Ghost note

A note played so softly, or muted so heavily, that it is felt as rhythm rather than heard as pitch.

Ghost notes are the percussive connective tissue of funk, soul and much fingerstyle playing: the string is struck but the fret hand does not press it fully, so the result is a click or thud on the beat. They keep the right hand moving in sixteenth-note patterns and give a groove its swing without filling the harmonic space. Players who cannot ghost a note usually end up over-playing, because every stroke has to become a real note.

Example: A funk rhythm part where the right hand keeps strumming sixteenths but only a few strokes produce audible pitches is built on ghost notes.

Ghost note

See also