Hi Mike,

There's no such thing as a dumb question if you don't know the answer to it. Rest assured that others will find it useful that you've asked

One way to achieve what you are after is ...

... left-click your mouse on the bar that's the first bar of the section you want to be silent, press F5 (or right click and choose "Bar Settings"), and then set the Strings track to "Mute" from the dropdown menu. To reactivate the track, click on the first bar of the section you want to have the sound play, press F5 and choose "Back to normal".

Regards,
Noel