Question about playing cleanly

[kylea1]

So ive been sweep picking and economy picking for a while now and i can get every note i want to ring out with no open string buzz, but for some reason no matter how hard i try, there is always the sound of my mutting hand(picking hand) rubbing on the strings as i pick/sweep ive been trying to relearn how to pcik a new way so that this doesnt happen, but when i slow it down the sound is still there, and also i try to go lighter on my palm that is mutting the strings, but then strings start to buzz on top of the rubbing sound.

has anyone ran into this problem before?

if so how did you resolve it?

 

[baptizedinblood]

Sounds like you're holding the pick in a way that is causing extra sound. I wouldn't say you're doing it 'wrong' because everyone holds a pick a bit differently, but if you want to clean up your sound, you may need to re-learn how to hold a pick. Either that or get bigger picks.

 

[kylea1]

Sounds like you're holding the pick in a way that is causing extra sound. I wouldn't say you're doing it 'wrong' because everyone holds a pick a bit differently, but if you want to clean up your sound, you may need to re-learn how to hold a pick. Either that or get bigger picks.

ok, i use a 1.5 mm sharp pick. its not really the pick thats making the noise tough, it seems to be my palm while im sweeping and muting the low strings

 

[JLP2005]

Developing a hybridized picking hand (holding your pick with thumb/index while using other fingers to pluck simultaneously) would do wonders, but it is a road less traveled.

Cons: practice
Pros: sounding clean as fuck

 

[kylea1]

Developing a hybridized picking hand (holding your pick with thumb/index while using other fingers to pluck simultaneously) would do wonders, but it is a road less traveled.

Cons: practice
Pros: sounding clean as fuck

well i play with an open hand if thats what you mean. i dont ball up my hands. thanks for the reply

 

[asher]

well i play with an open hand if thats what you mean. i dont ball up my hands. thanks for the reply

He means actually using those other fingers to pluck notes.

It's also possible you need to pay very careful attention to what your palm is doing on the strings as you move your hand to go from string to string.

 

[kylea1]

He means actually using those other fingers to pluck notes.

It's also possible you need to pay very careful attention to what your palm is doing on the strings as you move your hand to go from string to string.

i thought so. i have it pretty slow and im trying to redo my sweeping, i guess ill just have to rip apart my technique.

 

[meambobbo]

maybe...use less gain? lighter string gauges?

really, it sounds like you are muting with your right hand as though you are strumming chords where your entire palm is moving. I think you need to focus on trying two things. One is to control your left hand a little better, particularly when releasing a note. Don't let your fingers pull-off at all, so that there's less need for a strong mute to prevent it from ringing. Second, instead of moving at the elbow and rubbing your palm up and down the strings as you pluck each string, try pivoting at the wrist and simply rolling your palm - this way you're not rubbing (or at least rubbing much less) the strings with your palm to create the unwanted noise.

 

[kylea1]

maybe...use less gain? lighter string gauges?

really, it sounds like you are muting with your right hand as though you are strumming chords where your entire palm is moving. I think you need to focus on trying two things. One is to control your left hand a little better, particularly when releasing a note. Don't let your fingers pull-off at all, so that there's less need for a strong mute to prevent it from ringing. Second, instead of moving at the elbow and rubbing your palm up and down the strings as you pluck each string, try pivoting at the wrist and simply rolling your palm - this way you're not rubbing (or at least rubbing much less) the strings with your palm to create the unwanted noise.

thanks for the reply, im not new to sweep picking so its not that im trying to strum the arpeggio its just that i need to work on my muting. i guess ill just keep slowing everything down until i get it. and sweeping at the wrist isnt going to help ha i tried already i get the same noise

 

[Hyacinth]

There's kinda nothing you can do short of using a noise gate to try to get rid of that rubbing noise from your palm. When you sweep, you're picking palm HAS to rub the strings or else the sweep sounds like shit.

 

[ShiftKey]

Ive been having a similar problem to the OP since i started playing more cleans lately, ill say now i have no trouble sweeping etc(i dont shred them out but can play the arps from devin townsend Ki no problem if you get what i mean)

anyway i realised that i had learnt to angle my pick to mute a little with my thumb when i play fast with high gain and this was causing my clean playing to be very poor, change of pick attack to a more flat/straight picking worked a treat for me, although i do hybrid(chicken) pick alot now also, which as another posted said, sounds very clean indeed

 

[redstone]

Put your palm behind the strings, thumb-mute the lower string with the interphalangeal joint and middle-finger-mute the higher string with the tip. You can even mute barre chords this way. http://videobam.com/OcpKB You can make it cleaner, I'm not used to sweep.

 

[Overtone]

There's kinda nothing you can do short of using a noise gate to try to get rid of that rubbing noise from your palm. When you sweep, you're picking palm HAS to rub the strings or else the sweep sounds like shit.

That's not really how a gate works or what it is for. A gate is either open or closed. It is open when the signal is above a certain level. Once it's open, ALL sound comes through. So it works for quiet noises happening during rests, but for something like a sweep where you are playing, there is a strong enough signal, and there are no long pauses between notes, all of the sound coming from your guitar is going to make it to the amp. Basically small noises come through if they are in conjunction with a bigger noise.

 

[Given To Fly]

I had this problem too. It would happen when I would play on the 1st and 2nd strings on my 8 string with a clean sound. The reason is would happen was because my palm doesn't cover all 8 strings and I use heavy gauges. You need a decent amount of muting pressure to keep .70 and .94 gauges quiet. Since my technique was good all I needed to do to keep the strings silent was wear a long sleeve shirt that would cover the 7th and 8th strings. Works great!

 

[ihunda]

This will be solved by taking a lesson with a good teacher.
I was in the camp of learning on my own as well but got locked into bad habits and very very simple issues that made me feel dumb once a teacher pointed them out.

Best money spent ever...

 

[broj15]

practice sweeps on a low (preferably no) gain setting. Actually, practicing anything without gain will make your technique better. Gain does a great job of covering up mistakes (exactly why it's easier to "fake" metal than it is genres that use less/ no gain) but when you play through a clean setting all the little "hiccups" in your technique are way more noticeable.

 

[axxessdenied]

practice sweeps on a low (preferably no) gain setting. Actually, practicing anything without gain will make your technique better. Gain does a great job of covering up mistakes (exactly why it's easier to "fake" metal than it is genres that use less/ no gain) but when you play through a clean setting all the little "hiccups" in your technique are way more noticeable.

Practice unplugged imo

 

[broj15]

Practice unplugged imo

i don't really see how that would help

 

[groverj3]

It sounds like you're rubbing the strings with your palm. Try to mute more lightly when sweeping. I think that's all.

I only really mute the lowest few strings with my palm when sweeping. The higher ones end up getting muted by my fret hand while sweeping. In general, if you are more accurate with your picking hand you don't need to worry about muting as much.

I don't think you need to re-teach yourself how to play to deal with a little string noise.

Also: What kind of picks do you use? I can't sweep worth a damn with large picks. Jazz IIIs all the way. The sharp beveled edge makes things much easier because it "glides" over the strings. I'm a huge fan of those picks.

 

[meambobbo]

yeah, i think less pressure is good and don't rely on the palm to mute everything. just practice picking your fretting fingers straight up off the strings, don't bend them at all as you release or you'll get a pull-off and the open string will ring. even with great technique, you'll get a slight open string ring, but it should be so minute compared to the next picked note that it is inaudible.

Also, maybe position your palm mute closer to the point where the strings leave the saddles. So use less choke. It should be all you need unless you're using ungodly amounts of gain or your left-hand technique is too sloppy as noted above. Using that mute position should get you less noise.