This is (in tab) E6-A5-A7-D5-D7-D5-A7-A5. I finger this a M-I-P-I-P-I-P-I.
I find it hard to mute on the way down, especially the A. For the E, my R thumb can mute it, but it’s a bit tricky moving the thumb down to the A. Muting on the way up is not so bad, as the left hand takes care of it.
Any advice? Maybe I just need more practice to coordinate my R thumb and left hand.
If i follow what you’re asking, it’s about muting the A when playing the D? If so, then when you play the D, your finger should land on the A and mute it.
Is that along the lines of your question?
Other than that, moving your thumb down to the A will get more natural if you practice it. “Floating thumb” is one example of a technique that does that.
I initially found moving my right thumb from E to A a bit unnatural but now I do it without thinking. My problem is that I started on an acoustic so when plucking the E I had no rest for my thumb. I tried just laying it on the body but that was too low and I ended up picking the E without using any rest at all. Now I have an electric I just can’t persuade my thumb to use the pickup as a rest. Apart from anything else it’s not in quite the right place for where I naturally pluck. Ho hum, something to work on.
Ok, sounds like I just need to get my thumb to cooperate. I wanted to see if I was missing anything.
You can move your thumb down and rest it on the A string while playing notes on the D string, but you shouldn’t have to. As @skydvr said, when you pluck the D string, your finger should come to rest on the underside on the A string and that will keep it muted.
The only time I rest my thumb on the A string is if I am playing the G.
Also, what do you mean when you say you finger it M-I-P….? What is the P?
My assumption was he was talking fretting hand, and that’s middle-index-pinkie on the 6-5-7 frets…
Ok that makes sense lol I was thinking “plucking with…the pinky?”
Yes, that was it.