Palm Muting

Palm muting is a widely used technique, but hard to get down when you first start playing. It's popularly used with power chords to get a "beefy" sound. Anyways, on with the lesson. When palm muting, it's important that you keep the notes clarity. That is, don't make it so muted that no one (including you) can tell what note you're playing. Start by putting your pinky finger right in front of the bridge across the bottom 3 strings (E, A, and D). Hold an E5 as shown below and strum about 5 times.

D|--2---
A|--2---   x5
E|--0---

I've found in my playing that using your pinky is the best way to palm mute when standing up, mostly because it gives you more freedom of movement, but of course that's just me personally. You can use your actual "palm" when using this technique though.

All right, that's it. Practice, switch up some chords, make a hit riff for a song. Good luck.

Comments

[Oswald]

Palm muting is pretty fukkin simple....

[The_andy88]

A person that wants to learn
how to p.m. wil not learn much from
this lesson

[Fender24]

why doesnt someone that can actually palm mute and explain it better send in a lesson

[SheepBomb]

Yeah, palm muting is simple, just try to pick up on that lesson, you'll get it.

[scotty79]

Its tough, yeah...now how exactly do you do it??

[Kick Me]

Right......
So, how do you palm mute?!

[Lainey]

I don't think that this lesson is very helpful and i totally agree with "kick me" How do you palm mute?

[Mi_sung]

Me thinks ur stupid. Plam mutting is simple, put the bottom of ur plam (that thing above ur wrist) on the bridge of the guitar (right at the bottom of the strings) and strum a chord. There plam mutting clas 101.

[bass_maiden]

anyone erm.....no how 2 palm mute?!
(i am a newbie by the way!)

e-mail me plees 2 tell me how 2 palm mute!!!

[bass_maiden]

wupps forgot 2 put my e-mail its [e-mail]

[slayer_rocks666]

its easy to understand what the ***ing muscian is talking about.

[anti-goth]

mi_sung- quit crackin on the guy! learn how to spell!palm not plam! i think it was a good damn lesson!

[JLD]

It was a ***n great lesson. It helped a lot thx

[XBlInKfAnX]

I agree you need to explain a little more whoever wrote the lesson. The other person that explained it did it better and he only used a paragraph (Mi_sung explained up top) People doing writing lessons need to know what they are explaining about and whether they can do it themselves

[IlikeMyNewShoes]

I dont get it.

[Whitematter33]

I don't understand any of this..

[rzrzero]

palm mute = you keep your right right hand PALM over the strings near the bridge while still being able to pluck the strings...

[Hamboy]

I agree with those somewhat dissappointed by the 'lesson' taught here. I get the jist of palm muting, but doing it effectively is the problem.

spam deleted

[b_robinson]

this lesson sucks

[pooper361]

its a little tricky at first to get, but you just have to keep practicing, its hard to find the balance of how much weight/resistance to put up against the strings your first time

[airguitarist]

I learned how to palm mute reading rzrzeros post hahaha read it its easy

[gary19862k6]

ive been wanting to learn palm muting for ages and stil not came across a lesson tht actually expains how to do it :S

[14GreenDay]

how long have you been playing guitar?

[bigEsmalls]

ok i need to now how to palm mute with a bass guitar and i need to now how fuzz plays it on " down with the sickness" by: disturbed... dont remember the name of the cd. but its by the first of the song after the dumbs play a bit u can start to hear fuzz playing and i have noF*C* N clue... email me with the [e-mail]

[ace_lester]

hehe..wat a lesson..hope the novices understand it.. P.M. Just stick ur palm on the strings the strum it.. its not hard at all..

[ace_lester]

hehe..wat a lesson..hope the novices understand it.. P.M. Just stick ur palm on then strings the strum it.. its not hard at all..

[14GreenDay]

ace_lester wrote:

hehe..wat a lesson..hope the novices understand it.. P.M. Just stick ur palm on then strings the strum it.. its not hard at all..

every1 should thank ace_lester because he summed up pm in 1 sentence while the dumbass who wrote th article completely overdid it

[Bored2death]

what ever idiot who posted this lesson is retarded and wtf does he think using the pinky in pm good?

[bdaddy]

this lesson has taught me nothing can some one who actually knows how to pm post a lesson worth reading so i can figure it out

[Dancing Fool]

Good lesson in general, but needs to be in depth

[simonzwaan]

yeh dont even need a lesson for this

[darkcontender]

umm you the one who made this lesson didnt even say "how" to palm mute.. and where do u exactly put your palm?

[trueguitarhero]

im still lost and KoNfUzEd

[Demeroth]

Hem...i didnt understand...help me!!!

[Billie236]

Simple dude you just mute the string right after you play the chord for example insted of letting it ring out until it stops stop it yaself








Overall Best Palm Mutting Lesson ever

[Billie236]

you put ya palm anywhere across the strongs just over the pick ups it wouldn't matter where

[G Double D]

You All Are Dunb

[im_bored]

this is a horrible lesson, you mute the string(s) with your palm, how the he11 do you use your pinky?

[RSOB Bass]

i learnt it from rzrzero

[redhavok]

bit short for a lesson isnt it?...

[dio363]

i still have no idea how to palm mute this did not help at all!!!

[5e1v5h0]

use your picking hand to mute the string

[orgasmickey]

you actually use your pinky? does anyone else do this?

[Zer0_In]

this lesson in a nutshell:
In order to palm mute, you take your guitar, and then palm mute

[Big_Rat]

You're supposed to use your palm, hence "palm muting" not pinky muting, nub XD

[headblade]

crap? =)