String Squeak

May 21, 2006

String squeak occurs when a guitar player slides his or her left hand along a string, or changes left hand positions without fully lifting the left hand off of the string before shifting. String squeak is a sound that has been captured endlessly on guitar albums since the birth of recording. I had to redo a track completely on my last album because the squeaks were too prevalent.

Oddly enough, many guitar players actually find string squeak to be pleasing, or at least tolerable. But a classical guitar friend with dozens of albums under his belt made a good point to me the other night: the average listener hates string squeak.

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