Do you mute strings that you are not playing or just not hit them?

Depends on what technique I am using, but I mute them as I pull off to another string if I am sweeping.

So far I have trouble muting and just try to pluck carefully. I'm not sure why I don't feel like I can mute with my fretting hand.

i mute em,but still avoid em for good measure

Depends what kind of sound I'm looking for. If I'm palm muting my strumming, I will mute all the strings to give it a more rough sound. If I'm picking, I try not to touch those other strings, because there is a possibility of my finger coming up and some sort of pull off sound occurring that may sound horrid with what key I'm playing in.

i try to go nowhere near the strings that are not in use.

I voted I have no idea. I never really thought about how I mute I just play and use what's needed I guess. I may mute with my fretting hand or my picking hand but I've never thought about it so I DON'T KNOW. It's just a natural feel of when and how to mute??? I DUNNO :(

Unless I feel like picking a single string, even when playing one string I'll strum them all. I like the dead string background noise.

@Moshzilla,

I do the samething. That is, I don't know what I do! It comes natural to me. Not that I didn't have problems with this before but I've been playing for 30 years plus.

I mute with my fretting hand a lot. But personally, you should know how to do as many muting techniques as necessary.

I mute some string with my fretting hand picking hand. I mute it a bit with my fretting hand for certain chords and I sometimes (though less frequently) use my pinky to mute the bottom string with my picking hand.

I mute, and its just second nature not to hit muted strings unless i want

I rarely mute with my right hand, but fretting hand mutes I use all the time. Maybe in leads I use right hand mutes a little... never pay much attention to it.

Emp

Mute and stum em all!!!

I like the John Frusciante sound from can't stop...

often I mute all (or most) of the strings with my right hand, except the note i'm playing, and then just strum all the strings. I think this technique is called "Raking" but i'm not sure

Okay I shouldn't say often, but sometimes

Really depends on what Im playing...

@Schecter_player
you mean "By The Way"?

i read a long detailed interview about Frusciante's technique, and the effort he put into his tone. I listened to all the modern stuff again, and this guy is amazing. check out this...even if you could'nt give a rat's rear about the RHCP.



or

I mute strings with my left hand when I am playing 4 or 5 note chords.

@Domigan_Lefty

Well, yeah, By the Way in general was good, but i specifically meant can't stop. Hahaha.

AND YEAH! Go tinyskateboard. Although, i gotta admit, I'm not a huge fan of Stadium Arcadium.

I thought you meant the mute and strum in the verse/pre-verse of by the way.

hahahaha. Yeah.

I taught that song to one of my students and just laughed at how he just rips of the muted string for half the song... Shocking thing? sounds better than i could ever be :(