Palm muting; tricks, tips and lessons learned...just not from me :)
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:53 am
Hi everyone,
I'm back revisiting a few songs that I had put back on the shelf because palm muting wasn't coming together for me, most notably 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. I think I've improved a little compared to where I started trying to do palm muting and I've started this thread to compare notes; a sort of "did you find this?", "what worked for you?" type thread. I'm trying to work out if there are any significant points I'm missing and just how long this learning curve is likely to be. (I.e. is it like barres, you just have to play and play and play and keep playing them and they get slowly better the more you do?).
OK...I was using a sort of bouncing mute technique that Neil mentions in the lesson and that was sort of working OK for the bass strings (not really muting the trebles). Except I was sort of grazing the top of my...third finger... Near the knuckle. (no I'm not normally a knuckle dragged, I have long arms, but long legs to match too. ). I was also trying to keep my palm on the strings themselves, but it felt like my hand was too constrained and I found myself digging in too much on the up strokes on the trebles especially.
Since then I've found that I do better if I place the bass of my palm on the bridge as well as the strings (I.e. further towards the bridge than I had been). I also do better when I'm playing mostly downstrokes and concentrating on the bass strings (like in Rolling in the Deep).
I'm trying to lighten up my grip on the pick as I think i'm giving it a bit of a death grip, but if i hold it too lightly....then I feel like I don't have enough of a hold on it.
So some questions for those of you that have succeeded in palm muting and/or feel like you've made progress.
- Do you vary your pick when palm muting? I use a fairly heavy pick 1.14 Dunlop 500 (purple), but I'm wondering whether a lighter one might help - owwww... But then there's that awful clicking sound.
- Do you change your strum in any other way to give yourself more freedom or more movement when you're palm muting?
- When you were learning did you have any 'ah ha' moments, moments where the penny dropped and it all made sense? If so, what were they?
- From my bad description above, do I appear to be missing something?
I'm happy to accept that I just need to keep trying until if works properly. I'm just wondering whether I'm on the right track and whether this grasshopper has missed some important road signs along the way.
All comments welcome.
Yes, yes...I know what some of you will say...post a video of your terrible palm muting and we'll critique it. I'm sure that would be helpful and I will at some point...probably, but I'd like to feel like I've given it my best shot first.
Thanks in advance.
Shel
I'm back revisiting a few songs that I had put back on the shelf because palm muting wasn't coming together for me, most notably 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. I think I've improved a little compared to where I started trying to do palm muting and I've started this thread to compare notes; a sort of "did you find this?", "what worked for you?" type thread. I'm trying to work out if there are any significant points I'm missing and just how long this learning curve is likely to be. (I.e. is it like barres, you just have to play and play and play and keep playing them and they get slowly better the more you do?).
OK...I was using a sort of bouncing mute technique that Neil mentions in the lesson and that was sort of working OK for the bass strings (not really muting the trebles). Except I was sort of grazing the top of my...third finger... Near the knuckle. (no I'm not normally a knuckle dragged, I have long arms, but long legs to match too. ). I was also trying to keep my palm on the strings themselves, but it felt like my hand was too constrained and I found myself digging in too much on the up strokes on the trebles especially.
Since then I've found that I do better if I place the bass of my palm on the bridge as well as the strings (I.e. further towards the bridge than I had been). I also do better when I'm playing mostly downstrokes and concentrating on the bass strings (like in Rolling in the Deep).
I'm trying to lighten up my grip on the pick as I think i'm giving it a bit of a death grip, but if i hold it too lightly....then I feel like I don't have enough of a hold on it.
So some questions for those of you that have succeeded in palm muting and/or feel like you've made progress.
- Do you vary your pick when palm muting? I use a fairly heavy pick 1.14 Dunlop 500 (purple), but I'm wondering whether a lighter one might help - owwww... But then there's that awful clicking sound.
- Do you change your strum in any other way to give yourself more freedom or more movement when you're palm muting?
- When you were learning did you have any 'ah ha' moments, moments where the penny dropped and it all made sense? If so, what were they?
- From my bad description above, do I appear to be missing something?
I'm happy to accept that I just need to keep trying until if works properly. I'm just wondering whether I'm on the right track and whether this grasshopper has missed some important road signs along the way.
All comments welcome.
Yes, yes...I know what some of you will say...post a video of your terrible palm muting and we'll critique it. I'm sure that would be helpful and I will at some point...probably, but I'd like to feel like I've given it my best shot first.
Thanks in advance.
Shel