Palm muting; tricks, tips and lessons learned...just not from me :)

michelew
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
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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


Lavallee
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Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:48 am
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Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:06 am

Hi Michele, your observations are very thorough and well organized, I could not come up with more than 1.5 lines on palm muting on my own.

From your description you seem to keep your hand on the strings and bridge. I am not sure if I am doing this right but since it is part of the rhythm, If I have to mute while strumming, my palm will not remain on the strings. It will land hard on the junction of the bridge and the strings while hitting the strings to create the percussive effect (most likely what you describe as the bouncing technique) and muting at the same time. I would only mute the bass strings including the G string (depending on the chord) but do not worry about the first 2 ones as there is not sound effect from them or very little. This would work for While my guitar gently weeps or Old man. The palm will stay on the bridge like if I have to pick strings that are muted for something like Sweet home Alabama. In other songs I would use (as Neil showed) my fretting hand to mute the strings to create more a chick- a-chick (as Stuart had mentioned) like in Mrs Robinson or China Grove. So I think it depends on the song and the effect that you want to create

I use a 0.88 pick for strumming at regular speed (quarter and eights) and would use something thinner for 1/16th strumming as the clicking sound would be buried in the fast strumming and higher sound level due to that. I would find the pick thickness you use would be more appropriate to do lead where you want less flexibility (I have seen pick made of metal for that reason).

I am glad you ask the question, it was a good exercise to group my own thoughts.

Marc


michelew
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:27 pm

Hey Marc. And thanks for the compliment. In the flesh, I'm a woman of few words. Put a keyboard in front of me and it seems that my brain works better. :) ...or... it seems I become verbose. ;) hilarious and ironic really. (sort of happens when I've had too much coffee too.

It seems you're not alone. I've been told by others that they would find it hard to describe how they palm mute. I guess it's a feel thing.

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking that I should just not worry about the trebles. Yeh! Though, I should go and listen to the lesson a few more times (which I will), and the song. They probably aren't muted anyway.

I actually prefer to mute with my fretting hand when I do, so using a combo of bass string palm-muting and left hand mute is a good plan.

So I'm taking away the following;
- try a lighter pick,
- don't worry about the trebles - and it you need to mute them use the left hand too and
- place the palm on the bridge and/or the bridge/string juncture (including when playing percussively).

I'd love to mute like you do, so I'll be trying those.

Thanks!

Shel


michelew
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Status: Offline

Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:14 pm

I'm just updating this for the people that may be following it who are not TARGET members.

I've uploaded a video of myself trying to play sections of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and I've received a stack of good advice. I'm repeating it here in case some of you might benefit from it too. The biggest thing I've learned is to use the power of the forum by seeking advice when you're struggling with something. You can do it too by posting in a 'busking' thread. It's priceless.

Extract copied from uploaded for review thread:

Well I have to say I feel like a bit of an idiot for struggling with this for so long when I could have unloaded a video showing how I'm doing things and received all of this great advice SO much sooner. I guess it's a courage and stubbornness thing; stubborn to just get it right by myself and lack of courage because I don't want to look like I don't know exactly what I'm doing. Really it's ridiculous, if I knew exactly what I was doing I wouldn't need TG.

OK so a huge thank you to each and every one of you. I've tried opening my picking hand and placing the side of my hand against the strings and it's already helping to get a better sound. It feels strange since I've had my strumming hand balled up for so long, but I feel like even that one thing, opening my hand, will allow me to progress.

So here's what I've heard and am trying to incorporate:

- open up my strumming hand - don't make a fist
- once open-handed, rest the side of my hand on the strings
- I only need to focus on two or three bass strings
- use smaller strokes when muting
- plant my hand near/on the saddle and flex the wrist, don't move my elbow initially
- move my open hand along the strings from the saddle to pure strings until I find the sound I want
- visualize snatching the pebble
- wake up or sleep zzzzzzz they are probably both good bits of advice (thanks Dermot )

....

So a big lesson in this for me is to post earlier. I need to work out when I've hit a wall that is enough of a barrier that just persisting won't help. It's the beauty of this site really (well one of the many good things), if you're prepared to expose yourself struggling with something by posting a progress video, then you're bound to get great advice to help you get over the hurdle.

So if anyone else is struggle out there with something and has been for a while, take advantage of the review function and post a video.

Thanks all!!!

Shel

End of extract

So do yourself a favour (thanks Molly) and ask the forum for advice.

Cheers.

Shel


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