How to Palm Mute
Place the fleshy side of your palm lightly on the strings., Keeping your palm down on the strings, strum normally., Adjust the pressure of your palm to adjust your sound., Experiment with hand position., Adjust your hands to sound certain notes.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Place the fleshy side of your palm lightly on the strings.
Pretend your karate-chopping the strings.
Don't actually hit them, but that shows you what part of your hand should be hitting the strings.
It should be the outside of your palm.When you first put your hand down, it should be perpendicular to the strings, not laying flat against them.
Slide the hand back as close to the bridge as you can-- this makes it easier to learn. -
Step 2: Keeping your palm down on the strings
Use your fingers and light wrist movement to strum while still keeping everything muted.
You want to work on keeping the same weight on the strings as you strum, moving only up and down, not against the strings, as you pick.
It is often easiest to start by just picking one string.
As you get used to keeping it palm muted, play a two-string chord, then a three, and onward. , A lot of palm muting is about the feel on the strings, since the actual skill is not very hard.
The harder you press, the less you'll hear the note of the string and more you'll hear a dampened, percussive sound.
If you are too light you'll just hear buzzing as the strings struggle to move.
The perfect sound is a deadened, but still melodic, note that ends quickly after you strum it.
With dampening, you should be able to hear the pitch when you pick the string.
Try picking the strings one at time to make sure you can hear all the proper pitches rather than a dead plucking sound., You can change how much your hand dampens the sound by moving it back and forth on the strings.
Moving closer to the fretboard dampens the sound more.
However, as noted, you should keep your hand as close to the bridge as possible if you still want to hear pitch. , If you want the first string to sound, lift off that part of your hand.
You can test to make sure it's sounding correctly by strumming it.
Practice lifting off each string in order.
Once you've mastered the technique, you can control which strings are dampened and which strings are not.
You'll be lifting from your wrist, rather than from your fingers.
You can curl your wrist up and down to open up or mute certain strings with some practice. -
Step 3: strum normally.
-
Step 4: Adjust the pressure of your palm to adjust your sound.
-
Step 5: Experiment with hand position.
-
Step 6: Adjust your hands to sound certain notes.
Detailed Guide
Pretend your karate-chopping the strings.
Don't actually hit them, but that shows you what part of your hand should be hitting the strings.
It should be the outside of your palm.When you first put your hand down, it should be perpendicular to the strings, not laying flat against them.
Slide the hand back as close to the bridge as you can-- this makes it easier to learn.
Use your fingers and light wrist movement to strum while still keeping everything muted.
You want to work on keeping the same weight on the strings as you strum, moving only up and down, not against the strings, as you pick.
It is often easiest to start by just picking one string.
As you get used to keeping it palm muted, play a two-string chord, then a three, and onward. , A lot of palm muting is about the feel on the strings, since the actual skill is not very hard.
The harder you press, the less you'll hear the note of the string and more you'll hear a dampened, percussive sound.
If you are too light you'll just hear buzzing as the strings struggle to move.
The perfect sound is a deadened, but still melodic, note that ends quickly after you strum it.
With dampening, you should be able to hear the pitch when you pick the string.
Try picking the strings one at time to make sure you can hear all the proper pitches rather than a dead plucking sound., You can change how much your hand dampens the sound by moving it back and forth on the strings.
Moving closer to the fretboard dampens the sound more.
However, as noted, you should keep your hand as close to the bridge as possible if you still want to hear pitch. , If you want the first string to sound, lift off that part of your hand.
You can test to make sure it's sounding correctly by strumming it.
Practice lifting off each string in order.
Once you've mastered the technique, you can control which strings are dampened and which strings are not.
You'll be lifting from your wrist, rather than from your fingers.
You can curl your wrist up and down to open up or mute certain strings with some practice.
About the Author
Donald Stokes
Experienced content creator specializing in practical skills guides and tutorials.
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