A ghost note is a muted note which has no pitch. They are used for their percussive value to create more elaborate rhythms. Hold the note with your left hand but don't push the string down onto the fingerboard. Muting a chord is another way to use ghost notes to enhance a rhythm. Both hands often share the role of muting to isolate and dampen strings.

To play bass type riffs on guitar place two fingers on the same string. One finger plays the string, the other is left on to mute it and then plays a normal note on that string.

Ghost notes are notated by replacing the notehead with a x.