit better at that but I find I make the strings ring just by lifting my fingers off them.



This is so frustratingly hard.

If you can do it really slowly then it’s possible. Speed always comes later but developing the technique at slow speeds is the way to go.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Troyboi

Hi guys, so Im trying to learn how to play the opening Riff to Sweet Child of mine on electric guitar. Ive been practicing it all week everynight whist sitting on the couch watching Tv just to learn the seqeunce of notes and commit it to memory.
However when I connect up to the amp I notice that my strings keep ringing out after Ive played them.
What makes it worse is that I have to use a fair amount of gain for this song. Im assuming its a technique problem but Im just not sure what Im doing wrong.

Im using the neck pick up and I did lower it which helped a little bit. Im also trying to touch the strings as lightly as possible but Im still getting them ring out after Ived play the note.

Any advice to help stop this??

After watching the riff played on youtube my guess is this: If you are, as you say, lifting your finger from every previous note you've played, but something is still ringing, you may well be hearing sympathetic vibrations from the lower strings that are not involved in the actual playing of the riff.

In the video I watched (by Marty Schwartz), he's pretty clearly resting the heel of his palm on the lower strings thus precluding them from ringing.

It's shot pretty clearly so you may get something from watching/listening.

HE

[lowrider]

''on the couch watching Tv just to learn the seqeunce of notes and commit it to memory. ''

Can't help with the muting but it will help a lot with memorizing if you turn off the TV.

[FwL]

Originally Posted by Troyboi

Bloody hell, Its near impossible to play a note, then mute, play another note, then mute etc etc I can do it really slowly but at speed its impossible.

I tried lifting the fingers up but not all the way to mute the string. Im a bit better at that but I find I make the strings ring just by lifting my fingers off them.

This is so frustratingly hard.

You've got to get in the habit of covering the strings you're not playing, The picking hand rests on the the lower strings and the fingers of the fretting hand rest on the higher strings. Only the string you're playing is free to make noise at any given time.

It's harder to describe than demonstrate. Try watching vids of guys playing high gain and pay attention to how they keep the strings covered.


.

[Troyboi]

Originally Posted by FwL

You've got to get in the habit of covering the strings you're not playing, The picking hand rests on the the lower strings and the fingers of the fretting hand rest on the higher strings. Only the string you're playing is free to make noise at any given time.

It's harder to describe than demonstrate. Try watching vids of guys playing high gain and pay attention to how they keep the strings covered.


.

Now that I’ve read this I did notice that In the tutorial by Andy guitar his finger seems to always be on the D string on the 12th fret which is the first note played and the string I seem to be having the most problem with. I tried lifting my finger off slowly to mute it on the way but wasn’t having much success.
I’ll try the approach of keeping my Fingers on the strings and see how that goes. This lead guitar is as hard as I always thought it would be.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by Troyboi

Now that I’ve read this I did notice that In the tutorial by Andy guitar his finger seems to always be on the D string on the 12th fret which is the first note played and the string I seem to be having the most problem with. I tried lifting my finger off slowly to mute it on the way but wasn’t having much success.
I’ll try the approach of keeping my Fingers on the strings and see how that goes. This lead guitar is as hard as I always thought it would be.

The problems you are having is exactly my challenge with an electric. I can play acoustic till the cows come home and sound fairly good at it. But electric just sounds like noise and nothing approaching what I'd call music.

Next on my list to learn is palm muting. I've started with it, it's clearly a learned skill so don't despair, you are not alone in your quest to conquer the electric.

[mattbn73]

Originally Posted by Troyboi

Now that I’ve read this I did notice that In the tutorial by Andy guitar his finger seems to always be on the D string on the 12th fret which is the first note played and the string I seem to be having the most problem with. I tried lifting my finger off slowly to mute it on the way but wasn’t having much success.
I’ll try the approach of keeping my Fingers on the strings and see how that goes. This lead guitar is as hard as I always thought it would be.

Need to learn to mute with both hands , but with this one, a lot of it is left-hand.

If you want to get better at muting techniques, practice playing some every day with the gain and volume cranked pretty high. The more noise - the more worst case scenario for your ears - the faster you develop these techniques.

If you get frustrated with this tune, practice it with other things besides just this. Other licks, scale fragments, random digital patterns, whatever. Very young kids learn to do this pretty quickly, but the main thing that they are doing differently is that they are playing with a ton of distortion the whole time. That's really the X Factor, much more than watching videos and analyzing.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Troyboi

Ive been practicing it all week everynight whist sitting on the couch watching Tv

Man, you're not really trying, are you?