wht is PALM MUTING

Discussion in 'Beginner's Q&A Forum' started by cYpHeR, Jun 14, 2005.

  1. cYpHeR

    cYpHeR Banned

    ive heard of palm muting chords...wt are they??? :think: :think: :think: :think: :annoyed: :annoyed: :annoyed:
     
  2. vini

    vini Repeat Offender

    palm muting

    i have heard of palm muting..not palm muting chords.. https://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa062401b.htm

    try this link..hope itL be of great help...ru sure its called palm muting chord :think: anywaz do reply if this helped...this link talks of Palm muting as a guitar technique, executed in the picking hand!!! :)

    tahda!!
     
  3. cYpHeR

    cYpHeR Banned

    thanx vini...got da basic idea...
    tahda!!...lol
     
  4. light_of_erindi

    light_of_erindi New Member

    U mute the strings with palm of ur right hand...simple...:)..used often on bass guitars..
     
  5. cYpHeR

    cYpHeR Banned

    hmm...can u give an example of a song where palm muting has been used....
     
  6. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Palm Muting is the most basic technique in Rock / Metal Rhythm Guitar Playing. Your terminology is correct "Palm Muting Chords". Most of the Power Chords are played with a combination of Palm Mutes and ringing chords.

    With your picking hand, slightly muffle the strings adjacent to the bridge with the fleshy part of your palm. This will give a muffled, bassy and percussive sound which is used for driving Rhythm. Even Scales can be palm muted while playing solos which gives a real gushing of notes effect. The more fleshy part you use, the more muffled and percussive it sounds. Try out various positions and see which one you like the most. I usually prefer it slightly away from the bridge towards the bridge pickup. This technique is pretty personal. Like two guys playing the same chord on the same guitar through all the same equipment sound totally different.

    Paranoid - Black Sabbath is the first song in history to have featured Palm Muted Chords. The whole of the Rhythm Guitar is majorly Palm Muted.

    Now go figure out what is Fretting Hand Muting.
     
  7. ssslayer

    ssslayer Banned

    hey ronnie ... fret hand muting will produce harmonics ... i dont know if anyone uses it ... for other purpose than producing harmonics of many notes simultaneously ...

    palm muting has to be used (note: am saying 'has to be used') while playing the open notes and chords while using distortion ... so any music u hear which has distortion will have palm muting (PM) ...

    leads also have PM .. especially the bassy strings (yeah the fatter ones like E A and D ... sometimes G also) ...

    very typical examples will be ... hmmm ... pickup any 'tallica/slayer/testament/megadeth song ... the riff/rhythm is almost always PM ... sounds almost like "chugging" ...
    like killing the sustain ...
     
  8. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Slayer, that's not Right Hand Muting. You are talking about Natural Harmonics. Surely it's used a lot. Any Rhythm with Distortion need not be palm muted. Check out all the Rhythm work of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc.. None of them palm mute. You palm mute only when you want that percussive effect other you can play them plain. Even open chords can be played with distortion or overdrive and were used in plenty. So now you too figure out what Fretting Hand Muting is ??
     
  9. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Another example of Palm Mutes on lead melody.

    Intro of Fear of The Dark - Iron Maiden.
     
  10. cYpHeR

    cYpHeR Banned

    ah....got da idea now.........
     
  11. ssslayer

    ssslayer Banned

    hmmm me really wondering what it can be ... coz fret hand muting means u mute the strings using fret hand ...

    now if the fingers are placed on the nodes of the standing waves being formed on the string u will definitely get a harmonic ...
    however, if u place your finger (or anything else) on the anti-nodes ... definitely u'll get the string muting/muffling ...

    if fret hand muting is something else then serioulsy i dunno ...

    but yeah what i meant about open strings dist with PM is that if u play open strings without PM ... and dist is one ... it sounds very annoying ... so most of the ppl dont use it ...

    and the reason y hendrix or stevie didn't use PM is coz they didn't work with the level of dist that is now being used ...

    b.t.w. the fuzz boxes/overdrive pedals donot produce a gud PM ... that is, if u PM ... the strings will quickly muffle ... whereas if use a metal dist box ... it produces a nice percussive sound upon PM ...

    dunno much about the raw amplifier distorted sound ... but the new marshalls give gud PM sound ... old marshalls i guess donot ... (i think it is something to do with pre-amp feature in the amps) ...

    mebbe thats the reason y no one tried PM in earlier days ;)
     
  12. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Palm Muting was done right in 1970 onwards. Smoke on the Water has Palm Muted Rhythm through out.
    If you have a nice pickup and a good distortion, I mean a good distortion, then open chords give a damn beautiful sound even with high gain distortion. Initially I used to feel pissed off with Open Chords played in Distortion. Now I am really like it a lot. Even Barre chords sound pretty good. You just need to play it properly.

    For producing natural harmonics, you dont mute the string, you just slightly touch the string and take your finger off immediately, so that you create a node inbetween the two bridges. Since the wave is now kind of split, the strings begin to vibrate at a higher frequency but in the order of the original note's frequency.

    Fretting Hand Muting: There are two ways of doing it. One is you just muffle the strings that you dont play thus avoiding the unneccasary noise. The second one is you muffle all the strings and then play a chord. This creates a very nice percussive attack which is used a lot. Smells like Teenspirit has this. Check out Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix. The intro is a Fretting Hand Muting played along with the Wah.
     
  13. ygokazuki

    ygokazuki New Member

    I think you mean normally powerchords are used with overdrive rather than open chords?

    Yeah, those are usually called dead notes or mute notes, and when you strum a bunch of dead notes it's called a rake...I think.
     
  14. Alfons

    Alfons C.F.H

    another example of palm mutiing last resort by paparoach and killing in the name of by RATM ( the part where they sing)
    and master of puppets !!!!
     
  15. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Those I mentioned are only muted chords used for Rhythm Work. Raking is different. When you play a lead, you do some kind of sweep picking but play only one note that you intend and mute all the other notes. This is called Raking. A lousy sweep picking might also sound like a rake.
     
  16. Nanda

    Nanda Bassist

    Best and simple example of palm muting would be that starting of "aint talking bout love" - "Van halen" .... where he plays on Am and palm mutes...... Guess thats the first time I got to know about palm muting.....
     
  17. ygokazuki

    ygokazuki New Member

    You use dead notes when playing octaves too...
     
  18. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Yes. But that's not raking. While playing octaves you dont have an option than to strike that muted string which are between your two playing strings. This is just regular fretting hand muting muting.
     
  19. ssslayer

    ssslayer Banned

    correct ron ...

    one more thing i observed, u get good PM sound if the treble is kept high ... low treble + PM will muffle the strings very quickly ...
     
  20. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    You dont need treble to be too high. A decent amount of treble would do. Another simple fact. Your gain also should be high to do the palm mute. Lower gain would also muffle too much. Actually you can do a variety of palm mutes. This technique is so personal that no two person will sound the same.

    First Palm Muted Riff Every Made = Paranoid (Tony Iommi)
    First Palm Muted Lead Lines Ever Made = Black Sabbath (song) (Tony Iommi)

    What a guitarist man this guy is. Such a great innovator ever and very underrated. Everybody rates him for his Rhythm Work but people easily miss out his soloing abilities. Here are a few facts

    1. Tony Iommi literally invented the Palm Muting technique.
    2. Black Sabbath is the first band to have horror movie themes and gothic influences. So one could call that Black Sabbath is the first Black Metal band.
    3. Black Sabbath is the first band to play slow and brooding riffs. So Black Sabbath is the first Doom Metal band.
    4. Black Sabbath is the first band to play these driving Heavy Distortion Rhythm which was adopted by all Metal Bands. So Black Sabbath is the first True Heavy Metal band.
    5. Tony Iommi's lead work is easily missed out by a lot of people. He is very much a Blues Guitarist in the viens of Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page. Check out his solos on N.I.B where plays two different solos overdubbed. A typical Clapton style on things like Layla or Cocaine. Clapton and Tony Iommi has very similar styles of playing.
    6. Tony Iommi is the first guitarist who used a 24 Fret guitar. He initially approached Fender to make him one. They laughed at the idea as why anybody would require 24 frets on a guitar. Then Gibson came out with their SG with 24 frets. Now you know where this thing came from.
    7. One of the very few guitarist in those days who used an 8 guage string. He mainly used them so that it doesn't hurt his chopped off fingers.
    8. One of the best Wah user. Very underrated in this too. Check out the Sabbath's song Turn Up The Night. Check out his Wah in the solo.
     

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