Happy Holidays everyone! I hope all holidays were great.

I've noticed an unwanted sound that happens occasionally. This is the sound of the open strings being sounded when I release notes - like a plucking sound. It is especially noticeable when using the MIDI pickup with a Roland GR-55 and then only on certain sound patches. But it also happens when playing with no effects. Are there any technique tricks to eliminating this? It doesn't happen all the time, just intermittently.

Thanks!

Practice your soft release! Our fingers are both the hammer and the damper for our notes. When you are more deliberate with releasing pressure from the strings without lifting your fingers off them, you'll notice your playing clean up real quick. You'll also start to become more aware of how to use your hands in tandem as mutes, finding tricks to lay your fingers and Palms across the strings subtly when you need them. Oftentimes I have my pinky on my left hand acting is a mute for the treble side even while the left hand plays bass side notes.

This video gives a bit of an introduction to the technique at about the 3:54 mark

It helps to try to keep your fingers engaged with the strings at all times touching them, but not fretting them.

By playing adjacent to the fret, so that you can feel the back side of the fret on the leading edge of your finger, rather than "off the fret", less of your finger will overlap the string, so you'll be less likely to "pluck" it when you release the note.

Also, if you use hand movement, rather than a finger-only "typing" technique you will be releasing along the line of the string rather than perpendicular to it.

As with so many other aspects of playing the instrument, a hand movement based approach helps solve this problem.

Try not to "squeeze" the note after you play it, as this can press the string into your skin, especially the thinnest strings.

Last tip, make sure your truss isn't too tight so that the strings are resting on the X fret when you release them. You can test this out by damping the string at the X fret and then releasing the note, and compare the sound with the "extra sound" you are hearing.

Hope that helps.

Seven years playing and I still can’t get this right Scott.

K

Thanks, Josh. What happens when you want to change to a different string or repeat the note more than once? Don't you have to release the string at some point to move to another part of the instrument? The plucking sound still happens. The idea of using my fingers or palms as dampening devices is EXTREMELY unappealing.

Thanks, Greg. How does hand movement affect this "extra sound" when playing the same fret on a different string? This only happens occasionally - like when changing chords quickly, even when playing the same chord shape on the next set of strings.

also you need to adjust the GR-55 settings according to your GK pickup (firm,height etc..)

Thanks, Boaz. This happens even when playing with no effects. With certain patches like guitar modelers the “extra sound” isn’t present but some of the synthesizer patches magnify the problem.

Since I tend to play not with the tips of my fingers, but more with the pad, the fingers are usually touching the adjacent string (though not fretting it), unless I am next to my low bass string, then I use more of the tip.

When you move along the line of the string with the hand you don't risk "plucking" the string as you release it. Also, the hand movement takes care of the timing of the release for you, so you don't even have to think about it. If you're moving the hand quickly, then there will be no gap between the notes.

It's okay to touch the adjacent string to the ones you're playing, and it can even help to damp them.

This happens sometimes with my PRS Custom 24 on a GR-55.
It takes lots of practice to eliminate the problem.

The same sort of thing happens on a saxophone.
Without consistent practice, I get the odd unwanted sounds.