PALM MUTING

 

This is a technique used when you want to sound a note or chord, but you don't want it to ring - you want it to sound muffled. Palm-muting is a technique is used on both electric as well as acoustic guitar.

What you need to do is prevent the strings from vibrating when they are struck.

In order to get a feel for what palm-muting feels and sounds like, just try this...

 

 

  1. Rest the heel of your picking-hand's palm lightly across the low strings and near the bridge of the guitar

  2. Form any power-chord with your fretting-hand and then strike the chord - at the same time lightly mute the relevant strings with your picking-hand's palm

Note: Don't mute the strings too much or you'll realize that they can't be heard.

 

If it doesn't sound too great, then keep practicing for a little bit.

What you want to hear is all the strings - there are 2 things that you should make sure of:

  1. you don't want the strings to sound "dead"

  2. you don't want to hear "ringing" strings either

You just want all the strings to sound "muffled".

You have to apply just the right amount of pressure while dampening the strings with your picking-hand's palm.

If you apply too much pressure, then the notes won't ring at all...and if you apply too little pressure you will only be able to mute some strings and the others will ring as if you weren't even palm-muting!

So if you want to get adept at this technique, then all you have to do is practice it slowly and properly...try to get an even and controlled sound.

Palm-muting is usually used solely when playing power-chords.

 

Ok a small tip for you: Don't do like the picture below. Notice how the palm is so far away from the bridge?

 

 

Keep your muting palm as near the bridge as possible. This will ensure that you don't get too "dead" a sound.

You'll get a deader sound the further away it is.

So to get maximum sound as well as the chunky palm-muted sound, simply move the muting-palm closer to the bridge (like the first pic at the beginning of this chapter).

Try out different hi-low positions with your muting-palm until you settle in comfortably with one.