r/guitarlessons • u/Aduron213 • 4d ago

Question Best way to miss strings while strumming?

Hi all, I’m curious about how to “miss” strings while strumming somewhat faster. For example, if I’m playing a progression of triads on the top three strings, and I’m strumming eighth notes in a reasonably fast time, I find I’m always hitting the other strings. I know I can mute sometimes with my fretting hand (like with the movable B7 chord), but that’s for strings next to my fingers, not all three.

Do I need to just “get better at strumming”, missing particular strings? I can do it when I go super slowly, but that rhythmic, fast, down-up strumming always hits all 6 strings or none. If so, what exercises work on that?

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u/AbjectPineapple6774 4d ago

Look up palm muting

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u/Aduron213 4d ago

I’ve heard of it — are you saying I should palm mute only some strings? I didn’t know that was possible.

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u/AbjectPineapple6774 3d ago

Yeah, so it takes some time to get the hang of, but with practice you can use palm muting to achieve what you’re looking for. I use it quite a bit, learned mostly through playing a lot of Dave Matthews, who uses the style pretty regularly.

There may be other ways, but this is what I do.