Muting: Chord Hand Muting

Let's talk about muting.

You will instantly notice by the number and length of the videos how important I think muting is.

If you think about it, a mute (in the most general sense) can replace any or all of the beats in a pattern.

If we simplify and say there are eight beats (four down, four up), well, I'll let you do the math and see how many combinations there could be.

In other words, any strum pattern you're already doing can be altered with any combination of mutes.

DON'T FREAK OUT.

The beauty is, the strumming hand doesn't do ANYTHING different.

The strum you already know is the strum you'll continue to use.

But–the chording hand can change any beat, down or up, into a mute.

Tricky to get at first, but pure magic once you get it!

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Left hand vs. right

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Creating the mute

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Getting the hang of muting (hang ten, that is…)

Song: Surfin' USA Chords: C, G, F This is a good first experiment in muting because the muted parts of the song are so clearly separated from the non-muted sections.

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Surfin' USA–a complete walk-through