Palm Muting ll

I noticed there was only one other palm muting lesson in here, and everybody was making bad comments on it, so I decided to put one in. I've only been playing guitar for about a month and a half and this is my first lesson, so bere with me. I found palm muting very simple, so, il share it with you.

Palm muting is a very simple technique, which is used very often to give a short (stubby) sound, not completely mute the note, which is what you would think because of the name. All it really is, is having your palm on the bottom of the string(s), right next to where the bridge is, while strumming the chord or note. Sounds easy right? Well it is, once you get used to it. I found it uncomfortable to do it, and I found that my palm was sliding up the string, so that there was no sound at all, but after time, I got used to it, as I am sure you will too, and it became easier and easier to do. You don't really have to press down hard, just enough to give it that sound that you want. A song that I think has good palm muting in it is Sum41's "still waiting", at the beginning with: (i skipped the first time around, this is played twice)

e|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
b|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
g|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
d|-9--9--9--9--9--9--9--9--5--5--5--5--5--5--5--5-----------------------------------|
a|-7--7--7--7--7--7--7--7--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--5--5--5--5--5--5--5--5-----------|
e|-----------------------------------------------------------3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3-|
pm .  .    .    .   .    .   .    .   .   .    .   .    .   .    .   .    .    .  .

 e|-----------------------------|
 b|-----------------------------|
 g|---------------------------7-|
 d|--7--7--7--7--7--7--7--7-----|
 a|--5--5--5--5--5--5--5--5-----|
 e|-----------------------------|
 pm  .  .  .  .  . .   .  .

the "pm" tells you when to palm mute, and the "." indicates which notes/chords to palm mute on. It may be above or below the tab, or may be in another form, but it still means the same thing, palm mute. As you can see, the last chord is not palm muted, so you lift your palm off of the strings to play it. I hope this helped all of you who didn't know how to palm mute.

Comments

[Butterknife]

it sounded pretty good. Palm muting just takes practice.

[Butterknife]

1st by the way

[ghost5]

yeah very good i understood it well

[NachtTOTEM]

After getting accustomed to that, try alternate picking while muting the strings. then crank the gain and rock out.

[gypmg233]

i think it is cool that so many people want to lear n the guitar and what he said about palm muting is reallt true just remember to keep your palm in the back BY the bridge and to keep it there and not to lift your hand up and down

[iluvledzeppelin]

i have an acoustic and i couldnt get it to work. even if i put my hand on the very back by the bridge, i still didnt get any sound.

[wicked_innit]

um techinally to get a proper sound u actually need to use an electric

[kb122402]

i play accoustics way more than i play electrics, and muting on an accoustic is easy. Theres nothing too palm muting, i dont see how ne one can post an entire lesson on it

[bigdavedude182]

nice, i had trouble palm muting first time itried now i'm
quite good i must say , great!!!

[TaZrahzeljr]

nyce lesson but a common misconception about palm muting is that you use your palm. What you're really using is he side of your hand

[dude im 11]

yo im 11 and it made sense to me nice job!

[vizo]

what about up and downstroke/alternate muting?

[Tony_Iommi]

tell them all about double pick palm muteing

how about Palm Muteing ADVANCED!

[tomatopot]

it was okay, but you could have gone into a little more detail.

[Themarsh]

a little more detai? you just put your palm on the strings at the bridge what do you want him to go to your house and do it for u?

[original_rocker]

wow, thats the first time i actually read properly how 2 palm mute, first time i could actually make the sound properly....god im a dumbass, that took me long

[yeller56]

I've been palm muting since I picked up a guitar, and at first I didn't even know it, accicdent really.

[Dexter Smith]

very good, palm muting is usually a very tricky technique for a newbie

[broken_leg]

that was a good lesson now i know why a few songs i play dont sound right. cheers

[acousticsoul]

ya palm mute is good for more emotional songs...but i cant do songs where theres a pm every other beat....

[nickpoonvictory]

hallo ...whats means plam??

[IBISONA]

thanks for the tip mate

[DaddyTwoFoot]

You don't need an article about it. You put the side of your hand on the strings and strum. Done. And you didn't mention something that I (personally) do, which is basically make a barre without any pressure and strum.

[metal_man12]

It takes a little skill to sound good, like in sad but true.if You can have it fully palmed, it will sound bad and to chunky. This was a good lesson.

[Punk as atticus]

i got a question. i here loads of songs where they play palm muting in sixthteenth notes or faster. Do you use upstrokes when you do these palm mutes?

[ChurchPunk]

A great song to practce palm muting on is Thousand Foot Krutch's Rawkfist. Its an awesome song! You must hear it.

[ChurchPunk]

Oh, great lesson, by the way. Great work, man!

[xducktape182x]

a really good song to do fast palm muting is stolkholm syndrome by blink 182 during the inturlude!!!

[guitar_boi_1986]

You explained well but some parts are a little hard to understand. but other then that rock on dude

[calicovon]

Way better than the other lesson. Thanx, it helped a lot.

[daradesho]

man,*** this
i dont even know what dose bridge mean

[DJ Teac]

Man if you don't know what the Bridge is then you should learn what the parts of the guitar named.

[jumpinflash]

Man..I've been playing the guitar for over a year and I never knew how to palm mute, I'm completely self taught, and now I can finally play Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love the way Eddie plays it!!

[Punk as atticus]

so do i up and downstroke on pm?

[Blizzardboy402]

thanks a bunch i get it now

[fox69]

wow fer a first lesson thats sweet. i've never takin lessons an i didnt no how to palm mute. thanx a bunch man

[Hong Siah]

great lesson..now palm muting is much clearer to me...thanks a lot dude

[hippie person]

dude great lesson thanks. later

[Exaton]

"Palm muting is a very simple technique"
Are you kidding?? Try to play smoothly Metallica's fast riff in the middle of "Seek & Destroy" or "Master Of Puppetts" first & verse riffs. It's really hard.

[Andy T]

fuk you!!!..

[EDDII]

palm muting is so simple so hard to do well, if you ask me i would say that most people make the mistake of muting to hard, if you just place your hand so lightly that it almosts bounces off the stings you get a sound similar to harmonics which i think is an awsome sound, i had to restrain from writing all my songs with palm mute

[Huguette]

...god maybe it's my lack of english but i still don't get the position right...:-(..and the video won't work on my computer !!

[DeMoNiX]

Yeah, nice lesson dude; I think any begginer can understand, good job.

[randomucker]

dude this lesson suks any 1 who dosent know how to palm mute in the first place are fags

[randomucker]

seriously wat he said

[randomucker]

man how true is that kid up there^

[Surf3r]

Very nice, espeacially for a punk who has been playing for a month!

[chevelle88]

good lesson, one question though, in some tabs you often see "xxxx" for example in the chevelle "closure" tab, do these also mean palm muting or what is it??

[Beowulf Batosai]

The xxxx's in songs refer to muting the strings. Just let your fingers rest on the strings on the fretboard while plucking. It will kill the sound and give a clicking-type sound that you need.

[mistaman]

that was good. i get it now. if you want to hear a lot of palm muting, then listen to the cars, especially "my best friends girl"

[Dutchgirl]

Thanks dude, you made it all very clear to me

And to the guy who calls everybody who doesn't know how to palm mute a fag: I guess you were born with the gift of knowing how to do it?
Why don't you come up with some good comments instead of just showing your stupidity.

[green_day9]

I must say, i didn't get it at first, i kept tryin to pul my finger offf and on again..... it didn't seem to work..... I didn't get ur lesson either, but i read through it a feew times i got it

[onlinedevil]

really gr8. its how i learnt bout palm muting and it worked on me, so y shudnt it work on sum1 else?

[skindred]

iluvledzeppelin
wrote:

i have an acoustic and i couldnt get it to work. even if i put my hand on the very back by the bridge, i still didnt get any sound.

thats the funniest thing ive heard all year. acoustic muting, ah theres tears in my eyes

[tubab0y]

[thebrokensmile]

palm muting is the easiest thing to learn on guitar. a good palm muted song is spiel mit mir by rammstein. 90% of the song is palm muted and is a good example.

[ShaunSA]

this lesson just made life alot easier!

[CemtaryDrive10]

Devil In New Jersey by Coheed and Cambria. The verses are good pm practice. awesome song

[jimmy hendrix 2]

wtf since when cant u palm mute on da acoustic?? its easier ffs

[green_day9]

its really hard to palm mute fast

[pommegrenade]

nice lesson!!! Palm muting is awsome especially in heavy metal songs and i hate greenday cause it sucks ass..They copied every other band and they r led zeppelin wanna be's...They copied their colour from the white stripes

[The Spoon]

awesome! i finally figured out how to do it. I thought you just mute with all four fingers on the fretboard

[Aozora]

randomucker wrote:

dude this lesson suks any 1 who dosent know how to palm mute in the first place are fags

1) Why are you reading a lesson on palm mutting if you know how to do it so well?

2) Just because some body has been playing guitar for less than a month, doesn't mean they are homosexual.

3) I have a hard time believing you were born knowing how to palm mute.

.. Anyway. This was a pretty good lesson. I think I would have used a different example, but I liked it. Thank-you.

[TyphoidSpider]

Thank god for people like you. I mean, I already knew how to palm mute, but i dont have a "palm muting gene". i had to learn it somewhere. I'm a newbie too, only been playing 4 months, and its these sorts of lessons that helped me progress so easily. Not really a punk fan though, but good example. Tool is the most awesome band. Rock on.

[Jordy Savill]

It rally helped me. palm muting just needs a little practice that's all

[Bored_2_Death]

this lesson rules! i learned how 2 palm mute and now its my fav guitar technique

[Tracer]

i'm not gonna lie man pretty sweet lesson

[bdaddy]

this lesson helped alot i still can't to it very well but now i now how

[newman13]

I actually learneed palm muting from watching other people, but it was very well explained here. Good job.

[dav3011]

i know how to palm mute, but when i try doing it the notes don't make a sound lol

[JustMalcolm]

i cant seem to do a palm mute, or it just doesn't sound right with my guitar or something. When i try a palm mute it makes almost a sound of harmonics. can anyone help me out? also, i didnt exactly know what he meant by

bottom of the string.

does he mean like literally between 2 strings or what? thanks people.

[blinker2thinker]

Good lession for greenhorns. Thanks for teaching these kids how to punk it out!! Rock On

[Crom_Dubh]

good one, thanks a lot. this really took me into palm muting and when I realized what was the problem I was stuck....actually it's such simple and stupid that I was ashamed ... thanks again, keep up the good works!

[Crom_Dubh]

oh another thing (sorry for the double post...)to the other beginners like me try practising palm muting over Of sins and shadows by Symphony X..great song!!it's tuned Drop D, I think..

[sTx]

...palm muting hates meh

[LanceSnyder]

good lesson!

[black_coffin]

1 thing do you pm with the hand you strum with and is it the side of your hand cos i only learnt this tonight and i dont quite no how to do this

[kidrocka69]

good lesson for newbies learning to play. it would have really helped about five years ago when i started though. lol

[riffmasta93]

pming is ez its not worth a whole lesson

[AEnemia]

pming is ez its not worth a whole lesson

dude this lesson suks any 1 who dosent know how to palm mute in the first place are fags

I like how all the people putting the lesson down type like they're using an AOL chat. Fucking morons. Come back and use grown-up words like "fags" when you've mastered grammar and spelling.

[Rox888]

Great job! I think I'm gonna try it. Keep on writing. Please...

[XToeSocksX]

Thanks!! This helped me out a lot. I've been playing for about a year and a half, and I was completely clueless when I looked on my music and saw a "palm mute." I'm completely self taught, and have never had a lesson in my life so I really don't know..^o^()

[TheUnforgivenii]

this is pretty good. I actually did have trouble when I started with keeping my hand off the strings. Thus, I had trouble with having to put it on again in a certain way and I wasn't quite sure of how it went exactly. My 1/2 speed MoP actually sounds half right!

[Darken Rahl]

Punk as atticus wrote:

i got a question. i here loads of songs where they play palm muting in sixthteenth notes or faster. Do you use upstrokes when you do these palm mutes?

Alternate picking... you go up and down... Up down up down up down.

Triple picking... really heavy sound, you go down, up,down, really fast.

[Darken Rahl]

black_coffin wrote:

1 thing do you pm with the hand you strum with and is it the side of your hand cos i only learnt this tonight and i dont quite no how to do this

Yeah man... have it close to the back of the bridge.. its whatever is comfortable but either way its still majority of the side of your hand. Don't really press down with your picking hand... just let it reston the strings.

[Black as Black]

Lol... I was just reading through these comments and almost died laughing... Jesus man, you play guitar for a year and dont know how to mute? thats just funny. Ahem... anyways, palm muting is a simple technique to learn, but very difficult to master... I think it took me a month to learn the Spider Riff in master of puppets. Also, if you plan on being good, learn not only how to alternate/economy pick your mutes, learn to alternate pick everything! Builds loads of speed, which will help you loads later. also, palm mutes only work well on electrics because when you hear them in songs, your really just hearing the distortion it creates, not the strings being picked. that dont mean you cant mute on acoustics, you just have to mute VERY lightly. And to answer your question black coffin, yes you pm with your picking hand... I hope I answered any questions not covered by the guide. Great guide btw, very direct and simple. Good luck learning palm muting noobies!

[asian_rocker_09]

good lesson for beginners. some good songs that have alot of palm muting would be from SOAD. just thought i should mention it.

[petey gunnz]

thanks this helped alot

[gakkung85]

i suck at palm muting...well practice makes perfect

[G Double D]

Hey I Like It A Lot, Oh are You Guess Christians

[addicted2blink]

Themarsh wrote:

a little more detai? you just put your palm on the strings at the bridge what do you want him to go to your house and do it for u?

yes that would be nice =) haha...

[CrAZy ClOWN69]

lol why do peeps gotta be ***** and talk ****???? seriously some people just dont know how to do it so just STFU

[CrAZy ClOWN69]

CrAZy ClOWN69 wrote:

lol why do peeps gotta be ***** and talk ****???? seriously some people just dont know how to do it so just STFU

I AGREE WITH MYSELF

[Kevin Dias]

does this work only on overdrive?

[guitarist10]

palm muting kinda comes natural to me because i hold my hand RIGHT BEHIND the bridge so it doesnt feel too much different to me , and no it does not only work in overdrive....it works when playing "clean" too.

[guitarist10]

Adding on to my previous comment, dont press very hard when playing "clean", it makes it sound more like a precussion instrament such as a snare drum...without the snare on though...so more like a really "tight" tom drum.

[meminus]

great guide!

[nickguitar]

it sucks i dont understand it at all

[bornrockstar]

thank you very much for this example, it made sense to me !, and to all of you still complaining, you're probably doing it right, it just doesn't sound great when you do it for the first time, try a few more times. trust me, it gets slightly better every time

[KingLear87]

great! now i know that pm doesn't mean pre-menstrual syndrome!

[fagelamusgtr]

Nice lesson. You explained it really well. I didnt learn how to palm mute until i was playing for about 2 months. So i would say your doing pretty good.

[shaheer]

palm muting is easy but how can the strumming be improved along with palm muting,like children of bodom and zakk wylde.

[Ajl5674]

Nice Lesson just thought i'd add my 2 cents worth about improvements, good and easy to understand, you got that down, but going into detail wouldn't hurt. Im a newbie when it comes to guitar but when looking at some tabs ive been noticing that some will have a power chord and only one note is muted, i was just wondering if anyone who is reading the posts could help me try to understand how to accomplish this with out pm the other notes

[Agent-X]

Well, it's more like using the epidermal side of the hand that is superficial to the hypothenar muscle. But yeah, specifics...

[Nemesis19]

Holly s* guys be nice now... This person has only been playing guitar for a month and a half or so right.
Sure people who have been playing longer will know more... But why sit here and pick apart what this person has worked on.... I bet if you posted your own forum about palm muting, it would get bashed too....

And for who ever it was who said palm muting on an acoustic, that is the funniest thing I have heard all year.... LISTED TO ERIK CLAPTON!!!! It would be a pretty big slap in the face to know that people more experienced in guitar do it....

So for some of you, learn more about guitar before you post.

This is a website made for guitarists and musicians to learn off each other and prosper in musical abilities..

I say this was a pretty good post coming from a newbie on guitar.....

*****

[Siara]

A good one to practice on is Barracuda by Heart. it's all muting. And yes, this site is for musicians to learn from other musicians. No one knows all there is to know. There's always something new to be learned. and perhaps those who insist on name calling and plain trying to be nasty need to be in bed by 8.

[Pastorius666]

nice this made sense to me, i a good way to practice palm muting is to play the intro to seek and destroy by metallica, not that hard a lick actually and it really helped me.

[Das Tier In Mir]

thebrokensmile wrote:

palm muting is the easiest thing to learn on guitar. a good palm muted song is spiel mit mir by rammstein. 90% of the song is palm muted and is a good example.

Rammstein songs aren't good for any type of example. They're so awesome you'll get distracted and won't pay attention to what you were supposed to do in the first place.

[dropp_SeeE]

good game

[gnrliesmanlies]

ha yea ive been playing for a while now and i juust decide to check up on palmu muting, turns out i was doing it right, great lesson for new guitar player though

[iforgotmyname]

Playing guitar for a month and a half, and yet you manage to write an excellent lesson on palm muting.
You rule.

[smlmclean]

thanks i didnt really know how to pm

[adr11iano]

great lesson,
before this i hadnt a clue how to palm mute.. from now on, punk rock ftw!

[stlake]

this lesson really helped me with the palm muting but i still cant move my pick any way but down and all the music i want to play is to fast to just do that can some one please tell me the trick to movin my pick upwards too?

[Klown100400]

this one helped me out alot more than the first one

[ZeroAvix]

This helped alot. Ive been playing for about 2 months, but only seriously practicing and not just messing around with chords and stuff just recently. Everyone else just said "Pming is easy" "Lulz to anyone who doesnt know how to PM" without ever actually EXPLAINING how to do it. Thanks alot.

[funkmaster00k]

ZeroAvix wrote:

This helped alot. Ive been playing for about 2 months, but only seriously practicing and not just messing around with chords and stuff just recently. Everyone else just said "Pming is easy" "Lulz to anyone who doesnt know how to PM" without ever actually EXPLAINING how to do it. Thanks alot.

me too. nd im surprised all these hardcore master guitarists have time to even come on this site between world tours. oh wait thats right theyre not not even that good ohhhhh snap. spank u for this lesson

[Private_Kickass]

Hell of a lot better than the other one. Thanks a bunch.

[ForçaCelta]

thank you!

[madguyposerhomi]

Exaton wrote:

"Palm muting is a very simple technique"
Are you kidding?? Try to play smoothly Metallica's fast riff in the middle of "Seek & Destroy" or "Master Of Puppetts" first & verse riffs. It's really hard.

the actually muting is easy. that songs difficulty is the product of the strange alternate picked muting technique required.

PS. palm muting isnt with your palm its with the spot right above your wrist in between your wrist and your palm

[madguyposerhomi]

oh yeah sorry for double posting but to pick while muting you have to move your wrist instead of your elbow or shoulder if you have that problem. you should almost always be using your wrist to pick, its, well, safer. kinda pivot your muting spot to pick