Left-hand muting
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Left-hand muting is a performance technique for stringed instruments, where the vibration of a string is muffled by the left hand. There are two variants of it. Left-handed musicians would perform this technique with the right hand, not the left.
[edit] First variant
If a string has already been pressed down onto the neck by the left hand, and set into vibration by the right, that vibration may be immediately stopped by releasing the pressure of the left hand, so that the string is no longer pressed down. This is one kind of left-hand muting. The strings will be quieter if the hand is left resting lightly on the string rather than being removed entirely into the air. This variety of left-hand muting is a way of controlling the length of a note. In many cases the technique is so trivial as not to seem like a technique at all, and is just what happens when note is no longer played.
However, sometimes it is used more consciously. For example, when strumming barre chords or other chords in which there are no open strings, left-hand muting may be used to punctuate the rhythm, so that instead of having the continuous ringing sound of the strumming, short periods of silence are introduced. An advantage to this is it gives the hand a rest from holding down the barre chords. In a similar vein, left-hand muting is used to produce chops: chords which are released the instant after having been picked. The sound of chops is sharp and percussive.
[edit] Second variant
In the second variety of left-hand muting, a string, not vibrating, is pressed down part-way, but not all the way, to the neck with the left hand, and then struck, plucked or bowed, as the case may be, with the other hand. With a struck or plucked string, the resulting sound is a sort of muffled click; with a bowed string, a scratchy noise. The string may be touched with the tip of one or more fingers, or with one or more fingers laid flat across the neck. If one or more strings muted in this manner are played with a single stroke of the pick, and the pick continues on as part of that same stroke to hit a non-muted string so that it rings loud and clear, the result is known as a rake. The muted note or notes act as a quick percussive lead-in to the main note, and give it special emphasis.
