 On guitar, damping (also referred to as choking) is a technique where, shortly after playing the strings, the sound is reduced by pressing the right hand palm against the strings, right hand damping (including palm muting), or relaxing the left hand fingers' pressure on the strings, left hand damping (or left-hand muting).Scratching is where the strings are played while damped, i.e., the strings are damped before playing.The term presumably refers to the clunky sound produced.