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String ringing after bends

solo1001

New member
Joined
Mar 24, 2003
Messages
13
Hi -- I don't know how to really ask this question (let alone search for it) so I'll give it my best shot. Self-taught guitar player and then put it down when I got married eight years ago. Picked it up again and I really like trying to play Guns N Roses. I love the little bit below from the end of the Mr. Brownstone solo. After releasing the bend (3b5) to hit the top two strings, either the G string rings or even the D string.

When I bend the next one (6b8), the B string or G string will ring....so on and so forth. I sold my Les Paul several years ago but borrowed a friends little Squire strat. Could using a cheaper guitar be an issue (the setup) or is there a technique to help with this sort of problem. I have small hands so maybe that's part of it. If there are threads about this, please point me in the right direction. Like I said, it's kind of hard to search for specifically. Thanks.
|-----------3-----------3----------------------------3/-|
|---------3---3-6b8-(8)---6-3----------------------3----|
|-3b5-(5)---------------------5b7==(7)r(5)p3-5-3h4------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|




|--------------8------------8-11-------------------------------8-|
|------------8---8-11b13-11------8---------------------------8---|
|-10b12-(12)-----------------------10b12==(12)r(10)p8-10-8h9-----|
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
 

B Ingram

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
730
... After releasing the bend (3b5) to hit the top two strings, either the G string rings or even the D string. ...

After the bend, try to release the string (i.e., not fretting it) but still keep a finger on it or touching it.

Muting unwanted notes is a dance between the picking & fretting hands.

Some strings may be muted with the picking hand palm/edge of the hand (usually lower strings), while unused picking hand fingers can curl over to touch high strings not being played, muting them.

The fretting hand can mute string with the tip of the finger (if you're fretting notes a little ways onto the pad of the finger instead of with the very tip), as well as by touching the strings without fretting. You can also mute higher strings further down the fretting hand finger towards the knuckle, if you're playing lower-string notes and your fingers take a natural arch.

It's somewhat up to you to look at the issue with your fingering/playing of certain notes results in unwanted ringing, then devising a strategy to mute those strings. After some practice, this (like much of the mechanics of playing) become second-nature and you just do them without consciously planning it out.

I'll have to go back & listen to the song you cited to see if that opening bend is really a bend, or if it's a slide (or even a bend from 5th to 7th frets). As notated, it seems awfully awkward. So if the notes are actually correct, I would probably play it as a slide using the 3rd finger, which would set up the rest of lick nicely...
 

B Ingram

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
730
... I'll have to go back & listen to the song you cited to see if that opening bend is really a bend, or if it's a slide (or even a bend from 5th to 7th frets). As notated, it seems awfully awkward. ...

Dunno where the tab came from, but the opening bend of that section is from 5th fret of the G string, up a whole step. The rest of that part of the lick sits in the usual G-minor pentatonic box around the 3rd fret.

You can hear/try it for yourself by listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVYDnQwi3OQ at 2:11, but know this recording is down 1/2 step from A-440.

Or watch Slash play it starting at 2:32 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5VJa-sYsyU, but know they're playing down a whole step from A-440 in that performance. You can just barely see the bend is where I mentioned, or you can notice he's moving the same lick/shape up the neck for the 2 higher repeats which follow the opening lick you asked about.

Oh yeah... don't trust online tabs... :laugh2: You always have to use your ears, and sometimes the tab-writer picks a spot on the neck which isn't how/where it was played.
 

solo1001

New member
Joined
Mar 24, 2003
Messages
13
Thank you so much for the tips. Yeah, online tabs are a dime a dozen typically but at the very least this is a good exercise. I used to play a lot of acoustic in the late 90's/early 2000's and there was a Dave Matthews site that tabbed everything based on videos of Dave's playing which made it at least feel more legit (don't judge).

Thanks also for those links. Very helpful. I know practice makes perfect but sometimes I can't get out of my own way. Much appreciation.
 

Justaguyinaz

New member
Joined
Jul 23, 2016
Messages
27
After the bend, try to release the string (i.e., not fretting it) but still keep a finger on it or touching it.

Muting unwanted notes is a dance between the picking & fretting hands.

Some strings may be muted with the picking hand palm/edge of the hand (usually lower strings), while unused picking hand fingers can curl over to touch high strings not being played, muting them.

The fretting hand can mute string with the tip of the finger (if you're fretting notes a little ways onto the pad of the finger instead of with the very tip), as well as by touching the strings without fretting. You can also mute higher strings further down the fretting hand finger towards the knuckle, if you're playing lower-string notes and your fingers take a natural arch.

It's somewhat up to you to look at the issue with your fingering/playing of certain notes results in unwanted ringing, then devising a strategy to mute those strings. After some practice, this (like much of the mechanics of playing) become second-nature and you just do them without consciously planning it out.

I'll have to go back & listen to the song you cited to see if that opening bend is really a bend, or if it's a slide (or even a bend from 5th to 7th frets). As notated, it seems awfully awkward. So if the notes are actually correct, I would probably play it as a slide using the 3rd finger, which would set up the rest of lick nicely...
This was a really good post.
You mention after some practice it will become automatic. My problem, which is probably dumb to most people, is how do you practice muting? I am not very good at practicing. I tend to sit down and try to play a song till it starts to somewhat resemble what it is supposed to sound like.
I can't figure out how to practice all the things I need to actually be able to play properly.
 

B Ingram

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
730
... how do you practice muting? I am not very good at practicing. I tend to sit down and try to play a song till it starts to somewhat resemble what it is supposed to sound like. I can't figure out how to practice all the things I need to actually be able to play properly.

You probably already do it, and just don't realize it... You Play a Song!! :salude

Seriously: Take a song where you notice ringing strings to be a problem. Find a section of it where it's particularly bad, or where it feels really clumsy to you. Play just that section, thinking about how you want it to sound (after you are able to mute well). Play that section again. And again. Think about how you're executing it, and look for some way to make it just 10% better than you're doing it now. Then play it again. And again. And again. Repeat 45 more times. Etc.

For how you do what you do, there's no substitute for repetition.

But maybe there's 10 different things you could do better about how you play it... Maybe you're pressing too hard with your left hand, or not muting unneeded strings with your right hand palm & fingertips. Maybe how you're holding the pick, or how tightly you hold the pick, or where along the string you're picking. Maybe it's the part of your left hand fingertips you use, or what angle the left hand fingers are in when you press the strings. Maybe it's tension in your arms & shoulders, or holding your breath when trying to play something fast.

That's a LOT to work on, and it's impossible for you to think of all those things at the same time, while still thinking about the music you're trying to make and the elements of musical expression. So when you sit down & play something (usually something you already know well), focus on only one of those things. And try to play that song section the best you can with respect to that one thing.

That one thing will become automatic after some repetition, at which point (maybe the next time you sit down to play) you don't focus on that one thing and instead pick some other "one thing". And so on.

Ultimately, you'll find there's more than one way to do a lot of the items I noted, and different results for each. When you've internalized them through individual practice & attention, you won't really consciously think about how to do them, but just the end result you know will come from playing a song section a certain way.

_________________________________

Maybe off topic, but I approached learning to shoot handguns the same way. To put a bullet in the center of a target ~15 different things all need to happen exactly right, at the same time. If even one doesn't, the bullet will go somewhere else. So I learned to shoot be going to a range a putting a couple-hundred rounds into a target while focusing on only 1 of the 15 things. Once I had that down, the next target session I worked on #2 of 15 and shot a few hundred rounds into a target. After about 5-6,000 rounds, all the fundamentals just happened.

Last time I went shooting, I hadn't fired a gun in 3-4 years, and I shot someone else's gun (individual gun-feel can throw off you're shooting if it's not what you're accustomed to). And I shot 20 rounds tearing a 1-inch hole in the target in fairly rapid-fire. Like guitar playing, I practiced individual fundamentals enough until they were largely automatic and focused on one thing when it came to actually shooting (in this case it was sight-picture, because my friend's gun had very different sights than I was used to; when playing guitar, it would have been "how do I want this section to sound?").
 

B Ingram

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
730
You may also need to slow the tempo down to snail-pace or slower while you work on something.

A few years ago, I decided to take on fingerstyle guitar, specifically a Chet Atkins tune and a couple Jerry Reed tunes. Even hybrid picking for more than 10 years didn't prepare me for playing with a thumbpick and playing simultaneous bass and melody lines. It took me a year to get a single song down, beginning to end. And in the meantime, it felt like the first week I played guitar, because nothing felt the same and my hands didn't seem to be willing to do what my brain told them to do.

One song I was learning has a tempo around 140-160 beats per minute, and I was struggling to get anything coordinated happening at 40 beats per minute. That's okay... I played it that slow & slower, until the individual pieces came together.

You can do the same thing (maybe better than me). I had picked this Chet Atkins song, because it sounded easy enough compared to some. Of course, that lick at 1:26 gave me fits for a while. What you see in the video is the extent of the explanation I had, and Chet does a LOT of subtly-different things throughout the song. But I got there and so can you with whatever you're working on.
 

Justaguyinaz

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Joined
Jul 23, 2016
Messages
27
Thanks man. I appreciate the tips. And I gotta tell ya, I just wish I could play guitar as well as I can shoot.:peace2
 
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