Tauriq
Ahoy there mateys! Rarely does this forum not have the information necessary for someone like me but alas I've come across something that does need your help.
Palm Muting down is easy enough but try and as soon as I try and do it in an up AND down intricate manoeuvre it outwits me. Is there some holy grail to this or is it just practising slowly or what?
Also is there any songs you'd recommend that aren't stupendously difficult for a amateur guitarist that I would benefit from trying to learn? Any genre. Preferably something that can challenge my palm muting skills(or lack thereof) to some extent.
Thanks in Advance! ?
Capricorn
I dont know if you're into metal or not, but
you can practise pretty much any iron maiden song
for palm muting up and down. They use a lot of triplets that are palm muted for their verses. Gives a galloping type of feel.
The picking pattern is just: down up down then rest... and repeat
cain
The key to it is correct positioning of the palm on the strings. Some would say your palm would just touch the string next to the saddle. I don't believe in that. I move my palm around depending on which sound i want. Also with speed its all about speed training, start slow and gradually move up. A nice song to practice it is Greendays basket case, its got a punk rhythm with muting and non muting at speed, try that.
doc-phil
It just takes a span of practing!! I've been concentrating on my palm muting constantly the last year and a half and its starting to come right.
If you want to practice your palm muting try playing some As I Lay Dying or Sworn Enemy songs... well pretty much any metalcore or hardcore band will have a lot of palm muting and usually it'll be in time with the kick drum which helps too.
When I'm palm muting I anchor my pinky on the body of the guitar, but when I play triplets I won't do that so my hand is more free to slide on the strings. Don't feel you can only move your fingers when muting.. as it gets faster you'll have to use your arm from your elbow down..
guitar_lesson
You should practice with punk songs as they are real heavy on palm muting.
One of my favorite songs to learn palm muting was actually All the small things by blink 182.
deanBailey
I think someone told me Paul Gilbert only used upstrokes in the first few years of his playing. (I dunno if it's true or who told me) It could explain his flawless and articulate picking.
It is seriously in the practicing.
But record yourself (in clean or DI) if you can and see the peaks of the wave signal. Your upstrokes should be smaller because of it being weaker and gravity being against you, but they shouldn't be non existent. Play the metronome/click and practice 16ths starting at 120 and work your way up but aiming to get those peaks as even as you can. It should look like big, small, big, small = Down, up, down, up etc
I guarantee it will work out the more you do it.
I went from 210 to 240 in 3-4 months.
But try Bleed By Meshuggah if you can. (advanced)
The Pattern is either:
DuD D, DuD D, DuD D.
Or
DuD U, DuD, DuD U.
What ever you feel comfortable doing.
Note: that the drummer is doing the same but with kicks ?
