Sean wrote
The hairband? What's that?
THIS is a hair band.
? (couldn't resist)
I'm pretty sure what Squonk is talking about is a technique obstacle, and as everyone said, practice is pretty much all you can do.
But to bring attention to the 'dampening';
In the studio I use a fair amount of techniques to mute strings that are not supposed to be played and the
hair band is one of them.
It's actually quite common to use anything from toilet paper to scarfs to neoprene rubber. I often use tissues and masking tape (least residue).
The principle behind the idea is that the strings from the nut to the tuning heads resonate when that string is being plucked, which gives off harmonics/higher notes/slight overtones. (if you're running something like a Jackson or most solid body guitars.
Also if you're running a tune-o-matic bridge, then the strings from the bridge to tail-stop or string-through-body are often dampened too.
I'm not talking about the ACTUAL strings between nut and bridge.
Here's a pic of my guitar for a show I played about two years ago. To give you an example of where I'm talking about.
If you're running a floyd rose, You'll also need to dampen the springs in the back cavity as they ring out worse than the strings. Some would consider that adding to the tone. But I'm extremely fussy like that.
When playing leads/solo, it's also quite common (but cheating to some) to actually take the hair band and slide it to the lowest note of the solo. It acts as a capo but only touches the strings lightly therefore just killing the strings you hit by accident. It's a cheap version of
this
Quick easy techniques to cleaner guitar/bass recording ?
