How to Palm Mute
Palm muting is a guitar technique made by the picking hand which rests on the string and muffles them slightly, while hitting the strings with the pick at the same time. It’s a popular technique that can be used on both electric and acoustic guitars, but dominantly on electric.
The main part in palm muting is the picking hand. The theory behind palm muting is to slightly mute the strings you’re playing with the picking hand, but not to the point they cannot be heard.
 As shown in picture 1 rest the heel of your palm just in front of the strings so it’s resting on top of the strings. Now try making a bar chord with your fretting hand and play it wile palm muting, make sure your palm is covering all the strings your playing but not so much that it stops the strings from making sound. Chances are the first few times you do it mite not sound as it should, but keep playing around with were you position your hand over the string and you'll get it eventually.
The feel of palm muting is essential, you should feel good doing it and it should start to feel natural after awhile. Getting the right pressure on the strings is also very important, if you press down too hard the strings wont ring properly but if you press too light the will ring too much, so just play around with it and you'll find something you like.
So to make a good palm muting sound you should!
- Make sure the heel of you palm is doing the work. Experiment with the position of your muting hand until you get something good.
- Practice Practice Practice, No-one wants to hear someone palm muting bad. Plus this technique gets used allot in all different genres, so make sure you know how to do it properly by practicing.
- Make sure you don’t only use palm muting for power chord but also use it wile picking arpeggios and also practice going from muting to non-muting.
- Has your amp got distortion? Turn it on, it help the sound of palm muting allot.
- When listening to music, notice were they palm mute and were they don’t, it will help you to write music and also help you get a feel for how it sounds when used correctly.
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