Hi Jacob,
I know what you mean. Brian makes it look so easy. He say’s to lay the fat part of your hand below the thumb lightly across the bass notes you want to dampen. It’s hard though. I struggle with it too. Just another technique that comes with practice.

James

I play about 50:50 fingerstyle to pick, and what I learned early on is that there are some licks that just can’t be played fingerstyle. On the other hand, there are some licks that much easier and sound much better when played fingerstyle. Both styles require some string muting, and there are masterclasses on Youtube that delve into this issue. It takes years to get good at it.

As a teenager I always lost my guitar picks and didn’t have enough money to buy new ones. That’s how I learned (read: was forced) to play with my fingers.

Any advice on right hand positioning to mute or dampen unplayed strings that (frustratingly) ring when bumped or left alone?

I find playing muted notes very difficult. With finger picking the hand is relatively far from the strings. With me anyway. I haven’t found a good way yet.

I play with very short fingernails, so I try to dampen the string with the flesh of one or more fingers

Luc