too hard to mute with pinky! any alternatives?

Honu Uke

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a lot of songs require to mute, but i find it really hard to mute with my pinky when i'm playing chords. are there any alternatives???
 
not any substitutes I can think of, but if you problem is that you buzz when you mute, try using less pressure on the strings with your pinky. If it's a matter of coordination I'd suggest you keep practicing and I know you can do it! Trying to mute with anything else would require just as much concentration and practice as muting with anything else
 
thanks for believing in me! i think its kinda hard for me to do it because i can't reach the 4th string either. my hands are really tiny...
 
It took me a couple of weeks of really working at it before I could pinky-mute. Short of that...you could "chunk" or palm mute (depending on the effect you want).
 
Short of that...you could "chunk" or palm mute (depending on the effect you want).

Or play all your chords in an inversion that uses no open strings. Then you can mute by just lifting all your fretting fingers up slightly.

But, as Citrus said, if you're going to go to all that trouble, you might as well just pinky mute. :D

JJ
 
like JJ said, you can lift a bar chord a little and that'll mute the strings. even if it's not a full bar chord, you can sometimes get it to work. for example if you take a g chord you can lift the 3 fingers that are holding the c, e, and a strings a little bit and then the only string that will sound is your g string which you can mute with your thumb.

i just do it like that because i haven't gotten to pinky mutes yet.:eek:
 
Aside from practice, you could mute with your palm. Although that probably won't have the same sound.
 
i love pinkie muting...still dont have it completely down yet...i think its physically impossible for me to pinkie mute while holding an e7 chord :wallbash:
 
i love pinkie muting...still dont have it completely down yet...i think its physically impossible for me to pinkie mute while holding an e7 chord :wallbash:

Try a different voicing. If you usually play 1202 maybe try 4445? (And, of course, 4445 allows the alternative partial pressure-release mute technique mentioned by JJ and Ben) :)

@Honu Uke: Pinkie mute is a great technique. If you find it hard it's well worth persevering, even if you do find an alternative to use in the meantime.

Small hands can be a nuisance, but very often with practice small hands can do a lot more than you might expect them to. I have small hands for a biggish guy, and I never thought I'd be able to fret a mandolin G chop chord (mando players will know my pain), but it came in the end.

Good luck. :shaka:
 
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You can play the cord and then mute it with the palm of your hand. it sounds just light a finger mute!
 
thanks for believing in me! i think its kinda hard for me to do it because i can't reach the 4th string either. my hands are really tiny...

It may seem impossible at the moment, but keep on practicing. There are things that seem easy, things that seem hard and things that seem impossible. The greatest satisfaction comes from mastering those things that seem impossible at first.

I went to a right-hand techniques workshop at the weekend and came away thinking that I am a far worse ukulele player than I did when I walked in to it. However, I began to practice what had been taught straight away and although I am still miles away from being proficient in any of the techniques taight, I will continue to practice until I am.

And do you know what you should do when you have practiced as much as you can? That's right! Practice some more.

Good luck.

Keep the faith.

Tony
 
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