Muting Strings On Bass: A Bulletproof Method

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Here’s a classic problem that a ton of bass players run into (and even some with more experience):
They learn a few songs - and they might even sound pretty good - but there’s this ‘ringing’ that won’t seem to go away.
Strings seem to have a mind of their own and start vibrating whenever they want, and it’s impossible to stop them. And what does this do to your bass lines? It makes them muddy, unclear and in some cases, it makes them hard to listen to.
This is completely normal, and even expected. It’s not until you start playing more that you develop the kind of technique that can fix this problem, but that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this lesson.
You have 2 primary weapons when it comes to muting your strings - your left hand and your right hand. Sounds pretty obvious, right? And it is! But there’s so much you can do to tame ringing strings on your bass.
Once you know how it’s done though, you can take your playing from muddy and gross, to being crystal clear. No more annoying extra noise that just clogs up your bass lines - just bass lines played with a perfectly clean tone.
As with all things on the bass, this takes practice. It may feel weird to change what you’re doing and try some of the things in the video, but give it a chance. After all, I know it felt weird and foreign when I first started playing, but with enough practice, it all became 2nd nature.
If you have any questions or if you have another way you mute strings on your bass, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear and to learn from you as well.
If you’re a beginning bass player, I’d highly recommend you check out the Become A Bassist Beginner’s Starter Pack. It’s a collection of some of my best material for beginners and it will teach you not only what to practice to take your playing to the next level, but it will also show you the all-important order to practice everything in. It’s totally free and you can get it right here:
becomeabassist.com/bab-beginn...
Good luck with the lesson and happy muting!
Cheers,
Luke

[@SonicXRage]

Thank GOD! I couldn't find any material online which didn't just say "move your left hand up/down when you cross strings and do the same with your right." Finally, a video that goes beyond a very basic fixed anchor tutorial. I started developing some of these left hand muting techniques over time, but now I have a video reference to help cut the learning curve. Thanks, Luke! My months-long string muting battle might come to an end soon.

[@BecomeABassist]

Awesome +SonicXRage! I’m glad it helped!

[@objectionable9891]

I highly recommend the floating thumb because it has the added benefit of stopping you stretching your wrist and reaching too much with your fingers, lots of people anchor to a pickup and try to stretch up to the higher strings never moving the anchor point its bad for your hand and wrist. Also if you ever want to play a bass with more strings floating thumb makes it much easier

[@YanDoroshenko]

And on a 6 string that's pretty much the only option.

[@jamessbca]

Been learning guitar for a bit. Hoping to get a bass soon as well. On guitar, a lot of people “anchor” with their picking hand pinky. I did this for a bit because it seemed like I’d be “lost” without doing this. I put the guitar away for years (I’ve played drums my whole life… sort of forgot about guitar for a while). When getting back into it again (now with a passion), the anchoring idea seemed crazy. Maybe because I’m older and ergonomics are now a very important consideration in anything I’m going to spend a lot of time with. This video and your post helped me realize the equivalent approach I’ll likely be taking to bass - let that thumb float around, baby. Just use the “force” to know where the hand is. (On guitar, it seemed impossible to know where my hand is without touching the body in some way - now I wouldn’t even consider wasting muscle strain etc trying to touch the guitar body with my picking hand!).

[@ProgrammedForDamage]

Yeah I've moved to the floating thumb technique, after always anchoring my thumb. It's better; just takes some getting used to.

[@whitedandelion9765]

Agree with some of the things people already said - it is almost impossible to find simple advice for complete beginners. Most musicians think everyone can just work things out for themselves- well, I can't! And I am not that stupid or incapable musically, but I have other hurdles going on and so I just can't. Simple basic ground work advice is invaluable to me. Thank you, Luke. ...almost forgot- loved the dog!!

[@colskinner5856]

Thank you. I’ve found all of your videos have helped me learn so much. The extra detail you put into it really drives it home. Also your free packs are great, thanks.

[@villusive]

thanks Luke ! I recently started learning bass , it really caught my eye , and I've been watching this channel to help me learn. This is by far the best video I've seen to learn to mute , especially when it comes to left hand , I always have buzzing and ringing problems when I didn't know how to mute , now it's fixed !

[@kryptichands968]

Great explanations, I haven't seen any video explaining muting as good or in depth as youres, thank you, I'm in my first year and definitely still developing my technique and style.

[@oldschoolebm666]

Something so basic yet so important... And you are the only online teacher that has gone to a great length to explain this for us beginners. Appreciate you. Subscribed on a flash

[@BecomeABassist]

Glad you found it helpful - and thanks for checking it out!

[@anandkamate2308]

Great lesson Luke, Thanks !

[@TheRealMrBeercan]

This is a great video. Too many “Bass” videos show how to play this bass line or that bass line and don’t show these very basics for beginners. But, there can be more to it, so please read my whole comment. I would like to add just one thing though. It can still be very difficult to eliminate buzzes and keep strings quiet if your guitar is out of whack. I bought my bass on-line. And, it was way out of adjustment. The strings were too high, the truss rod was too tight and the pickups weren’t right either. It was almost impossible not to get a buzz. I downloaded the Fender bass owner’s manual and got out my feeler gauges and used drill bits (instead of a scale) to get the string height right. But, I then bottomed out the saddles. This required me to add shims to the neck. Once I got things adjusted to factory specs, muting out buzzes became much easier. I suggest making things easier by either read the owner’s manual and set your guitar up right or take your guitar to a guitar shop and have an expert set it up for you.

[@quietstorm7826]

great vid.. perfect timing too.. was practicing songs from your video titled, five beginner bass lines granted to impress

[@hodaridaniels8786]

Good techniques, this is a good lesson on muting strings for a clean sound.

[@MeowmiXX_mmg]

Massive help, thank you!

[@TheAmandeepcom]

Good techniques. Even muted that black dog in the background :)

[@alexhamilton4084]

Amandeep Singh 😂

[@pawnhearts8785]

Hey hey momma said the way you mooove

[@marvinmarin4836]

thank you. more power luke.

[@cynthiaarmstrong7972]

Luke, you’re a great teacher!

[@samanthalewis5518]

You’re the only bass teacher I can watch a full video of.

[@AgilDogsVideo]

He doesn't talk to say nothing :)

[@Nivenization]

Thank you.

[@thecuriousgardener]

Thanks, helpful.

[@jack-kg7vk]

coming from guitar the floating thumb makes more sense to me, but i thought i was doing something wrong by playing like that. thanks for the video!

[@WizardOfArc]

Nice tips and cute dog! 😀🎸🐶

[@dhwheatley7778]

Cheers Luke

[@SutekiRedux]

I think my issue might just be how small my fingers are :( that or I just don't have good strings, when I play faster parts the D and G (mostly the D) really likes to ring out compared to the others unless I mute withy right hand (I mute it with the left but it still likes to ring out) but with the song I'm playing it's going back and forth between the D and the E which makes it a bit hard to mute with that hand while also playing it fast

[@decemberagents1401]

There are so many muting techniques here that it's hard to develop muscle memory for them all. Your fingers need to know which muting strategy to use on each note/string without having to consciously think about it.

[@craigburner1296]

Very helpful. Some simplification for us beginners would be useful. After working on a bit of this I found that flattening my fret hand made a big difference. You said as much but not as directly.

[@blairjones8231]

What about right hand palm muting if you are playing with your thumb??

[@alexhamilton4084]

Great content as always Luke. I don’t know if you’re a fan of Andy Fraser of the band Free but I love his sound and how he gets that wonderful staccato muted sound. Do you have any insight on his style that you could explain? Thanks as always, keep up the great work. Cheers.

[@crimfan]

Andy Fraser was one of the greats. He wasn't a flashy player but Free's tunes were totally anchored by him and Simon Kirke's drums leaving Paul and Koss to float above or lock in as needed. He wasn't afraid of silence, either. Think about how their biggest hit, "All Right Now" has no bass in the verses! He was a great writer, too.

[@carlosvillarroel6665]

Like for the dog. A must and super basic lesson.

[@ibrahimozkan9303]

How do you make a sustained mute by slightly pulling back your finger while playing a 16th or 8th note at 120 bpm? Or is there no need to do that at that speed?

[@BecomeABassist]

At faster tempos, it’s usually easier/more practical to use your plucking hand to do a lot of the muting by moving your fingers to the strings slothful before they need to pluck. Then, they can mute the strings and then be in position when they need to be played.

[@8bitheroes86]

How do i stop the strings from being really squeaky and noisy when moving around?

[@ewokwarrior2656]

Flatwounds. But don't cut them on the wrap or they unravel. Or half rounds if you still want to slap. I play a lot of blues, country, folk, folk rock and contemporary Christian so flatwounds work fine for me. And don't squeak.

[@KurosakiYukigo]

Unfortunately, this is just part of having roundwound (spring shaped) strings, you're always going to get a bit of a squeak when you slide across them (this is even audible in many professionally produced songs), it's just what the strings sound like. One option you have is to use flatwound strings, which are wound with what is essentially metal tape. These are completely smooth to the touch and don't squeak or make really any noise when slid across, however, the tone profile is very different. Flatwound strings are often used in jazz recordings, and have a much mellower, duller tone that doesn't stand out as much on the mix, but they'll sound pretty flat in most rock songs.

[@harrylime5370]

Excellent video. I do have a question? So you are not necessarily muting every note, but just muting the string after you have moved off of it? Would that be correct? Thank you for any help.

[@BecomeABassist]

That's absolutely correct @Harry Lime. You're stopping the string from vibrating when you don't want it to. Lots of times, they want to vibrate the *most* right after you remove your fingers from the strings, so it makes sense to focus on muting right at those moments.

[@harrylime5370]

@@BecomeABassist thank you.

[@TomFoxBeats]

Great tutorial! Can I ask, what bass is that?

[@BecomeABassist]

For sure - it's a Spector Euro!

[@TomFoxBeats]

@@BecomeABassist Thanks mate, it's very nice - gonna have a look at some ;)

[@rchrd3353]

is it normal to play a higher string like D for instance, and have a lower string ring even though you never touched it? is there a technical cause for this or is something wrong with my bass?

[@BecomeABassist]

Yes - that's totally normal. They're sometimes called sympathetic vibrations. For example, if you play your A on your D-string at the 7th fret, then stop it from ringing, your A-string will continue to resonate (if you haven't muted it) even though you never played it in the first place. The A on the D-string 'excites' the open A-string and it would happen even on the fanciest bass around. There's nothing wrong with your bass at all.

[@rchrd3353]

@@BecomeABassist great thanks for the quick info! My first 4 string bass didn't do this as noticeably so I was wondering if my new 5 string was defective. Will have to work on my muting regardless with the extra string. Thanks for the helpful video!

[@teamatfort444]

id assume these techniques carry over to electric guitar?

[@TheTimeProphet]

What about the ringing from plucking open strings?

[@BecomeABassist]

For the strings that sound higher than the string you plucked, you generally mute those with the fretting hand, and for the strings that sound lower than the one you pluck, you generally mute those with the fingers of the plucking hand. For example, if you pluck an open D string, the finger you plucked with will usually land on the A-string and mute that one, and you can use your thumb to mute the E-string. Your fretting hand can graze the G-string so it doesn't ring out.

[@TheTimeProphet]

@@BecomeABassist Thanks. I mainly play guitar, but got a bass to play some real bass on my songs instead of faking it.

[@musicfromthegreatbeyond2024]

Another string muting question: when playing with a pick, in addition to the left hand tools (which are great, by the way), is there anything you can do with your right hand? I've found touching the strings (the E & A at least) lightly with the fleshy part of my palm just above the thumb works pretty well... is there any reason NOT to do this? Thanks, JT

[@warkidooo14]

Palm muting works great with guitars, can't see why it wouldn't be the same with picked bass. You basically rest the side of your hand (above pinky finger) on the strings and near the bridge.

[@ShadowRadiance]

PUPPY!

[@masterdshamin2689]

7:15

[@artprintvisual]

First class teacher.

[@ItsaCatsLife]

Fret wraps work pretty well too.

[@SnarkyRC]

Yeah but, those promote bad technique.

[@ItsaCatsLife]

@@SnarkyRC Rubbish. Pro bassists use them all the time, especially in the studio.

[@simonschmitz6719]

hey, i graduated with a PhD in the field of string muting techniques and spent 15 years of gathering systematic data and doing other scientific research on the matter. i can now say with a 99.74% certainty that the statement: "you never have to worry about ringing strings." is a false statement. it's one of those areas where even the best of the best can still improve a tiny-winy bit and so every bassist has to never stop worry about it.

[@philtaylor8616]

If I could only get past that dreadful vocal fry!!!!!!

[@BecomeABassist]

I know exactly how challenging it is listening to me talk. Lol

[@musicfromthegreatbeyond2024]

Another string muting question: when playing with a pick, in addition to the left hand tools (which are great, by the way), is there anything you can do with your right hand? I've found touching the strings (the E & A at least) lightly with the fleshy part of my palm just above the thumb works pretty well... is there any reason NOT to do this? Thanks, JT

[@BecomeABassist]

The only reason to not do something like that JT would be if it somehow affected your playing in a negative way - like it choked your picking hand and you lost dexterity, but if that isn't happening and it's working for you, that's great!