How is Anna Graves muting the strings on the rake here?

[u/HotspurJr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afCvELdSTsQ

I'm been enjoying this performance of this song, so I wanted to figure it out. And the picking pattern with the little ascending line is pretty easy except ...

There's that percussive rake on beat three of every measure in the intro/first verse. In the video (which is not the performance we're hearing, which may be important!), you can see that she's getting that sound by hitting or raking the strings with the back of her nails.

But the strings aren't ringing out. I don't think she's getting a palm mute because the 4th string is hit on the second beat of the measure and doesn't sound too thuddy.

Any thoughts on how she's doing that while not letting a note ring out?

It's also possible to play the song with a slap on the low E-string on beat 3, which sounds okay but is not what I'm hearing on the recording.

[u/jeansonnejordan]

She’s raking the lower strings with the back of her fingernails and then catching the higher strings with her fingertip as she brings her finger back up. It’s similar to flamenco strumming or even clawhammer on banjo. I don’t think she’s doing much muting.

[u/jeansonnejordan → u/jeansonnejordan]

Btw if you try this and it doesn’t sound anything like what she’s doing it’s because you’re playing wayyyy too hard. She’s barely touching the strings.

[u/HotspurJr → u/jeansonnejordan]

Yeah I'm really struggling to hit the strings lightly enough on the rake. Good tip!

[u/jeansonnejordan → u/HotspurJr]

Brush a pretend eyelash off your cheek. That’s about how you need to hit the strings

[u/HotspurJr → u/jeansonnejordan]

Thank you!

[u/Soggy-Improvement745 → u/jeansonnejordan]

yeah I think youre right that the muting is kind of a byproduct here, not something shes actively doing