Is pad instead of fingertip prefered here?

[mikoguitar78]

I think that muting with the left hand is good in some situations, especially when muting a high open string is needed. It is very simple and efficient and I don't know how you could make it with the right hand. Play an open E and then a D on the 2nd string. If you don't want the E to ring, you have to mute it with the 3rd finger, so you play the D with the pad... Muting the higher string with the right hand seems awkward in that very common situation. As for bass strings, I fully agree with the side-of-the-thumb thing. Once you get used to it, you don't even have to think about it. Then another situation requiring left-hand muting is when you have a chord played with the thumb with some unwanted open string inside. You can only mute with the left hand....

[Larry McDonald]

Hi,
I have fat fingers so I can do this rather easily, so I regularly damp this way. I picked this up from Julian Bream. At first I thought "how sloppy". Wow, was I wrong!

My students who have narrow finger tips have more trouble.

Lare

[Nick Cutroneo]

I've been doing that for years. It's a carry over from my electric-guitar-playing past. When using an insane amount of distortion if I didn't mute and dampen strings with my left hand I'd get a lot of unwanted noise and uncontrollable feedback. I mostly use my index finger to mute out strings, this coincides with the typical technique of how I teach students to use the first finger anyway. There is a small change from the "proper" position of the 1st finger to this muted position. I'm still using the finger tip of my finger -- the placement of the finger on the string doesn't change. I allow for single note melodies to ring out clearer as open string crossings are not effected. When I'm playing single note melodies/scales/etc... it pretty much stays in that position.

[BugDog]

Ha! I thought I had invented the technique. I even named it. I called it slop damping.

[robin loops]

A friend of mine had a teacher that used to say, "Sometimes you damp with the right hand, other times your left, and sometimes you use your nose if that's what's available." He played a 10 string so damping was somewhat more difficult. He was kidding about the nose (I think) but his point was that you damp with what you can...

I would say as a general rule right hand is preferable but sometimes you'll need to use the left. Sometimes tips and sometimes the edge, sometimes simply releasing pressure on string held down with left hand finger (although not necessarily moving the finger off the string), sometimes the right hand thumb, sometimes you can use a rest stroke to dampen adjacent strings... This is something you'll develop over time. The main thing I would avoid is changing from proper hand position to use it for damping like flattening left hand fingers (playing with pad) to accommodate muting a note. This is really typical in electric playing (example: muting at bridge by resting pick hand on the saddle, sometimes reaching over top of neck with left thumb, etc.) but with classical it's best to develop good technique and optimum hand positions and let the damping fall into place from there (rather than altering angles/positions to dampen notes and having to adjust your technique later).

Scales are a good way to develop good damping techniques... Some say always practice scales using rest stroke, but I find that practicing them with free strokes and using thumb to dampen is useful too. Have your teacher show you how to properly use scales to strengthen overall technique. Also planting is another great way to dampen... Ask your teacher to explain how that works. If you learn several methods to dampen notes you will then also know when you need to dampen by playing on pads (i.e. no better alternative available).

One thing I'd add. I'd say the fact that you are aware of the need to dampen notes and not just let them sustain means you are way ahead of the game and doing better than a lot of beginners. Truly one of the most important thing to getting melodies and bass lines to sound clear and independent of one another. I overlooked that one for years and could never understand why my bass lines (sometimes melodies) just seemed to get lost in the mix.