Sweeping With Tapping, muting strings Options

[ParalyzedHorse]

Hi Muris,

On your lesson sweeping with tapping, how do you mute the strings when you are picking on the fretboard? I notice that you sweep pick at 18th fret, but its really hard for me to palm mute up there because if I palm mute a string being picked it will just make a screeching noise.

So if I just use the technique I normally use while sweeping high up the fretboard all my notes get muted and screech because they get muted by my palm.

So I was wondering how do you properly palm mute with sweeping and tapping? Thanks for the help!

[Artemus]

Ok, so I'm not Muris and I'm nowhere near his level, but I've been looking at this exercise and various other sweep-taps and have wondered the same thing. I experimented a little and I've been taught a couple of things in the past.
What I basically do is angle my hand up slightly so that the only part of my hand that mutes the strings is the fleshy part behind the thumb (abductor pollicis brevis?) and I push the pick down slightly so that this is the only part forward of the hand with which I mute. I also use a whole hand motion through the strings as I sweep so that this angle doesn't change until I tap. I also tap away from the string (towards floor) so that the pick comes closer to the strings when I sweep again.
Hope this helps and isn't factually incorrect?

This post has been edited by Artemus: Feb 23 2009, 11:26 AM

[Muris Varajic]

Thanks for input Artemus and one thing is certain,
your approach is correct as long as you get results from it
and keep your playing clean and accurate
As for me, when I sweep up on the neck I like to
apply same muting techniques as if my picking hand was on the bridge
which means regular muting with palm and of course left hand muting.

Now,muting with the palm around 18th fret isn't really the same
palm muting like palm muting on the bridge
and it surely doesn't work in real time for playing muted
power chords or stacatto arpeggios per example,
if you apply muting on every note that you're playing
string will touch the fretboard and you'll get nothing but more noise.
It's actually more like "after effect" so you need to mute string
after you're done playing on it, and it works mostly for lower strings
just like palm muting on the bridge.
You have to be very careful when doing it tho,
it's just slight touch on the strings without any actual pressure.

In Sweeping and Tapping lesson we start from A string on each shape/arpeggio.
So you have to play A string without any palm muting
and once you start sweeping on D,G strings etc you apply palm
on A string, then D string etc, you mute those strings that you already played.
Left hand finger moves are essential here as well,
everything has to be done very precisely without moving fingers too heavily
in order to avoid extra string ringing.

All this maybe sounds scary atm but after enough practicing
your hands will get the "feel" of what to do,
like basic instincts or som.

Let me know if I missed something.

[ParalyzedHorse]

Thanks for the help Artemus and Muris

I was pretty disappointed because I thought all I had to do was add a few taps to master the technique, I guess not lol! I guess its back to slow practice >_<

Maybe I should also used a closed fist for sweep tapping so my other fingers dont get in the way, I usually have my other three fingers anchored.

[Muris Varajic]

I was pretty disappointed because I thought all I had to do was add a few taps to master the technique, I guess not lol! I guess its back to slow practice >_<

Maybe I should also used a closed fist for sweep tapping so my other fingers dont get in the way, I usually have my other three fingers anchored.

Yeah, it isn't just about adding tapping.
And you could try with closed fist as well,
maybe that's not most important here but who knows, give it a shot.