This is a technique which is often over looked or misunderstood by guitarists and while 'Dampening' can cover a whole multitude of areas concerning the guitar, this blog will focus more on the application of 'Picking Hand Dampening'.
Right from a students' first lesson I look to emphasis the importance of 'Picking Hand Dampening', as PHD is an effective way of muting unwanted string noise when soloing while using overdrive or distortion.
The technique focuses on resting the side of your picking hand on the bridge of the guitar (think of a judo chop action!) and as you begin to ascend across the strings with your fretting hand your picking hand will now follow, moving off of the guitar bridge and onto the strings you are not playing in a diagonal movement. This allows the side of your picking hand to mute and dampen the remain strings and stop unwanted noise and potential feedback from occurring whilst you are ripping out your favourite licks and allows the notes that you are playing to have more clarity and definition.
