Help an old dog learn new palm muting tricks

Dpoirier

Dpoirier

Fractal Fanatic
Hey everyone, I've been around and playing guitar for much much longer than my limited talent would indicate... It's been a lifelong hobby, though I take it seriously, but still never been a pro or on any path leading up to it.

Now I'm trying to learn a fast run that involves palm muting on the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings in the low frets area, and I realize that I've never been very good at palm mutes at all, let alone on higher strings. With my floating Floyd Rose bridge, I'm already at a disadvantage (the original song was played on a Les Paul by someone who obviously masters guitar in general and palm mutes specifically).

So, I'm seeking help from this great community. I'm willing to work at it to develop the skill, but I don't even know where to start.

Can anyone provide advice, tips resources that might help me?

Thanks so much in advance
 
Make sure your pick hand is comfortable. I can't think of any way to get better at palm mutes besides practicing them.
 
Dpoirier said:
With my floating Floyd Rose bridge, I'm already at a disadvantage (the original song was played on a Les Paul by someone who obviously masters guitar in general and palm mutes specifically).
Click to expand...
Yes, but if you could get proficient on that bridge, what a technique you'd have. It just takes practice using a fairly light touch. You may not have to use as much palm pressure on the bridge as you might think. I don't.
 
Last edited:
Guys, thanks for the input and encouragement. I'll just work at it, and try to learn about relaxing the grip and the light touch. 🙏
 
Where is the heel of your hand while picking/strumming? Don't rest your hand on the bridge, mine barely touches the bridge with fixed or tremolo (including a Floyd) bridges, so palm mutes are just a matter of moving my hand slightly forward to engage the strings. My hand moves up and down, across the bridge, while strumming or changing strings while picking.

It doesn't take much pressure at all to get a good palm mute. How far to move depends on how much the strings need to be muted. Right at the saddle will allow for some string vibration and as you move forward, the strings will become more muted. A slight rocking of the hand will allow you to mute specific strings when necessary. It just takes practice to get consistent results.
 
JoKeR III said:
It doesn't take much pressure at all to get a good palm mute
Click to expand...
I think this is a key thing. I suspect it’s not even possible to do fast downstrokes with palm muting if you press on the strings so strongly that a floating bridge moves in. Because relaxed wrist movements need to meet no obstruction.

So in that sense an FR may be an advantage really - it won’t let you press too much, you’ll hear when you’re overdoing it. A built in quality control!

Also, sometimes people try to mute too many strings with the picking hand, and most of the muting should be done by the fretting one - that’s another thing that can mess up relaxed wrist rocking.

And if these two things are right, you can catch an interaction pattern where strings kind of spring your hand back after the downstroke, so your upstroke misses the string by just a bit without any special effort. Then speed is like bouncing a ball against the floor, quite a natural thing that doesn’t require strain, it’s more a matter of amplitude and a “resonance” of the whole system. You don’t push against it, you work with it.

Don’t know if the explanation makes sense, but that’s how I think about it.
 
I also wanted to recommend old Metallica riffs for practice. As I was young, I used to practice palm mutes on a classic guitar, that really helped me with force control and measure how much to press and pick as well as where exactly to press near the bridge to get it ringing.
 
toneseeker911 said:
Master of puppets. Start at 50% speed and work your way up, with only down strokes.
Click to expand...
This is the way. I’m only at 80% on good days still, but alt picking speed also gets faster as you work on down picking. IME, you really need the picking motion to be from the wrist.

Hoping to hit full speed in the next few months. Only downside is I have to be careful not to practice down picking heavily on the days I also work out hard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom