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Palm Muting

2,385 bytes added, 02:59, 21 June 2015

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Palm Muting is a technique where you rest part of your picking hand palm on top of the strings near the bridge saddles while picking those strings. The effect is that the string's high frequency energy is quickly absorbed by your palm, so you can only hear it during the attack portion of the note, while the lower frequencies continue to resonate. This technique is absolutely essential for most hard rock and metal styles - when used with distortion it provides a signature "djent" sound. It's overall effect is a more percussive sound.

Honestly, this technique is very simple to describe, but it takes years to absolutely master. The part of the palm you use, its location on the strings, and how hard you press the palm against the strings all affect the tone of the mute you will get. Let's start with some don't's:

* ''Don't mute too far away from the bridge. '' The further you place your palm from the bridge, the more it is not simply muting high frequencies but all frequencies.* ''Don't push down on the strings too hard with your palm. '' If you have a floating bridge, you're going to push the strings out-of-tune. Even without it, you don't gain anything you won't get by sliding your palm a little further away from the bridge.* ''Don't try to mute with the middle of your palm. '' How will you pick the strings?!? Use either the part of the palm where it connects to the wrist, or the edge of the palm almost on the side of your hand by the pinky.* ''Don't use a different picking stroke when muting. '' Your normal stroke should work - you are just resting your palm on the strings while making normal picking strokes. You should be able to make down strokes and up strokes without any more or less effort than normal.* ''Don't slam your palm into the strings right before playing palm muted notes. '' You will hear the noise associated with doing so. Your right hand should already be close to the strings - simply move it closer so it touches the strings.

Notice moving your palm further and further away from the point where the strings meet the bridge saddles increases the strength of the mute. Older advice was to keep the palm right on top of the bridge saddles, so that almost all of the low frequency resonance still "got through". Modern players, particularly in djent, are finding that using a mute a bit off the saddles can get a tighter mute, which is important for down-tuned, 7/8-string, or other extended-range guitars.

== Moving Strings while Muting ==

One of the more difficult parts of palm muting is to play two different strings with a continuous series of palm muted notes. When you palm mute, you are instinctually using your palm as an anchor or pivot point to move your wrist and make your picking stroke. To get the same quality palm mute on the next string involves sliding the palm across strings, which can feel awkward at first. Here are some exercises to practice:

1 n 2 3 n 4 1 n 2 n 3 n 4 n 1

p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p

----------------7--8--10--------------7--8--10-----------

--7--8--10-------------------7--8--10----------7--8--10--

1 n 2 3 n 4 1 n 2 n 3 n 4 n 1

p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p

----------------7--8--10--------------7--8--10-----------

---------------------------------------------------------

--7--8--10-------------------7--8--10----------7--8--10--

The only difference between the two exercises is that the 2nd one involves skipping a string, which really forces you to slide your palm instead of simply trying to ''reach'' for the next string. Both exercises have a little break between the first two string skips. This is so you feel the differences between playing one string, pausing, then playing the next, vs. playing one string directly into another string in-time.

Play both exercises using all down picking, then alternate picking. Try on a few different sets of strings, but mainly concentrate on the thicker ones.

1 n 2 3 n 4 1 n 2 n 3 n 4 n 1

p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p

----------------0--0--0---------------0--0--0------------

--0--0--0--------------------0--0--0-----------0--0--0---

All open strings...should be easy right? WRONG. We need to mute those open strings when we move to the next string. You'll have to use your left-hand fingers to do so. Muting the high string isn't so hard, but muting the lower string can be particularly difficult - you need to reach over the other string without touching it.

== Palm Muting and Muting ==

When adding more left-hand fingers to mute, make sure you don't slap the strings too hard - that will create a noise of its own. You want to lightly touch them onto the string. It's the multiple points of contact that really help mute the strings and absorb their resonant energy.

== Q & A ==

== Related Lessons ==

* [[Thrash]]

* [[Djent]]

[[Category:Guitar]]

[[Category:Technique]]

[[Category:Palm Muting]]

[[Category:Muting]]

[[Category:Notation]]